..Garage Punk

Garage punk is a subgenre of punk rock that is heavily influenced by garage rock. A relatively new term to the modern mainstream music press, notable sources like MTV.com and The All-Music Guide now acknowledge the genre. The term itself may have originated with the Crypt Records label to describe the music released on their compilations, Back From the Grave and Garage Punk Unknowns, of 1960s bands.

In the late 1980s, and into the 1990s, this new breed of revivalist punk began to develop in the indie rock underground, and became known as garage punk due to its combining garage rock with classic punk styles.

The term garage punk is often used to refer to garage bands that are on small independent record labels (or no record label at all) and play some variety of primitive rock and roll, punk or garage rock. Garage punk can be seen as both a descendant of 1960s garage rock, as well as the punk and New Wave movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s and can also be seen, like punk and New Wave, as a counterculture movement opposed to mainstream corporate rock. The garage punk movement is not as interested in copying the sounds and fashions of the 1960s as much as performing unpretentious and wild three-chord rock’n’roll with a strong back beat. Attitude and primitive, lo-fi, "budget rock" aesthetics are far more important to the development of garage punk than catchy melodies and fancy vintage clothing and musical equipment and that attitude is reflected in the sound of the music:dirty, ugly, raw, sleazy, and menacing. Garage Punk is closely related to the British Invasion and Nuggets inspired Garage rock revival of the late 1970s to mid 1980s , although most garage punk bands are influenced by harder edged proto-punk bands of the garage rock genre, such as The Sonics, The Monks, The Stooges, MC5 and New York Dolls, as well as the raw, simplistic Killed By Death(series of late 80s/early 90s bootlegs featuring obscure late 70s and early 80s punk bands)-era punk, surf rock, British pub rock, power pop and early hard-edged New Wave. Most garage punk bands have also drawn heavy influences from 1950s and early 1960s R&B and "desperate" rock'n'roll(referring to an album series of obscure 50s rock and roll) or rockabilly. The earliest of the garage punk movement would be DMZ. Other bands to appear on the scene would include Thee Mighty Caesars, The Lazy Cowgirls, Poison 13, Gas Huffer, The Gories, The Night Kings, The Devil Dogs, The Mummies, Supercharger, Supersnazz, Teengenerate, Sinister Six, The Makers, The New Bomb Turks, The Inhalants, and The Oblivians. Some of these and other related bands such as Phantom Surfers, Man or Astroman?, Bomboras, The 5678s, Jackie and the Cedrics, and The Trashwomen would also experiment with instrumental Surf rock. Some of the record labels that specialize in releasing old and new garage punk are Estrus Records, Sympathy for the Record Industry, Rip Off Records, Goner Records, In The Red Records, Bomp Records, Crypt Records and Swami Records.

During the 2000s, some indie rock bands that played a more radio-friendly offshoot of garage punk, started experiencing mainstream commercial success. This includes garage punk bands The Hives; garage rock revivalists such as The Mooney Suzuki, The Greenhornes, and White Stripes; post-punk revivalists such as The Gossip, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and We Are Scientists; and super groups such as The Raconteurs. While these bands may have roots in garage rock or garage punk, they record and perform in a way that is vastly removed from the traditional low fidelity trashiness of true garage punk. They have released more slickly-produced recordings with a cleaner sound that is more characteristic of generic modern rock. The Black Lips and The Horrors are two more recent bands to enjoy widespread appeal, after being signed to major labels, Vice Records and Loog Records, respectively.

The garage punk genre seems to have gathered some popularity in European markets (especially the United Kingdom and Spain), but still continues to create a new fanbase in the United States and other parts of the world, albeit more in an underground manner. Many of these more unknown bands have kept the strong back beat of their predecessors, combining it with melodic bass lines, edgy guitar rhythms and powerful solos. They often have unintelligible lead vocals, use lots of distortion, and their lyrics are more about having fun and getting "loaded" ("sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll") than incorporating any ideological, political or philosophical reflections.