I Will Fight Every Last One Of You (A Punk Playlist)

I blame Pax Am Days for this. I got Save Rock And Roll for Christmas off one of my aunts, but in a bizarre stroke of genius, she got me the Pax Am Days re-release version. Normal Fall Out Boy is pop punk, but in Pax, they're so amazingly punk that I have trouble not sitting there quietly screaming whenever I listen to it. It reminded me that, if I'm anything, I'd like to consider myself at least a little bit punk. My tastes may stray to other things, but punk always calls me back eventually. Of course, there may be some of you out there who scoff at what I consider punk - consider that your elitist categorising and pigeon-holing of music is really not punk, and therefore I win. You're just a servant of The Man.
In this spirit, I have created a bit of a punk playlist that I wrote in that cool way people do on tumblr. Some of it's 'proper' punk, some of it's hardcore, some of it's pop punk, some of it might be a little bit metal if it suits. It is, as the title is supposed to suggest, get you up, about and motivated. Please don't necessarily fight anyone. If need be, crumble them to dust with your words, but don't get me for inciting violence. There's fighting The Man and then there's being an arse.

My Chemical Romance - Give 'Em Hell, Kid
Fall Out Boy - We Were Doomed From The Start (The King Is Dead)
Green Day - Letterbomb
All Time Low feat. Vic Fuentes - A Love Like War
Good Charlotte - Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous
Leathermouth - Murder Was The Case That They Gave Me
The Story So Far - The Glass
Blink-182 - The Rock Show
Black Flag - Rise Above
Ramones - My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down
The Used - Put Me Out

The Story So Far

I don't know if it's that time of year, or we're just having a very inspirational year for musicians, or the planets have aligned or something, but there seem to be a lot of new bands cropping up all over the place. One of these, one that seems to have been getting a fair bit of attention in the internet circles I move in, is The Story So Far. With a fair few EPs and two full-length albums under their belt, the Californian five-piece have been around since 2007 (Ok, so more 'newly popular' than just 'new', or maybe just 'newly popular in my narrow social circles'), but it's only the past year or so that I can recall hearing their name out and about. Considering that there are some people out there who will go for any band with angsty lyrics - which I do like - regardless of if they're delivered in a nice-sounding, memorable way - which is really what makes a good band - I was a little apprehensive about trying these guys out.

The moment I pressed play on their 2010 While You Were Sleeping EP, I knew I needed them on my iPod. It's not just 'nice' music that I could listen to occasionally, it's great music that has a sort of uniqueness to it that you need to be a successful band. They have a similar 'we're playing this in a garage' feel that you get on some early Green Day/Blink 182 records, but they don't sound like copies. They understand how pop punk works, and they're doing it well but in their own way, whether it's in Spark Fires, which makes me want to learn to drum again, or Small Talk - off their newest album What You Don't See - which I will probably try and fail to learn to sing along to.

It's fast, and it's kind of angry, but in a more rebellious than depressing way that keeps it on the pop side of pop punk. In every song there's this youthful energy that makes me so glad I've discovered them in summer. It's not so much that I highly recommend listening to them - it's more that, if you don't, you're a fucking idiot. As confirmation of that, I leave you with the video for their song, Empty Space: