Here’s one from the Arnold-inspired Bay-native skate-punk fools Arnocorps. If you’ve ever seen them live, they look straight out of Predator or Commando or something.

ArnoCorps
“I’m Ballsy” (mp3)
from “The Ballsy EP”
(Smog Veil Records)

Need more!

Neurosis’ The Eye of Every Storm, showed a combination of folk, metal, ambience and naturalism in one vast experimental record. A band that came from a very American hardcore beginning, its astonishing what musical exploration Neurosis has achieved over the course of a few decades, all with some obscurity. Whether you’re a “heady” music listener or a knucklehead thrasher.

Visit Neurosis’ official website, and their label, Neurot Recordings.

I don’t think you need me to tell you anything about The Stooges. Infamously influential Michigan act. The godfathers of punk, metal and music in general. Apathetic dope rock to break stuff too, fronted by the permanently tweaked Iggy.

Buy Stooges records and mp3s at Amazon.

Texas/Bay Area band Apache‘s sound is pushing upstream in a time when many bands are trying to tattoo a new sonic marker in the rock n’ roll landscape. They write catchy garage rock gems in the 70s glam-rock tradition. You won’t find any traces of grad-school ideology in “Crystal Clear” as Apache celebrates teenage angst through the power of lo-fi rock n’ roll.

Find out more about Apache. Visit their artist page on their label, Birdman Records.

From Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Jetty Boys play punky pop music like they really care about it, like the world simply wont be acceptable if they don’t. Clearly they love them some Green Day and Ramones and all, but they bring a ferocity and sincerity all their own that is endearing and infectious. Gr8 power-pop erupts from the suffocating boredom of a sleepy American town? But yes!

Jetty Boys
“I’ll Be Fine” (mp3)
from “Sheboygan”
(Rally Records)

Need more!

Less stoner, more 70s, and more trippy. Witch encompasses stoner-rock, psychedelia, and much doom-power in their sound. Their latest album Paralyzed on Tee Pee Records, picks up with some more punk-ish overtones, and they recently recruited Annihilation Time guitar madman Graham Clise to the lineup.

Witch
“Eye” (mp3)
from “Paralyzed”
(Tee Pee Records)

More On This Album

Portland OR is the current mecca for 21 year-old hipsters. Cheap rent, relatively flat so they can ride their fixies, and lots of great thrift shops. But all that fun can be obnoxious. Enter The Punk Group. The raise their middle fingers in the air to the official drink of hipsters all across the land with, “Hekenein.”

The Punk Group
“Heineken” (mp3)
from “The Best Of The Punk Group”
(Smog Veil Records)

Need more!

Southern California’s beloved surf punker pioneers Agent Orange have rocked for over three decades, and they continue to tour and deliver a gr8 live show. This song from their brilliant 1981 album “Living in Darkness”- recently re-released digitally by Posh Boy Music – is a good taste of their innovative guitar work and unique collision of power pop, surf and punk. The lyrics to “Everything Turns to Grey” are brilliant, at once idealistic and resigned. A classic song from a classic LP. Surfs up!

Agent Orange
“Everything Turns to Grey” (mp3)
from “Living in Darkness”
(Posh Boy Music)

Need more!

Flipper is arguably one of the most frightful things that ever happened. I adore them. This is a true anthem.

Flipper
“Sex Bomb” (mp3)
from “Sex Bomb Baby”
(Public Flipper Limited LLC)

Need more!

One of the cooler regional hits of 1982 was the lo-fi garage punk of “Radio Moscow” by a Southern California band called Kent State (formerly Red Brigade). They played every punk venue on the west coast and then some, adding a twist to American hardcore music that was more Troggs than Sex Pistols. Rodney Bingenheimer played this song heavily on The ROQ, and even made it the lead off track on one of his famed compilation LP’s. The lyrics are such a time capsule – pure cold war angst plus a needed dose of irreverent humor. More yummy goodness from Posh Boy Music.

Kent State
“Radio Moscow” (mp3)
from “The Future Looks Brightest – Rarities and Orphans Volume 1″
(Posh Boy Music)

Need more!