Punk Rock

Chess Board: The landscape is checkered, packed tightly together and maneuvered in endless combinations. Understanding chess boils down to seeing things from a different perspective.  We test the possibilities. We fail. We succeed.

Punk isn’t one of those things that has an essential definition; it’s a feeling, a sense, a demand. It is pissed off. It wants to be heard. It screams and jumps around. It refuses to take no for an answer.

Aside from the usual punkspects like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash, there are some kick-ass bands that played a part in the connectivity of the game.  Let’s throw the pieces on the board.

☆A Few Pawns::: Make the first move.

New York Dolls—Glam punk superheroes.

They wore lipstick and mascara. The New York scene that they helped to develop in the early 70s followed up with bands like The Ramones and Talking Heads.

Suicide Commandos—House on fire.

Aside from having a video for the song “Burn It Down” filmed with a backdrop of their actual house in flames, Suicide Commandos are remembered as an example of somewhere–in-the-middle-of-America punk.

Patti Smith—“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine…”

Her 1975 landmark release, Horses, brought a highly provocative blend of spoken word and familiar rockin’ guitar play; a major Punk influence.

Minor Threat—Do As I Do.

Released the song “Straight Edge,” which served as an impetus for the movement of the same name.  Called for abstinence from alcohol and drugs; a new idea that gathered a small, yet tough following.

Bikini Kill—a pioneer of the Riot Grrl movement.

Ultra-feminist and against major labels, Bikini Kill inspired a whole movement of women with the same point of view.

☆The Knights::: Only a knight or a pawn can initiate the first move of the game.

The Blue Hearts—Japanese punk

Late 80s and early 90s rockers who were frowned upon by mainstream Japanese culture for spitting on camera lenses while being filmed and using language considered vulgar by Japanese standards.

Social Distortion—Punkabilly

Evolved from hardcore Punk in the early 1970s to a mix of Rolling Stones honky-tonk and The Clash in the 1980s.  Check out their version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

The Bishop::: No restriction.

Iggy Pop and the Stooges

With a stage present, avant garde style, they made their own instruments, influenced bands across every genre from the Sex Pistols to Hot Hot Heat to The White Stripes and Kurt Kobain.

☆A Rook:::Across the lines.

Sleater-Kinney

Part of the Riot Grrl punk scene. Many similarities between classic Punk of the 1970s with a mass appeal that landed them gigs opening for Pearl Jam.

☆The Queen:::

Nina Hagen—Punk rock, post-punk, new wave, Queen of the board.

Hailing from East Berlin, this high school dropout who was a dancer and acclaimed child singer, switched it up in her late teens and ended up in London. She can sing like an angel or scream like a lunatic.  She acted in films and was the center of controversy when she discussed and described masturbation on Austrian television.  Her visual appearance is a show in itself.  If you haven’t checked out her videos, do so NOW!