Punk blues

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Punk blues
Stylistic origins: Jump blues, R&B, Rockabilly, Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Post-punk, early rock'n'roll, Garage rock
Cultural origins: Early 1980s United States
Typical instruments: Guitar - Bass - Drums-Piano-Harmonica-Hammond, Farfisa or Vox Continental organ
Mainstream popularity: Largely underground and popular with Punks, Teds, Rockers, Greasers and Hipsters. However, bands like The White Stripes have made significant mainstream success.
Regional scenes
England, Europe, United States
Other topics
Timeline of alternative rock, Swamp rock, No wave, Post punk, Deathcountry

Punk blues is a genre that blends the musical styles of electric blues and punk rock. Some other forms are also included, varying from post-punk, swamp rock, roots rock, and early rock and roll. According to allmusic.com, "Punk blues take[s] the structure and simple instrumentation of classic blues songs and mixes them with punk's rawness, distorted guitars, and attitude...".[1]

Allmusic.com states that punk blues draws on the influence of the "...garage rock sound of the mid-'60s, the primal howl of early Captain Beefheart, and especially in the raw and desperate sound of the Gun Club's landmark Fire of Love LP from 1981."[2] According to allmusic.com, "...punk blues really came to life in the early '90s with bands like the seminal Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Gories, and the Gibson Brothers", and "...continued into the 2000s with even more visibility thanks to the popularity of the White Stripes."[3]

Contents

Denise Sullivan of allmusic.com likens the Gun Club band leader Jeffrey Lee Pierce's vocal style to an “exorcism-in-progress”, and states that “tribal, psychobilly blues is the best way to describe Gun Club's energetic death rock...”. Sullivan calls their 1981 debut album, Fire of Love “a punk/blues hybrid” and refers to the band’s 1985's EP Death Party as “a swingin' piece of punkabilly”. [4] According to Greg Prato of allmusic.com, the Gun Club’s “merging...of hardcore punk, rockabilly, and country” made the band’s style an antecedent to the 'pyschobilly' genre. [5]

The Flat Duo Jets were a drums and guitar two piece band from South Carolina. Fronted by singer songwriter Dexter Romweber they formed in 1983 but did not release a full length album until 1990. They combined blues and rockabilly influences with punk rock and influenced Jack White of the White Stripes.

The Chrome Cranks played a noisy and sinsister brand of blues influenced garage music, strongly influenced by the Gun Club. Reviewer Ben Donnelly from Dusted magazine states that the Chrome Cranks "came at the tail end of the trash rock vibe that ran through the underground and overlapped through post-punk, noise rock and grunge." Donnelly says that the "...Cranks weren't the peak of the form (as the liner notes by singer Peter Aaron all too modestly admit", but he states that "...the roughest tracks on [albums like] Diabolical Boogie, the sort of things that could be overdriven blurs, are the most powerful."[6]

The blues influences on Detroit's White Stripes can be heard in their electric cover versions of Son House's "Death Letter Blues", McTells' "Your Southern Can Belongs To Me", and Blind Willie Johnson's "John the Revelator". Jack White plays guitar, while Meg White plays the drum kit. A 2000 review stated that the band's "...noisy, wicked electric-slide blues songs...sound like the Reverend Horton Heat...[and] Robert Johnson". In addition, the review states that the band is "...the Blues, as authentic and honest and real as it gets." [7]

Other bands and artists that have "punk blues" influences include: Elam McKnight,The Preston and Crows Experience, 8-Eyed Spy, Boss Hog, Billy Childish, The Cows, Darren Deicide, Divine Horsemen, Hi Sheriffs Of Blue, Honeymoon In Red, Jim Sclavunos, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Kid Congo Powers, Kim Salmon, The Knoxville Girls, Pussy Galore, Rowland S. Howard, the Beasts of Bourbon, and The Stems, Chrome Cranks and Laughing Hyenas, the Whipping Cats.

  1. ^ http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:tzkokuLl1TwJ:allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll%3Fp%3Damg%26sql%3D77:13419+%22punk+blues%22&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=70
  2. ^ http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:tzkokuLl1TwJ:allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll%3Fp%3Damg%26sql%3D77:13419+%22punk+blues%22&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=70
  3. ^ http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:tzkokuLl1TwJ:allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll%3Fp%3Damg%26sql%3D77:13419+%22punk+blues%22&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=70
  4. ^ http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3z0qoaeabijv~T1
  5. ^ http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:di5zefik7gf2~T
  6. ^ http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3362
  7. ^ The White Stripes Do Four Dates In NZ - http://www.blues.co.nz/news/article.php?id=373

Whipping Cats[1]

Punk rock
2 Tone - Anarcho-punk - Anti-folk - Art punk - Celtic punk - Christian punk - Cowpunk - Crust punk - Dance-punk - Deathcountry - Death pop - Deathrock - Electro rock - Emo - Folk punk - Gaelic punk - Garage punk - Glam punk - Gothabilly - Hardcore punk - Post-hardcore - Horror punk - Jazz punk - Mod revival - Nazi punk - New Wave - No Wave - Noise rock - Oi! - Pop punk - Post-punk - Psychobilly - Punk blues - Punk Pathetique - Queercore - Reggae rock - Riot Grrrl - Scum punk - Ska punk - Skate punk - Streetpunk - Synthpunk - Taqwacore
Other topics
Protopunk - DIY ethic - First wave punk musicians - Second wave punk musicians - Punk subculture - Punk movies - Punk fashion - Punk ideology - Punk visual art - Punk dance - Punk literature - Punk zine - Rock Against Communism - Straight edge
Blues | Blues genres
Jug band - Classic female blues - Country blues - Delta blues - Electric blues - Jump blues - Piano blues - Fife and drum blues
Jazz blues - Blues-rock - Soul blues- Punk blues
British blues - Chicago blues - Detroit blues - Kansas City blues - Louisiana blues - Memphis blues - Piedmont blues - St. Louis blues - Swamp blues - Texas blues - West Coast blues
Musicians
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.