Hey, I’m Dan! I’m one half of the team behind the food blog, Vegan Punks. I don’t get to write about music much. We spend most of our time creating and writing recipes, but you’ll find loads of awesome punk music featured on our Instagram stories. If you’re into Thai food (shameless plug), we spent some of lockdown writing the ultimate guide on cooking vegan Thai food, with virtual cooking classes coming soon!
I love CPRW and regularly check-in to make sure I’m not missing out on some incredible new album that’s passed me by. So I jumped at the opportunity to contribute an article when Colin got in touch (thanks Colin and Emma!).
Hopefully you find something you enjoy in this list. I struggled to decide on a topic, but we’ve been listening to a lot of femxle fronted punk recently. It’s great that the scene is diversifying more and more and I can’t wait until we can all go out and check out some of these bands live again.
Against Me!
One of my favourite bands full stop. Laura is one of the best front people in the punk scene and has been for quite some time, in my opinion. Against Me! deliver everything that I want from punk music: catchy hooks, melodic vocals, a good dose of anger and a strong political message.
I’ve no doubt I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, but if Against Me! have passed you by, check them out – I can’t even call out a specific album to recommend, it’s all gold.
Days N Daze
I have a real soft spot for folk-punk and Days N Daze are top tier. The combination of Jesse’s and Whitney’s voices is perfect – not just the mix of low and high ranges, but the way both vocalists are able to drift between a clean and rough sound.
I’m also a sucker for nihilistic lyrics and they deliver that in spades.
Folk-punk may be a bit of an acquired taste, but Days N Daze have been building a good following over the last few years, enough to earn them a deal on Fat Wreck. Check out “Show Me The Blueprints”, their first Fat Wreck release, which came out in May. It’s a shoe-in for my top 10 of 2020 list come the end of the year.
Bad Cop/Bad Cop
Since their debut “Not Sorry” in 2015, Bad Cop/Bad Cop have released three incredible albums. In a traditionally male dominated genre, it’s rare to find an entirely female band – Bad Cop/Bad Cop are proof that we’ve been missing out.
What’s better than two-part harmonies? Three-part harmonies, obviously. Bad Cop/Bad Cop know exactly how to deliver them, nicely wrapped up in an infectious punk-rock package.
Check out “Not Sorry” and just carry on from there!
Ramona
Ramona’s debut release, “Deals, Deals, Deals!”, evaded my discovery when it first came out. Fortunately, I stumbled across it in probably two or three different “top 10 albums of 2019” lists on CPRW. I’m really glad I did because it’s an entire album of really well written pop-punk music.
I really love bands with multiple vocalists, and Abby’s and Diego’s voices go so well together. I’m awaiting their next release with great anticipation.
Check out the aforementioned “Deals, Deals, Deals!” to see what they’re all about.
Nervus
“Everything Dies” is such a beautiful album. You know those albums from “smaller” bands where you can’t work out why there’s not more hype? It’s one of those, for me.
Nervus’s follow up, “Tough Crowd”, didn’t let me down either and shows some really good progression. Em is such a talented songwriter, musician and vocalist.
I can’t recommend checking out “Everything Dies” enough.
Attic Salt
I really, really like Attic Salt’s self-titled debut. I think I could listen to track two, “Passenger”, on repeat for a long time before even getting close to being bored of it.
Attic Salt are unashamed pop-punk with the kind of dual vocals other bands will be jealous of. I just love the blend of Alyssa’s and Andy’s vocals, as they switch the lead responsibilities and provide harmonies for each other.
I was worried for a while that I’d missed the party here and they weren’t still a band. However, they recently announced that a new album is due out soon.
Go check out their self-titled debut from 2017.
The Distillers
Brody was the first female vocalist I remember discovering when I started getting into punk as a teenager. Her raspy vocals are still some of the best I’ve heard.
“The Young Crazed Peeling” by The Distillers and Tsunami Bomb’s “Take The Reins” are two songs that stand out as influencing my music taste back then. The difference with The Distillers, as a band, is that they had real consistency when it came to putting out great music.
It’s difficult for me to choose between “Sing Sing Death House” or “Coral Fang”, so if you missed The Distillers the first time round, just pick one and give it a go.
Brody was the first female vocalist I remember discovering when I started getting into punk as a teenager. Her raspy vocals are still some of the best I’ve heard.
“The Young Crazed Peeling” by The Distillers and Tsunami Bomb’s “Take The Reins” are two songs that stand out as influencing my music taste back then. The difference with The Distillers, as a band, is that they had real consistency when it came to putting out great music.
It’s difficult for me to choose between “Sing Sing Death House” or “Coral Fang”, so if you missed The Distillers the first time round, just pick one and give it a go.
The Bombpops
A good number of the bands on this list definitely fall into the pop-punk category… that’s not changing now, because The Bombpops are unapologetically poppy. They are bringing something different to the table though, with co-frontwomen, Jen and Poli.
They know how to write really catchy songs and there’s a great dynamic between Jen and Poli. This comes across particularly well on stage – they were definitely a highlight at the Punk in Drublic stage at Slam Dunk last year.
While I do like the latest release, if you’re going to check them out, I’d recommend starting with 2017’s “Fear of Missing Out”.
Millie Manders and the Shutup
Millie is an outrageously good performer. If you saw her at Manchester Punk Festival last year, you’ll know that not even having a foot in a cast stopped Millie from delivering one of the best performances of the weekend.
There’s a definite ska-punk revival happening right now in the UK, one which I think would’ve been unstoppable if live performances were still happening this year. With so many great new British ska-punk bands entering the fold, alongside established names and reformations of legendary bands – Millie Manders and the Shutup are holding their own amongst them all.
Just go check out the entire back catalogue before their debut album drops.
The Interrupters
The Interrupters feel like they exploded onto the scene out of nowhere, getting huge gigs, tours and festival slots without seeming to go through that grind that bands usually go through. It makes me feel a bit like they’re manufactured, or maybe I just missed their grind? They definitely have a huge supporter in Tim Armstrong, that’s for sure.
Either way, their brand of incredibly polished, catchy ska-punk is addictive. If clean, good fun ska sounds are up your street, you’ve probably already heard of them… but, if not, give them a go. Aimee has a background as a solo pop artist, but her vocals sometimes remind me of Brody Dalle’s.
Their self-titled debut from 2014 is the perfect place to start!
Special shout out to Problem Daughter, The Lippies and RVIVR who narrowly missed out on my top 10.
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