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Chapter 150: Youth Of America

Punk & experimental punk

A chapter of bands that prove the boundaries of punk are porous; it’s less a genre than an animating spirit that allows for a lot of variation and weirdness. You can stretch a song out to King Crimson lengths and add a saxophone solo, and still be punk. You can play mostly acoustic instruments like the Violent Femmes, and still sound as angry and horny as any other punk band. You can play with structure like the Minutemen, or add lurching tempo shifts like Suicidal Tendencies does on the brilliant “Institutionalized.” You can even pretend to kill babies while singing like Elvis.
1. The Replacements

Favorite Thing

2. Hüsker Dü

Pink Turns To Blue

3. Misfits

Last Caress

4. Sonic Youth

Youth Against Fascism

5. Flipper

Sex Bomb

6. Violent Femmes

Add It Up

7. Minutemen

The Glory of Man

8. Suicidal Tendencies

Institutionalized

9. X

I See Red

10. Wipers

Youth Of America