When my son was going through his goth/punk phase (which has now mercifully ended), he used to buy all his stuff at Hot Topic. He would get angry whenever I referred to it as the "Uniform Shop," partially because he was smart enough to know I was right.

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

For me the ultimate punk rock band were the Ramones, also my favorite band of all times.

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Fender DG8
Fender MIM Sunburst Telecaster.
Fender American Vintage'52 Reissue Telecaster
Fender Frontman 212R
Fender Mini Twin
Fender Super Champ XD
Fender Champion 600

Punk Rock is very alive, and very vital. It is not a musical style, it is a community. Go to a punk rock show, there will be 8 bands playing. You will have bands like Defiance, Oh who are acoustic-folky punk rock, bands like the Chinese Telephones who are pop punk rock, harder bands like Strike Anywhere, straight hardcore bands like Converge, ska bands like the Mad Caddies, Synth-punk bands like The Anniversary, you'll have poppy bands like The gaslight Anthem. Major labels, INdie labls, no labels, but it's all family. All community. It is all punk rock. It is eenergy, it's vibrant, it's not compromising what you do. Being true and #$@*&!% real and not giving in to anyone. #$@*&!% Punk Rock is as vibrant and as vital as ever. Even as it is attmpted to be subjugated and subdued by the masses. Hot Topic is not Punk Rock. Green Day is not Punk Rock. My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Sum 41, Blink 182, these bands are not punk rock. They use the image of what is stereotyped punk, but they aren't. But Punk is there. Wherever you live there is a club with 10 bands playing tonight all vcariety of music, there is the band of 15 year old kids playing there first show, there are the veterans who can tell you what it was like opening for Black Flag, there are bands pushing boundaries and moving movements, and bands playing dress up and singing about pool parties, there are bands of guys, bands of girls, dyed hair and studs as well as combovers and cartigan sweaters. All ages, all races. All Punk.

Jeffo i have to disagree mate sorry.
If you look at bands like the clash, uk subs, dead kennedys, they were all brilliant bands in their own right. They amongst many others were inspired by the ramones. The ramones played some field next day 5 bands would form playing ramones style stuff. It doesnt belittle the inspired by bands, especialy when you start looking at the likes of exploited, gbh and discharge. Bands that inturn influenced loads of kids into starting a band (slayer and metalica being influenced by both).

Sum41 and greengay are far more influenced by the pistols. Talentless gluesniffers persuaded by some managment type to form a band and make some money.

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No no and no

cheap trick circa '76, the only band i've seen spit on by 50 hot mamacitas in front of the stage for the first four songs, fast and furious then.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Absolutely outstanding post!

The idea that a punk rock band can't or shouldn't be on a major label is revisionist history at best, or more likely historical misunderstanding.

All the early successful punk bands either got on majors or tried to. Being on a smaller label, or making your own label was a necessity for many other bands, but not really a goal in itself. DIY and indie labels happened because the majors weren't interested in most punks, not because most punks weren't interested in being on a major.

I think that one thing that people have forgotten was that Johnny (Rotten) Lydon never wanted to be famous. Their fame was the demise of the Pistols. Also, when the Police started they were a Punk band. I don't believe you have to BE a Punk to play Punk. It has never died, just like Disco has never died they just change forms... Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day said it best when the media gave him a hard time about Good Riddance (an acoustic song)... (this isn't an exact quote) What's more Punk than doing something that you know is going to piss off you fans!

The Sex Pistols were a #$@*&!% marketing tool. Nothing more. Lydon only redeemed himself with PIL.

sorry but now i have to disagree ! i dont know about sum41 but about green day i know very much ! if you check back the glorious (for me) days of g.d you would found out that they were a punk rock band. im talking about 1039/smoothed out slappy hours, kerplunk & dookie. billie joe was playing more than his 3 beloved chords. & insomniac & nimrod are more mature more punk.
the fact that today they are crappy makes me sick & i dont even listen to them. but this cant wipe the early days....

Yeah my 12 yearold daughter hasose albums. I've heard them quite a bit. And have to say their equally as commercial and un-punk as anything they do today. A product of their chasing the coat tails of rancid, and the uk82 reival during the early 90's. They certainly wouldn't have lasted the punk scene here.

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No no and no

They were certainly not, they were part of the bay area punk scene no doubt. No one was chasing Rancid, Rancid are every bit the commercial pop band that Green Day are. They were DIY and punk rock at the time. They were absolutely part of the scene. But then they stopped supporting their roots and became another arena rock band. But they made solid pop punk rock, and would have thrived anywhere.

Punk and Blues these days are sort of in the same boat. Many of today's blues artists have lives that there is nothing to be sad and blue about...Many of todays "punk" bands are rebelling against growing up in the middle-class suburbs...

One difference between the 2 is that punk has become more of a fashion...back in the day, if someone used a bunch of safety pins to re-attach a sleeve on a shirt, it wasn't because they thought it was punk rock, it was because they couldn't afford a new shirt...If there was a store for "blues fashion" much like there are places like Hot Topic and Journeys for "todays punk rocker", then I am sure some would look at some of today's blue's artists as kind of corny, much like many view a lot of the "modern day" punk rock. There is still punk rock out there, you just need to know where to find it...just like there are legit blues artists out there in the modern era as well, you just need to know where to find them...

I mean you could also say in addition to punk and blues no more, add jazz to it, because back in the early days of jazz, people thought it was music made by junkies, but now you have high school jazz bands....Add country music to the mix as well because most of that genre has just turned into pop music or some type of rock/country hybrid different than rockabilly...so I mean if you think about it hard enough, pretty much any form of music in existence today is just some bastardized version of what it once was....

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

That isn't true.

It may be if you look at mall kids and consider them punks, but it isn't the case.

True punk kids are largely the poor, the desolate, the broken who are trying to express themselves, get away from it or make a change. I came up in the Detroit punk rock scene, and we were very much kids from East 7 mile road, from housing projects, from the poorest and most $@!&*% up areas of the poorest most $@!&*% up city in the country. We were gutter punks, we were welfare babies, we had seen the worst $@!& on those streets and want to express it. Let people know what we see.

If you were talking to me, I am 33, I know its not true for many bands and punk rockers. I am just saying that many of the bands that people call punk these days are more just in touch with punk fashion than any sort of real punk rock roots or attitudes...Like I said, real punk stuff still exists if you know where to look for it, but many people think where to look for it is Hot Topic or MTV, but thats not where to look...

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA