There are always young bands playing in their garages. A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It’s below the radar. The beauty of it is that you’re not supposed to always know. It’s subterranean.
I look at some of my fans at my show, and a lot of them look like they’re straight out of a punk rock show. They like what I’m coming across with. I had seen them same thing when I went to this Scarface show, so it lets me know that I’m on the right track.
I think punk rock needs an ‘Amadeus.’
Ideologically, the pursuit of science is not that different from the ideology that goes into punk rock. The idea of challenging authority is consistent with what I have been taught as a scientist.
They wouldn’t play my records on American radio because I had spiky hair. They said, ‘Punk rock doesn’t sell advertising, it won’t make any money.’
‘Hedwig’ was pretty much all the things I wanted to do that other people said I probably shouldn’t do: drag, punk rock, stand-up comedy… You know, combine them all in a thing that’s supremely uncommercial from the objective point of view.
Hip-hop and R&B is mostly what I listen to. I don’t have a connection with punk rock – I just never had that experience.
All of the punk-rock bands of the era would come in and play, and my job on Punk Rock Night was that I would go into the slam pit, and… I was 24 or 25, and I’d slam dance in the pit.
I came up from growing up with a lot of Catholic guilt, a lot of punk rock, hipster guilt in the later years where I think people have thrown a lot of things on me. Where I always felt like I’m not supposed to tell the horn section what to play or I don’t want to come off egotistical.
When I was younger, I went through a lot of different phases. One day I’d be punk rock, and the next I would be tomboyish, and then I would be really girly. I was so weird. My two best friends and I were just crazy and goofy!
I heard Skip James, and it pierced me. It felt like punk rock to me, real and raw. It was just one guitar, so simple yet so much expression. I wanted to feel and express like that, to take the shortest path to get to an emotion.
Ain’t nobody more punk rock than Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, even Little Richard.
A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It’s below the radar. The beauty of it is that you’re not supposed to always know. It’s subterranean.
‘Waking the Fallen’ truly encompasses everything that Avenged Sevenfold was at that time. It was us being fearless, us showing our roots in heavy metal, punk, rock n’ roll, and not being afraid to try everything under the sun when it comes to writing music.
I’ve learned some of the greatest life lessons from growing up in the skate and punk rock communities.
Punk rock seemed to make sense. I was listening to The Clash and I really loved their social messages and they have a great history of fighting racism.
I would definitely say the Oakland Raiders are the punk rock band of football.
It’s a dying art to play live anymore and just play raw. Who cares if you make a mistake? That’s punk rock. Just go out and go for it and make some noise.
We take a lot of inspiration from punk rock and early rock ‘n’ roll from the ’50s and early ’60s.
I got tired of the Ramones around the time I quit and I really got into rap. I thought it was the new punk rock. LL Cool J was my biggest idol.
The New York Dolls did not think of themselves as punk rock. There was no such term at the time. They were just another band in what was called the New York scene.
One overlooked great 1980s rock n’ roll band, maybe punk rock – they were on SST Records, same label as Black Flag – is this band called the Leaving Trains.
To me, I think of the ’70s as being this glorious decade where I discovered who I was and discovered all these amazing things… punk rock, electro music, fashion, all of that.
In terms of rock and roll, I’m often drawn to louder, rougher stuff; maybe that’s my history as a punk rock wannabee showing itself! Honestly, though, I’m not one of those people who listens to music constantly. I really love silence.
I think, fundamentally, the core of everything I do is punk rock.
Looking back on the production of ‘Nevermind,’ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.
There’s not much music I’ll listen to if it doesn’t have pretty heavy swing. Rhythm is so important. Punk rock would have more power and feeling if it had swing.
The New York Dolls did not think of themselves as punk rock. There was no such term at the time. They were just another band in what was called the New York scene.
For us, punk rock and even hardcore music was something we did because we didn’t fit in in high school. We had nowhere to go, so we went to shows.
I love punk rock, but I also love metal.
I loved Riot Grrl. Not only was it a punk rock revolution, but it meant you could get dressed for a night out for less than two pounds!
The only way to be punk rock in L.A. is to be a Republican.
Just from the beginning, I really liked playing around with tape recorders. And then, when I got into punk rock, I only really liked – the rawer it was, the more I was into it.
If Nirvana had remained a small, underground punk rock band, Kurt Cobain would still be alive. And he’d probably be living in Seattle, getting kind of fat and balding, be relatively happy and producing records for other people.
All the music I listened to in high school that I loved and that moved me wasn’t the same music other kids were listening to in school. I got into punk rock and new wave, then dub and hip-hop.
There’s not much music I’ll listen to if it doesn’t have pretty heavy swing. Rhythm is so important. Punk rock would have more power and feeling if it had swing.
I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle.
I just love music. Every genre of music: country, rock. I originally first loved punk rock. Pop punk. I don’t know, just rock in general. And getting to rap. And now K-pop. Different types of music. I love everything.
There was a moment when Prince did rock & roll with a sponge-y seductive sound. I think that’s what was in our head for ‘Get On Your Boots.’ But actually, the song is much more punk rock.
Initially, electronic music was anti-establishment, as punk rock and rock n’ roll were. The music was shut down; the police were against the parties.
Punk rock and straight edge will always be married together. As far as me integrating that with wrestling, I learned a lot from punk rock.
Most punk rock bands just have a guitar, bass and drums. The Descendents, the Ramones, you name ’em, it’s just how it’s always been.
I enjoy punk, the attitude as well as the music, but I don’t feel like I have to be a carbon copy of it and invite all this controversy just to be punk rock.
Looking back on the production of ‘Nevermind,’ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.
I would definitely say the Oakland Raiders are the punk rock band of football.
There are always young bands playing in their garages. A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It’s below the radar. The beauty of it is that you’re not supposed to always know. It’s subterranean.
Elvis Presley was rock ‘n’ roll, I thought that was pretty mediocre. But since that time, the succeeding steps in music has been down, just more degradation. Then we got into punk rock, and now we are into rap music, which is a total oxymoron.
I went to theater school at Northwestern, and I was quite conservative. Reagan at the time seemed quite revolutionary, or at least a rock star: He was radical and kind of punk rock.
It’s all magic to me. Country to punk rock, all of it. Chopin to Kurt Cobain. But it always all comes back to punk for me, because that was the last time, punk rock or grunge rock, was the last time that passion ruled the airwaves.
Rap actually comes out of punk rock, not black music.
Punk rock really influenced me, the basic metal bands, Zeppelin, Stones and Floyd, and Southern rock bands. I think I was pretty well-rounded.
I played in a punk rock band in high school called the High Heel Flip Flops. I was the drummer. I played drums for, like, four years.
I think, fundamentally, the core of everything I do is punk rock.
The thing about punk is that there are purists. Once you start going outside of that, they don’t think what you’re doing is punk rock.
Then the early punk rock period with Television and the Ramones. That’s what I loved- that’s what I was listening to immediately prior to when I started to play.
What’s really cool about ‘This is Me’ is that our friends loved the song. Older punk rock fans don’t know ‘The Greatest Showman,’ haven’t seen the movie. And they hear that song and they’re like, ‘This just sounds like an awesome New Found Glory song. This is a really good song.’
People who like progressive music tend to sneer at the idea of a kind of punk aesthetic, and people who like alternative indie rock or punk rock tend to sneer at what they see as the pretentiousness and pomposity of progressive music.
The first time that I came to New York to work properly was the mid-’80s, but I was doing eight shows a week. You have no life. Going to a punk rock club – or whatever the music was at that time – would not have been on my agenda.
