Best Punk Albums of 2007

BYO Records celebrated their 25th year in style with a stellar set of punk releases, the best of which was Guilty Pleasures by Edmonton's Wednesday Night Heroes. Blending raw street punk and old-school UK crust like The Exploited with of American hardcore a la Minor Threat and Naked Raygun, the Heroes created a record that's fast and relentless from beginning to end.

This record is by far the most addictive of the year, with fist-pumping anthems that stick in your head without getting annoying and relentless hardcore hooks that only get get better every time you hear them.

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When Toxic Narcotic took a hiatus in 2005, two of their members formed Mouth Sewn Shut, an intense band with an innovative sound - all-out hardcore assaults merged with reggae and ska beats. This bizarre combined sound is a recipe for a great record. It's brutal and aggressive, but you can still tap your toes to it.

A project from members of The Fleshies, Lower Forty-Eight, Bottles & Skulls and Victim's Family, Triclops is an unholy alliance that sounds like what might have happened if Jane's Addiction and Jesus Lizard had gotten together to jam. In the album's four tracks and 30-minute playing time, it transitions from sloppy punk to majestic guitar lines to all-out noise attacks. It's complex and more than just a bit disturbing.

For a long time, Fishbone were synonymous with the So Cal scene that also spawned the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction. Today, one of those bands is gone and the other, while still around, hasn't made a decent record in well over ten years. Fishbone's first recording of new material in six years was worth the wait, and proof that the band has survived the fates of their scene-mates.

Even with lineup that only holds two of the original members, Fishbone has managed to retain their classic high-powered ska punk sound, creating a record that forces you to take notice, and then immediately start shaking your booty.

While I have many mantras for many different situations, one of my musical mantras when it comes to scouting and producing new bands is this: "Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna can do no wrong." That's why it's no surprise that this Blackheart Records release made my "Best Of" list this year.

It's not just simple idol worship of Joan Jett, though, this record deserves its spot. Tantrum, The Vacancies followup to last year's A Beat Missing Or A Silence Added is proof that these guys from Cleveland share a lot more with the Dead Boys than just their hometown.

Yet another sign of their great 25th year - BYO Records' second appearance on the list comes from the Clorox Girls, a band that plays short, fast So-Cal punk tunes, evoking images of sin-soaked beaches with songs that owe just as much to the Beach Boys as they do to the Germs.

The album is incredibly refreshing, like punk with the crust cut off, and the lyrics of the Clorox Girls are predominately sweet without being sickening. If Fishbone isn't available next time, this album would make a decent soundtrack for the next Back to The Beach film.

Last year's self-titled album from Be Your Own Pet made my best of list. This year, two of the BYOP crew are back and a few notches higher with their band Turbo Fruits. The brainchild of Jonas Stein and John Eatherly, the respective guitarist and drummer for BYOP, Turbo Fruits rocks as hard as BYOP, but in a decidedly different way.

Rather than channelling the three-chord frenzy they found with BYOP, Turbo Fruits goes all out in a glam-trash, bluesy direction. It's a good listen that makes you not care whether or not BYOP decides to put out another record, just so long as these guys are putting out something.

OK, so if you heard that a cowpunk band decided to make an album that is a cowpunk retelling of Dante's Inferno, with guest appearances from Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon... well you might be waiting for a punch line because a concept like that could either be one of the best ideas for a joke or for a record.

Fortunately it's no joke, and Alternative Tentacles released Dash Rip Rock's latest, Hee Haw Hell, this year, and it pushed new boundaries both as a concept record and as a record in and of itself. If you remember any of Dante's Inferno from lit class, you'll dig the jokes; if you slept through that part of the class, you're still going to get into this bit of twangy punk rock.

This pick (and the next one, actually) may be a bit of a cheat, as it's not a new album but rather a compilation. Even so, this is my list and Remains gets this spot on it.

Five years ago, the band put out a self-titled album that compiled all their tracks from compilations, EPs and B-sides up to that point. Remains picks up where the self-titled album left off, compiling all of the odd tracks that have appeared since.

For the casual (or budget-conscious) A3 fan, it's a nice easy way to get all these tracks in one spot, rather than investing serious time (and dough) tracking down all of the compilations they've appeared on.

If you thought Remains was a copout pick, this Alternative Tentacles compilation by Florida's The Eat probably won't make you happy either, mainly because the newest track on here is from 1996, and most go back much further. Even so, if you weren't in the right part of Florida at the right time, you most likely never heard this band before Jello Biafra decided to compile their complete works on this album.

It's Not The Eat, It's The Humidity is a testament to a band that almost faded into obscurity, and if nothing else it will leave you wondering how many other great punk bands toiled about without ever breaking out of their scenes, and have obscure little records waiting to be heard.