I keep hearing “punks” today talking about what it means to be a punk. Well, I’ll let them believe what they want, but we 80s and early 90s youth who had their Mohawks in the mix before any of today’s lil’s punklings, know what it was for us!
We slam danced long before anyone was moshing (moshing is too organized), and we didn’t rely solely on overpriced brand names for rebellious fashion. Our Anarchy symbols were painted on the tips of our Converse with Sharpies, and drawn on our jeans with bleach!
We were also nerds and proud of it!. All we wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi…but we also needed that cool new underground comic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Raise your hand if you have a copy signed by Kevin Eastman. We skateboarded at events with the bass player of Jodie Foster’s Army, but also watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail so many times, I have it — I mean we have it memorized!
And, our music sometimes matched both these vibes. Here’s a few of my favorite insanely catchy punk and punk-adjacent songs with nerd vibes perfect for fighting The Man or reading Batman!
“Punk Rock Girl” by Dead Milkmen
They had me at “You’ll Dance to Anything,” but this one is the best scream along! You know you’re a punky nerd when you’re from Philly and released an album called Beezlebubba, and it included this practice is shenanigans:
“Spider-Man” by The Ramones
In 1995, there was a cool compilation CD of punk, grunge and alternative bands covering themes retro toons, called Saturday Morning Cartoons‘ Greatest Hits…and I still have the disc! One of standouts comes from come from my favorite CBGB originals, The Ramones, who already let us know “I Don’t Want to Grow Up!”
“Killer Klowns From Outer Space” by The Dickies
It was 1988, and one of the most wonderfully cheesy horror movies ever to hit the $1 Tuesdays at the mall cinema was Killer Klowns from Outer Space. It is now my 15-year-old’s favorite horror movie. What happened to The Dickies, by the way? This album was great, and even had a cover of “Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah.”
“Birdhouse In Your Soul” by They Might Ge Giants
You can’t get more cool and nerdy than They Might Be Giants. Some might argue these guys are more pop-punk, power pop, alt rock or whatever. They are geek rock, and the me and my punk pals loved them. They also later released children’s albums on the ABC’s, science and math concepts, and one of their biggest hits is a cover of “Istanbul.” When my daughters asked what kind of “choreo” I learned from music videos, I show them this one
“American Music” by The Violent Femmes
I went to a Violent Femmes concert. They followed The Nixons who almost shut the place down by having the crowd chant “F*ck the Cops” after a noise complaint. There were slammers and moshers, and a water bottle flew into lead singer Gordan Gano’s head. He stopped the show to remind people that is not nice behavior…then the rocking commenced. Still love that memory, and I love American Music!
So, to bring in your week before a Thanksgiving of weird table conversations happens, here’s a reminder that we were punks. We were nerds!
And we rocked!