playlist: the 53 best punk songs of june 2026

When you get into music journalism on the news side of things, it doesn’t take long to learn that it requires actual reporting skills. You’ve got to know how to locate and distill court documents, how to find the right contacts for comment, understand the correct questions to be asking, and crucially, actually pick up the phone. The romance of the job is just talking to bands or saying “hey this record is sick.” I was disavowed of that idealism early into working Pitchfork news shifts, and this past week, reporting became an urgent component of the day-to-day at see/saw.

In early May, I met with Greer and Cesar from the Kings Road Merch Union in Minneapolis one day before their shop’s unanimous vote in favor of unionizing. Interviews for see/saw usually sit in the can for a while before I actually get a chance to write them up, but the plan was always to tell their story while they were well into the bargaining process.

That plan changed. Last Tuesday, the same day they were set to begin bargaining, I got a through-the-grapevine text that the union had been informed of Sony Music’s plans to shutter their warehouse. Immediately, I reached out to Greer, Cesar, and their contact with the Teamsters Local they’d organized with. I emailed representatives for bands whose merch is produced by Kings Road. I reached out to the lawyer representing Sony Music at the bargaining table. I published that story on Friday. Especially compared to previous see/saw articles, it got a massive amount of engagement.

This was a story about punks working at a merch warehouse that specializes in punk merch, though the aesthetic particulars of the piece aren’t what make it a good fit for an online punk magazine. Unions and punks share some inherent qualities around organizing, speaking truth to power, and community-building. All labor journalism is punk journalism. Even if nobody reads the work, telling union stories is extremely important. It’s cool to expand the scope of what gets published beneath the see/saw banner.

June was an extremely busy one over here. Nina and I spoke with DEVO’s Jerry Casale on see/saw jukebox, and in addition to the weekly podcast and columns, four excellent interviews went up: Jim Fair chatting with Shaved Ape in Pittsburgh, Billiam talking to Media Puzzle in Naarm, Ben Taylor grabbing beers with Shop Talk in Brooklyn, and Zach Mitchell chopping it up with Choncy before and after a show in Mississippi. Some exceptional records came out, too.

Here’s the part where I remind you that see/saw is a reader-supported publication, which means all those writers above got paid for their work thanks to the patronage of subscribers. If you want to help sustain this operation, please consider subscribing for $4/month or $40/year or barter.

Here are the 53 best punk songs from the past month. Stay cool out there.

see/saw’s 53 best punk songs of june 2026

Finale: Almas perdidas
Guiding Light: Shackled by Lust
The Carp: Fuck Alex Karp
Alien Nosejob: Nowhere to Go
Pleasure Cube: The Woodshed
Roberta Lips: Coup de Bluff
Perennial: What’s New on the Beat Scene
Quitters: Mean Motherfucker
Gimic: The Devil’s Rose
Cel Ray: Toxic
Baby Jane: Surfing to Hell
Nadie Lo Quiere: Todo por hacer
K9: Get Loaded and Smile
The Circulators: Pointless Game
Prisão: Amar sem amarras
Cover My Shift: “Mark Wilson”
MESH: Violent Peasant
Edging: When Things Turn Around
Liquid Cross: This World
Sex Mex: Needles in the Camel’s Eye (Brian Eno cover)
Cherry Cheeks: D.O. Theme
Odor Eater: Nightcaller
Gripe: All Our Fans Are Morons
TANO!: L’escurçó del safareig
Deadbeat Beat: Pink Dust
Artificial Go: Jane Ate the Apple Seed
Double Date: Copycat
Reveal Yourself: sicko
Deathfakers: It’s Nice to Take the Bus
Tower of One: Go Pills
Guyscrapers: All Day and All Night
Non Plus Temps: I Am Not Wise
Body Suit: On a Mission
The Sex Shoppe: Big Ass Dog
Mirage: Motore Di Corrosione
Spiderweb: Stop the Rats
Drastic Plastic: I’m a Car
Sweeping Promises: Cocoon
Society: Casualties of War
Debt Rag: It’s Clear What’s Going On
Taxi Girls: Try Harder
Sniffany & the Nits: Best of Luck
Consensus Madness: N.R.P.
Downtown Boys: Public Works
CS Cleaners: G+T
dope smokin homos: diy heart surgery
Adult Learners: Fever Dream
Oova: Ratón
EKGs: Thoughts
Acid Casualties: Smoke the Feds
L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation: Boots on the Ground
ORC: ORC LIKE ME
Poguba: Noč

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