playlist: the best punk songs of january 2025

Amid the chaos that the beginning of this year continues to provide, new punk music still shows up pretty much every day. On a slow day, somebody in the see/saw Discord shares an old record I’ve never heard and it blows my ass completely off. (This is a joke, I have never had an ass.) Rich started the Total Punk forum while local scenes build online message and gig boards of their own. People with shared interests are reconnecting and steadily eyeballing just how gross it feels to use Instagram to promote and connect. Some people feel like they rely on it to find community, and that’s how I feel.

I’m keeping it around, but I rarely linger on Instagram at this point. It exists on my phone as this holdover from breaking news life; I scan it for information and otherwise just feel disgusting when I leave the app open for any substantial amount of time. The Discord, meanwhile, has been the spot. There was a boom of new folks who joined around when Groschi started the spreadsheet cataloguing all the bands with piss names. People are in there talking about gear and pets, sharing demos and works-in-progress. I’m making new friends and deepening existing friendships in there.

On New Year’s Day, I did a past/present/future tarot reading, and for future, I pulled the three of cups. I don’t know shit about tarot, but from what I was made to understand by my people who know more about these things, it’s a card that signifies community, celebration, friendships, collaboration, and creativity. Having the Discord light up has felt good. Unwittingly, it’s become part of this greater push to establish punk and DIY community spaces online that aren’t dictated by the aristocracy (though it’s worth couching here that I don’t know shit about Rigdon Discord or whoever founded this chatroom app, they could suck shit for all I know). It’s also just fun to talk to people who I respect a lot and who like the good stuff. I’m having fun lurking over on Rich’s URL, too.

Community, friendships, cleaving to your people—that’s what it takes in times of upheaval. Mid-January marked a year after being laid off from my job of a dozen years, plus the horror of the fires and the grim reality of the inauguration. I’m trying to ride through the tumult.

Over the winter break, I listened to Cher’s memoir on audiobook. (It fucking rules. Also, fuck Sonny Bono.) There’s this point in the book where you’ve learned about her chaotic/adrift early childhood and teen years, and you’re like, “When is she going to ever get to chill out?” Literally a page later, she meets Phil Spector. Soon enough she’s living in a mansion and Sonny, deep into a pills bender, is doing an anti-marijuana PSA in gold silk pajamas.

Anyway, there’s this part of the book where Cher is isolated from society (long story), but then she finally leaves her room and goes to hang out with the people in her band. That’s when her life starts to get less heavy. I guess what I took away from Cher’s tutelage and the cards is that you can’t fully stop upheaval, but community makes it all feel less punishing. That’s probably the most obvious shit anybody’s ever heard, but I’ve been thinking a lot about why it’s important to reach out to your community.

There’s a see/saw benefit compilation coming soon, I’m finishing up the last tapes for see/saw Walkman Club, the Punk This Week podcast is seriously feeling more fun than ever, and the see/saw year 1 festivities are coming together. It’s a bunch of varied and ambitious collaborative projects. So that’s the plan right now; I’m proverbially leaving my room to go hang out with the band. Three of cups.

the best punk songs of january 2025

ELVIS 2: Grub Club
Fast Johnny and the Slow Burners: Ain’t Slowin’ Down
Plastic Act: Everywhere I Go
Jacket Burner: Cold Leather
TY: Nematode
Sick Fucks: Sex Afterparty
KLINT: Water Vapor
Vermit: Conqueror Verm
Punter: Bone to Pick
GHOULIES: Towel King
Sooflays: Carve Your Feelings Into Me
SLOKS: Viper
KOWBOJE: ELVIS-HENDRIX
Intermission: Ball N Chain
Whelpwisher: Same Mistakes
Wetnap: Mortality
Embargo: A-B-C ALARM
Dorothy Fuzz: 123 Understand Me
Kostenvorschlag: RE7
Dru the Drifter: Sold My Soul for Rock and Roll
Rapid Dye: Penance
Skull Cult: Language
Meow Meow and the Smackouts: An Decent Punch
Day Residue: Nod If You Know
Monda: Poe’s Law
FKA Smiley: Thresher
Midgee: Rock and/or Roll
GPS: Earn My Life
Erik Nervous: Kill the Kool (The Spits cover)
Clean Needle: Brain in a Blender
Razorface: Tarnished
Waylon Thornton: Smash Mountain Cheer
Huevo: No me siente bien
Telesatan: Cut 'n' Slice
Saafewaay: Bag Tax
Can Kicker: Cariad
STDEES: Steroid Dojo
Sad Roach: Gobblin
Your Pest Band: Reappear
Pigeon Pit: Bad Advice
Today Station: Wirecutter
SEER: My Eyes
Eskupa: Nexos
Crayon Cats: October Girlfriend
OYO: OO
Lackey: Bambam
Cult Crime: Desperation
Ain’t Right: Concrete Hearts
First in Line: Rebel Heart
Die in Vain: Savage New Times
Molbo: Sytsmart
Power Pants: Fast Lane
Delivery: Deadlines
Liaam: Sole to Sole
Ex-Vöid: Pinhead
Shit Missile: No Soul
1186: Ataque Sistematico
Spleen: Albatros
Seat Pisser: Hunt
Raut: Love ME Do
Healing: Sand Talk
Public Assassination: Light Escapes
Obedient: Bitter Man
Stray Dogs to Good Homes: Grid City
Beetle Kill: SHITWOLF
Wesley & the Boys: Full-Time Asshole
Astio: Bianco Oblio
GNATS: GNATS!
Lambrini Girls: Company Culture
Crime Light: World Burns Back
Snarewaves: Stimmy Lunch
Heavy Mother II: Omnivore
Gnome: I Like It
Heet Deth: King of Swords
Small Portions: I’m a Manchild
Ismatic Guru: Eighteen Miles Long
Sharp Pins: I Can’t Stop
Good Flying Birds: Last Straw
The Artists: Dancer
The Hahas and the Blablas: Frowning rat and his sad destiny
Nick Cage: Swing State
Kristian Quint & the Quitters: Outer Drive
Disappearamces: Collapse
Seudo Youth: Big Mouth
Silo Kids: Sick Licks