playlist: the best punk songs of september 2024

It’s been six months since I launched see/saw. Start-up projects usually have more infrastructure in place, or months of careful planning, or I don’t know, an attractive website. I had the name and a loose idea of what I wanted to do with it, but no logo or design or anything. I just kind of started churning out the work, hoping people would find it and connect with it.

I’m pretty floored—nearly 1,600 people have tapped in overall. I was just in Milwaukee at the Unlawful Assembly shows earlier this month and a few people introduced themselves and wanted to talk about see/saw. It’s happened a couple times in Minneapolis and Detroit. Members of bands I’ve praised as a critic years ago have reached out to tell me how much they enjoy the newsletter and podcast. Six months ago, I’d barely figured out that I wanted to keep writing about music. I built this thing and people seem to like it, and honestly the feedback makes me feel pretty emotional.

I was programmed by the old place to think about metrics, and I still think about metrics a lot. One paragraph ago, for example, I mentioned how many readers have subscribed. I have modest goal numbers that would mean “I don’t need a real job.” I’ve joked to my therapist about buying one of those giant fundraising thermometers and doing videos to illustrate my passion project’s financial progress, but just reek of comedic desperation. I imagine myself holding up charts detailing my various debts while sweating through my shirt.

Sometimes I imagine see/saw with a boss, having to justify a chat with the Sniffs when there’s not a new album out, or having to argue about how good the new Retail Simps album is in order to make sure that interview happens, or explaining how much I love this haunted EXO tape about bugs. Instead, I get to just talk to my favorite bands whenever I want. I get to make a podcast with Nina Corcoran and put together radio shows. (Oh right, I’m doing radio now, that’s new.)

People keep telling me they’re into this stuff. Thanks to anyone who’s said that or put a few dollars behind this project. Tell one person you know about see hyphen saw dot fun. I’ll keep making stuff.

see/saw: the best punk songs of september 2024

Noids: Viernes Te Extraño
Celebrity Sighting: Hourglass
Alvilda: Angoisse
Medium: Total Control
CLASS: Scared to Care
Fan Club: I Was a Stray
Mitraille: Boring Man
Laughing Sickness: Kick It Up
Loosey: Marie
Lothario: Black Hair
Prison Affair: Isolation
Satanic Togas: Illusions
Artificial Go: Aphrodisiac
Crayon Cats: Not the Best Day
Stiff Richards: GFC
The Okmoniks: AIn’t Comin’ In
Soup Activists: Skeleton Fight Song
Alien Nosejob: Medical Treatment
Big Bopper: Ochlophobia
Man-Eaters: Creepy Crawl
Licklash: Party Line
Spit Takes: Joyride
Feeling Figures: The Falcon
Geishas of Doom: Fish to Fry
Waylon Thornton: Licorice Plazz Pt. 1
Rehash: King of Weimar
The Carp: Will You Be the Freak
Tube Alloys: Evil Angels
BEEF: Seconhand Toe Jam
G2G: Punkdom
Gurriers: No More Photos
Abandoncy: Scarlet Rot
Black Button: Living Velvet
Cicada: Much Worse
Golpe: Golpe
Hunny: WDTFU
Pons: Nelson Hold (BUG)
Fentanyl: Spiral
Wasted Out: You Suckers!!
Blitzo: Hunger
Success: Wankers
S.O.H.: Delirium
Atomic Prey: Glue
Pain Seminar: Cross My Heart
Regional Justice Center: Pariah
NOMAD: 立​ち​上​か​る
Hase: Tam Tam
Double Over: Repulsive Web
SHOVE: Power
Lizard Brain: Killer on the Street
Achterlicht: Lucid
Expest: Exterminate
Texture Freq: So What? It’s the Future
Chain Cult: Ending Things

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