- Nov 13, 2017

Try Not To Sing-Along Punk Songs

I was moving around boxes of holiday decorations and by moving I mean throwing, kicking, and body-slamming. (That way I can just throw them away because we don't fucking put up half the shit for the holidays anyways.) But in the midst of all of it I came across a bin that had a bunch of my old shit on it. I gently took it out and carried it as if on the softest of clouds to a throne of pillows to a couch and began to rummage through only to find a bunch of old mix CDs.

...and this is how these blogs begin...some random idea crafted off of some bullshit I tripped over throughout the day. Not some carefully thought out plan. No just something I'm mad about or something that I just so happened to find...

So there are those songs that we haven't heard forever, but when they're on, it’s as if time stops.

Our ears perk up, the conversation we were in seemingly doesn’t matter anymore that chorus kicks in, you grab your friend and the both of you belt out the most out off tune singing known to man.

Through the years pop-punk has been notorious for this, I mean hell, my mom knows Fall Out Boy lyrics.

With that said, these are my picks for “Try Not To Sing Alongs”

-----Only One - Yellowcard-----

I remember when fellow Skyline bandmate Jeremy and I had coincidentally just broken up with our girlfriends years ago and we blasted this song crying over the situation while intoxicated eating double cheese burgers. Pop-punk does strange things to a man...

-----Saosin - You're Not Alone-----

While Saosin has had it's differences with line-up changes over the years, you can't deny their massive success and sing-a-long-ability like this 2006 fucking killer tune. (I would include Voices on this one too, but this one has a more sing-a-long chorus)...

-----Panic! At The Disco - Nine In The Afternoon-----

I'm not sure if I've said this before, but I'll go on record with it now...I used to HATE Panic! At The Disco. I boycotted them because of their "scene" kid fans and it was dumb. I'm older now, and still their music is everywhere, now down to just Brendon Urie, who's still cranking out hits like Nine in the Afternoon from 2008's Pretty Odd an album that I feel is their best albums...

-----Anti-Flag - Turncoat-----

This band has so many punk rock anthems it's hard to pick just one, so I went with the very first Anti-Flag song that I ever heard. I remember being in high school and my buddy Ian was really into this band, and I really felt stupid because I'm from around the Pittsburgh area and didn't hear of Anti-Flag. Long story short, I had to have their entire discography, so at their next hometown show I cleaned house on CD's, and bought The Terror State, Mobilize, and Death of a Nation...

-----blink-182 - I Miss You-----

"The voyice yinside my yead." Post "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" Tom Delonge's voice got well, a little whiney. Singing Tom's parts in "I Miss You" nasally is just as not singing the song at all. You either have to commit to the part or not at all. While I can go "on and on reckless abandon" all day long with sing-a-longs from blink mostly because I'm a fan, this has to be the most memorable, because in my mind, I hated this song the most, because it was everywhere, my fucking grandma knew the words...

-----Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure-----

My first impression of this band was "wow they can't sing." whenever I saw them open up for blink-182 in 2003. I'm not going to lie, I don't know if Adam had a bad night, but they were terrible. This was pre- Louder Now. I didn't give much of a shit or another listen until I heard this thumping bass guitar and these high pitched vocals in a song called LIAR. "Who the fuck is this awesome band?" There was no way it was the same TBS that bonged farts at the blink show. I was hooked on this band for a while, listened to their old and new stuff, and I'm not going to lie, it's really hard to pick just ONE song that's a sing a long, but this song MakeDamnSure blew the fuck up in the early 2000's pop-punk scene...

-----Linoleum - NOFX-----

My accounts of this song being a "Sing-A-Long was after each of pack hometown shows that pop-punk band Punchline would play in Pittsburgh they would host an after party at Michael's Pizza Bar on Sarah's St. on South Side (hockey pucks.) I always remember the moment when someone would throw a buck into the mp3 jukebox and this song would come on. The entire wall to wall packed bar would in unison sing every word including people peeing in the bathroom on one occasion. This felt like it became a tradition, as well as putting an ICP song on...

-----Neck Deep - December Part 1 & 2----

It's tough enough coming up with one song that's catchy but somehow UK chaps Neck Deep did it with the same song thrice (not to be confused with the band). The awesome doesn't stop with the song, in the album cut there's no special guests, so when it came time for a video the guys got Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional to cut vocals on the bridges for for the "Part 1" version.

Yes, there's a Part 2. Yes it's the same son but if you listened to the first one, it's an acoustic track yeah, but that chorus isn't it catchy as fuck? Well it picks up here. And let's spice it up, like scoville units beyond the bhut jolokia (ghost chili) with adding a nice blend of drums, bass, electric guitar, and some Mark Hoppus from blink-182 in the mix.

Just check out the videos too! There's 2 of them. And they tie in to each other. I've never seen a band use the same exact song tell a story with two music videos.

-----Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! - The Other Line----

We used to do this thing at my old job where we'd all pick a bunch of songs and make playlists during our shift. I was unfamiliar with Chunk! at the time, only briefly hearing them on compilations or passing them by on Warped Tour stages to get to another band in time. Then my buddy Ziggy put this song on... Shit...The opening line and chorus of the song has you hooked...

-----Owl City - Fireflies----

One of the first times that a "pop-punk" song blew the fuck up from seemingly no where. And I mean NOWHERE. Like not a band, or a prior known artist with an EP. No, just some dude hanging out in his bedroom, who made a YouTube video with some old action figures and a keyboard. That song was contagious and everyone wanted to itch. Even now when it comes on, I still love it, the little intricate synth parts, and then that chorus kicks in, for-fucking-get it...

-----AFI - Miss Murder----

AFI to me has always been this awesome melodic hardcore band that I've gotta be in the mood for to listen to, that was until DECEMBERUNDERGROUND came out and their entire stigma changed from that gothic punk band to the forefront rock band that could hold their own on pop radio. The opening riff on Hunter's bass into the chorus rips. Although Sing The Sorrow will always be my favorite AFI album, hearing pop-punk and punk on the radio is always nice, especially a band like AFI who definitely deserves it.

-----The Used - The Taste Of Ink----

When MTV still played music videos on solid rotation it was then I heard this song ironically enough at "4 o'clock in the fucking morning" on MTV-U. It was the first time I heard a band scream and sing at the same time, and do it so beautiful, and then I listened closer and thought "what is that gorgeous thing he's doing with the guitar" that cool little harmonic/pull-off/hammer-on thing with the barred off neck? Never have I heard a band make one guitar and a bass sound so full live. (that's right blink step your game up.)

-----21 Pilots - Guns For Hands----

I remember recording songs in my mom's basement. My brother had his workstation set up and before each session we'd listen to some new songs that we'd discovered over the week. He was ecstatic when this band popped up. Someone had shown him 21 Pilots at a party and he was blown away. Their harmonies were tight, every song had a great hook, they weren't that "Drop D Cookie Monster Screaming" shit with a breakdown that was plastered everywhere at the time, they were 100% new, and only fucking 2 dudes from Ohio. They were both nuts, jumping off of shit, you could tell where their roots came from, and they weren't afraid to be crazy and artistic. They were the perfect combo of pop, insane and punk rock. A breath of fresh air in the gas chamber of the music business. This song was my stake for them, there were many to follow, pretty much the entire Vessel album...

-----Fall Out Boy - Sugar We're Going Down----

I am 100% convinced that Fall Out Boy are aliens and the real Joe, Andy, Pete and Patrick are either in the past, frozen like Han Solo or on a spaceship somewhere and this FOB are some kind of lizard alien replacements. If you were to listen to FOB from "From Under the Cork Tree" and now, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you didn't know the band. I didn't like FOB at first. Infinity on High got me hooked when I took my ex-girlfriend to the Honda Civic Tour to see them headline and the entire show blew me away...this song live was killer...

-----+44 - When Your Heart Stops Beating----

When blink-182 took a hiatus for, well, now that all the Tom Delonge shit has been going on with Aliens And Aircrafts (new side project he's doing probably) I can't really believe what the fuck their hiatus was for. But I digress. Mark and Travis started this band +44, while it only had 1 album, it was still fucking rad, and pumped out some killer pop-punk songs, all on the harder side, especially this super upbeat tune...

-----Angels And Airwaves - The Adventure----

Speaking of which, in 2006 I just remember seeing all of these little webisodes of Tom talking about "something big" musically. And then this teaser trailer for the "We Don't Need to Whisper" album came out, which I still believe is a phenomenal album. It was really unlike anything anything has heard before punk-wise. It was on the realms of rock, So when the Adventure came out, a lot of fans either got it, or didn't. I did, and loved it...

-----Green Day - Basketcase----

Last but not least let's go back to 1994 where pop-punk had it's first explosion. Dookie. There are so many songs on this album but I feel like this one takes the cake. We could say Longview, it kind of drags on though, although it did kill grunge, as noted in the documentary One-Nine-Nine-Four, the day Longview hit the radio was the day they found Kurt Cobain's body. When I Come Around & She were popular but never really spiked the popularity and ridiculous hype that this song did. Green Day's success, through the years, and later reemergence in the 2000's pop-punk explosion will I hope one day write them down as my generations Beatles...

I hope you enjoyed this list, I have this and many more in a playlist below that I made on my YouTube channel.

Yes I have a YouTube Channel for The Pop-Punk Dad. I will be doing more on there at the ass end of this year. And sooooo much more next year. Many more details about that in upcoming blogs. Please stay tuned!

----Final Thoughts----

-Any songs you liked out of this list?

-Any songs you think should've been on this or the playlist?

-Were any of them stupid or rather not your cup of tea?

-Do another one with a different genre. Same with more bands?

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