The acoustic punk song is a time-honored tradition that has seen a rise -- due to necessity -- during this year of isolation. This edition of In Defense of the Genre looks at 30 songs from throughout punk history with great acoustic versions.
The entire music world has taken a huge hit during this pandemic, but it's an especially rough time for punk, a genre that thrives off of people cramming together and jumping all over each other. Still, plenty of punk bands have found ways to make the best of it, and perhaps not surprisingly, acoustic punk has been very prominent this year. It's a natural thing to resort to if you're doing a livestream and can't get the band in a room together, and doing acoustic or other reworks of old songs is a good way to put out some new content even when you can't get together to write entirely new material. That's presumably why we've seen a handful of punk bands release reworkings of that sort this year, from one-off songs (like Bad Religion and NOFX) to entire albums (like The Menzingers and The Bouncing Souls). It's been an especially prevalent phenomenon this year -- and we've been treated to a lot of cool music in this realm lately -- but it's one that's existed within punk for decades. Though punk is a genre that's known for being the shorter, the faster, the louder the better, the history of punk has been full of genuinely great songwriting, and sometimes a great acoustic version of a song can bring those melodies and lyrics out even more so than the original. It's also just nice sometimes -- especially if you're stuck at home in a pandemic and maybe have family members or roommates who don't want to hear you blasting punk all day -- to get to enjoy your favorite punk bands in a calmer manner.
There are probably thousands of acoustic versions of punk songs out in the world, but to narrow down this phenomenon to some of the very best, I've put together a list of 30 punk songs with great acoustic versions. Some ground rules for this list: the song had to be recorded acoustically by the original artist/songwriter, so for example, as fantastic as Brendan Kelly's acoustic cover of Jawbreaker's "Kiss The Bottle" is, that's not eligible. I also tried to keep it to either studio recordings or official live recordings; there are plenty of cool videos on YouTube of punk bands doing acoustic in-stores and live sessions and the like, but I wanted this to be more about the artist having the intention to create an alternate version of their own song. The acoustic version does not, however, had to have come after the electric. As long as multiple versions exist, it qualifies for this list.
With that out of the way, read on for the list, unranked, in alphabetical order...
Against Me! - "Pints of Guinness Make You Strong"
Before Against Me! released their classic 2002 debut full-length Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose, they released versions of some of those same songs on their early EPs, including their entirely acoustic, drum-less 2001 self-titled EP (aka The Acoustic EP). And one of the major highlights of that EP was the song that eventually opened Reinventing Axl Rose, "Pints of Guinness Make You Strong." As a song that tells the story of how Laura Jane Grace's grandmother Evelyn lost her husband James to alcoholism, it's one of the best and most powerful songs on Reinventing Axl Rose, and it's perhaps even more heart-wrenching in this emotionally bare form, with less noise to drown out the song's spine-tingling message. Laura still plays this one live a lot -- both with Against Me! and solo -- and she says it's taken on a new meaning to her, being on tour away from her daughter, who she named Evelyn after her grandmother. "The sentiment in the lyrics of, 'Evelyn, I'm not coming home tonight,' in the chorus, singing that nightly on stage when, you know, when your daughter's at home and you're away from her is still completely relevant to me."
Alkaline Trio - "Mercy Me"
Alkaline Trio released the "semi-unplugged" album Damnesia with new versions of songs from throughout their catalog (plus two new songs and a Violent Femmes cover) in 2011, and included on that album is a mostly-acoustic version of one of their biggest songs, "Mercy Me." It was tempting to pick one of the lesser known song for this list, but "Mercy Me" really lends itself to this format, and might even sound better this way. For a band who always had a dark side, "Mercy Me" is one of the brighter songs in their catalog, and this warm, jangle pop-inspired version really opens the song up and adds in spaciousness and breathing room that the heavily-palm-muted original only hinted at.
Anti-Flag - "Bradenburg Gate"
It's no surprise that a punk band with a strong love for Woody Guthrie would be naturals at having an acoustic folk side, and Anti-Flag have embraced that side of them over and over again, with numerous acoustic shows, an acoustic live album, and the 2018 acoustic studio album American Reckoning, that was comprised of acoustic versions of songs from 2015's American Spring and 2017's American Fall, alongside three covers. The American Spring version of "Brandenburg Gate" (which features Rancid's Tim Armstrong) is a fist-pump and shoutalong-inducing, stadium-sized anthem, but the American Reckoning version turns it into a somber, melancholic slow-burner and it sounds just as great for totally different reasons. It starts out bare bones, with just acoustic guitar and voice, and it builds to a lush, gorgeous climax, fleshed out by string (or string-like?) arrangements and rumbling percussion. Less fist-pumping but more breathtaking.
Bad Religion - "Sorrow"
Bad Religion's 2007 album New Maps of Hell is one of the hardest, fastest albums in the band's discography, but to balance that out, the deluxe edition came with seven acoustic songs. One of them is of "Sorrow," one of the highlights of their great, career-rejuvenating 2002 album The Process of Belief, and a song that very much prospers in an acoustic environment. The original version starts out as a reggae-punk song before doing a 180 and turning into a straight-up punk song, but even at its fastest moments, "Sorrow" is fueled by warm melodies, rich harmonies, and a sense of beautiful exhaustion that really come to life in the acoustic version. With no rhythm section at all to lean on, "Sorrow" has to get by off the strength of pure songwriting alone, and Bad Religion pull it off masterfully.
The Bouncing Souls - "Gone"
After playing some acoustic shows for their 30th anniversary in 2019, The Bouncing Souls decided to record a full acoustic album, this year's Volume 2, but it quickly became more than your average "acoustic album." "We initially wanted to recreate some of the stripped-down vibe of the acoustic sets," guitarist Pete Steinkopf said, "but if anything, these versions are much more involved than the original versions." That's very true, as you can hear on one of my personal favorites, "Gone." The How I Spent My Summer Vacation version is a driving punk song, but it always sounded a little more soaring than the band's usual pogo-inducing rippers, which made it a perfect contender for a slower, more tender version. You can also hear on this version just how lived-in the song feels for the Souls, as singer Greg Attonito touched on in our recent interview: "We must have played 'Gone' thousands of times so I know the vocal inside and out. It was so satisfying to put all those years experience into this version of the song." Fleshed out by gorgeous string (or synthetic string?) arrangements, it sounds like the song playing during the climax of a '90s coming-of-age movie. And I very much mean that as a compliment.
Catch 22 / Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - "Dear Sergio"
In between the time Tomas Kalnoky released Catch 22's 1998 ska-punk classic Keasbey Nights and formed Streetlight Manifesto, he released an EP with his acoustic collective Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution that included a new version of Keasbey Nights standout "Dear Sergio." The non-stop energy of the original is replicated with this version, which shares a fast-paced rhythm section, fleshed-out horn section, and breathless vocal delivery with the Keasbey Nights version, but it also works in other instrumentation like strings and hand drums, as well as an entirely new verse. It's a total reinvention, and just as cool as the Keasbey Nights version.
Descendents - "Hope"
Descendents' 1982 debut album Milo Goes to College is arguably the blueprint for pop punk as we know it, as short, fast, and loud as all the hardcore albums Descendents' peers were putting out, but with a sense of melodicism that looked beyond the limits of punk. "Hope" is a song that's proven to be especially influential and ahead of its time -- and later covered by both Sublime and blink-182 -- and for the new benefit/tribute album to the late Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell, Descendents frontman Milo Aukerman contributed a solo acoustic guitalele version of the song. In this quieter version, it really comes through how strong the melodies of the original are, and how timeless it remains after nearly 40 years. (He also then launched a full-fledged solo uke project, RebUke.)
The Distillers - "Dismantle Me"
When The Distillers released their classic 2003 album Coral Fang (their final album before breaking up, though now they're reunited and have been working on a new one), they accompanied it with an internet-only single featuring acoustic versions of two of its songs. One of those is "Dismantle Me," which features nothing besides Brody Dalle and an acoustic guitar, and which sounds like it was recorded in one take with no overdubs, speed-ups, laughter, and voice cracks included. Brody pretty much played as hard as she did on the electric version, and the result is a fine offering of fired-up acoustic punk.
Face To Face - "Bill of Goods"
After getting gobbled up and spit out by the major label punk feeding frenzy of the mid '90s, Face To Face inked a deal with Vagrant in the early 2000s and found themselves reinvigorated and peers of a new generation of punk bands who were starting to rise up from the underground. 2002 saw the release of the great How to Ruin Everything, followed by a slot on the Vagrant America tour (alongside soon-to-be-famous labelmates like Dashboard Confessional and Saves The Day), and the next year they played Warped Tour for the first time since 1997. It was a definite comeback moment, and it produced one of their best songs, "Bill of Goods." Unfortunately, the comeback was cut short by a hiatus that started in 2004, but Face To Face regrouped four years later, and they've since released three more albums and the 2018 acoustic album Hold Fast: Acoustic Sessions. Included on that album is a great rendition of "Bill of Goods." The electric version finds Face To Face at their most furious, but underneath all that fury is some of Face To Face's strongest and most distinct songwriting, and that really comes through on this more tender rendition.