In Defense of the Genre is a column on BrooklynVegan about punk, pop punk, emo, post-hardcore, ska-punk, and more, including and often especially the bands and albums and subgenres that weren’t always taken so seriously. Here are The Genre’s five best songs from September.
If you haven't seen it already, I'd like to turn your attention to our recent feature on the current ska & ska-punk scene, which highlights Bad Time Records, Asian Man Records, and Ska Punk Daily's recent Ska Against Racism benefit compilation; includes interviews with Mike Sosinski (Bad Time Records, Kill Lincoln), Jeremy Hunter (JER, Skatune Network, We Are The Union), Mike Park (Asian Man Records, Bruce Lee Band, Chinkees, etc), and members of Catbite, Bite Me Bambi, Half Past Two, Call Me Malcolm, and The Best of the Worst; and contains a playlist of 60 recent ska/ska-punk songs, 15 recent album recommendations, and more.
Other recent punk features and news we posted:
* 18 early 2000s melodic punk & hardcore albums that are still essential today
* The Offspring's best deep cuts -- 14 songs that rival their biggest hits
* Q&A with Rise Against on first song in 3 years, punk protest music, pandemic life & more
* Q&A with Motion City Soundtrack on “lost” Mark Hoppus-produced song, social justice, COVID & more
* Touche Amore discuss musical influences on upcoming album Lament
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September Album Reviews: Teenage Halloween, Svalbard, Bob Mould, Napalm Death, Coma Regalia, Lo Tom (mem Pedro the Lion), Code Orange's MTV Unplugged-style album
Upcoming Livestreams: Anti-Flag documentary premiere + live chat/Q&A (10/3), The Slackers' Slacktoberfest (10/3), The Menzingers (10/10), PUP (10/23)
I also want to say rest in peace to some legends we lost this past month: Toots Hibbert, original Bad Brains vocalist Sid McCray, and Iron Age's Wade Allison. We miss you.
Read on for my five picks (in no particular order) of the five best songs of September 2020 that fall somewhere under the punk umbrella...