now serving: art punk

What is art punk? Well to an extent it is a bullshit term that I adopted to categorize a bunch of bands that I wasn't sure where to place within my collection. Punk is such a difficult thing to define. It can be a particular sound, a DIY attitude, a label you're on. For example to many, Green Day is punk, but I really consider them to be more pop. Nirvana can be considered punk but I feel they really belong in grunge. Ani DiFranco does everything by herself but she is definitely not punk. My buddy Chad is an authority on Punk but even he shocked me by claiming that Sublime was a punk band (ska right?). A band like Les Savy Fav really captures what I think 'art punk' is - almost a manic collage of punk sounds that sound like something new but feel like old school punk. I am making these categories up as I go along (well actually I have already figured the categories out and organized the appropriate bands within them), so certain bands may seem misplaced, and down the road some may belong in here - but who really cares.