The Distillers doing acoustic livestream on Friday
The Distillers have been hard at work on their first album since 2003’s classic Coral Fang, and they’re giving their self-titled debut LP a 20th anniversary reissue this Friday (10/30) via Epitaph, and now they also announced a five-song acoustic set/Q&A livestream happening Friday (10/30) at 3 PM ET. You have to be a member of the band’s Revenant fan club to watch, and the stream is free if you’re a paying Red Carpet member or $10 if you’re a free Rebellion member. More info here and on the flyer below.
Watch Brody Dalle play a Distillers song acoustic in 2014:
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30 Punk Songs with Great Acoustic Versions
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.
Flogging Molly – “Drunken Lullabies”
Perhaps more than any of the other popular Celtic punk bands of this
century, Flogging Molly may actually be more immersed in folk music
than in punk, so it's only natural that they'd do some entirely
acoustic material. 2006's Whiskey On A Sunday is a mix of live
material, acoustic recordings, and one new song, and one of those
acoustic recordings is of the band's most widely-loved song, "Drunken
Lullabies." The version on their 2002 album of the same name finds
Flogging Molly at their fastest, but this version slows it down and
turns it into more of a traditional folk song, and it's just as great
in this form. When you're more in the mood for melancholy than
dancing, this is the version you want.
Gameface / Jeff Caudill – “My Star”
Orange County melodic emo-punks Gameface never got as big as they
deserved, but it's safe to assume the bands who did blow up in the
early 2000s were listening to records like Gameface's 1999 Revelation
Records-released classic Every Last Time and its fan fave "My
Star." That's one of the most iconic songs to come out of '90s emo,
and ten years after its release, frontman Jeff Caudill reworked it as
a gorgeous, delicate acoustic song on his Had To Be There EP.
It's drastically different than the original -- closer to Dashboard
Confessional than to Gameface -- but it totally works like this too,
and Jeff breathed new life into it. If you didn't know any better,
you'd never guess it was a decade-old punk song.
The Gaslight Anthem – “Great Expectations”
New Brunswick heartland punks The Gaslight Anthem have incorporated
acoustic songs into their catalog since their first album, and over
the years they also recorded acoustic versions of their electric songs
as B-sides. One of the best is "Great Expectations," the opening track
of their classic 2008 sophomore album The '59 Sound. The album
version is a triumphant, rollicking song that's built to get stadiums
of fans going nuts, but not this acoustic version. Brian does it solo,
slows it down a lot, and proves it can sound just as good as a hushed,
mournful acoustic song. It's the kind of song where you could picture
Brian playing it in a room un-mic'd, and the whole place would be so
mesmerized that they'd have no choice but to shut up and listen.
Hot Water Music / Chuck Ragan – “God Deciding”
At this point, Chuck Ragan has as much of a career as a folk singer as
he does as the co-frontman of Hot Water Music, and those paths don't
cross very often. Every once in a while, he breaks out a Hot Water
Music song at a solo show, but he generally keeps his solo shows for
his solo music, which he's got plenty of. One of those Hot Water Music
breakouts happened in 2007 when HWM was on hiatus, and Chuck played
"God Deciding" from HWM's great 2002 split with Alkaline Trio at an LA
show that became the live album Los Feliz. (According to Setlist.fm,
it's the only time Chuck ever performed the song solo.) The original
is a post-hardcore rager and one of Hot Water Music's best songs, and
it's also a fairly complex song that relies a lot on a full band
coming together to pull it off. For his solo version, Chuck had to
reshape it pretty significantly or it never would've worked, and he
pulled it off. It might be the same general chords, lyrics, and
melodies, but it feels like an entirely different song, and we're
lucky to have both versions.
The Interrupters – “Gave You Everything”
The Interrupters helped put ska-punk back on the charts and the radio
with their 2018 single "She's Kerosene" from that same year's Fight
the Good Fight, and their success didn't stop there. The following
year, "Gave You Everything" became a hit too, and when it did, they
also gave it an acoustic version. Instead of the fast, driving pop
punk of the album version, this one takes things in a softer
direction, and when the piano comes in on the chorus, it turns into a
downright beautiful ballad. The Interrupters usually get by on
undeniable catchiness and danceability, but it turns out they excel in
this realm too.
Jeff Rosenstock – “Nausea”
After years of leading the bands Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the
Music Industry!, Jeff Rosenstock turned his focus towards his solo
career, and he's now released four great solo records in the past five
years. He can't be stopped. Two years before he released his 2015
album We Cool?, home of fan fave "Nausea," he put out an
acoustic version of that song on Summer+, an expanded edition
of his Summer 7" (including covers of Fiona Apple, Neil Young,
and Throwing Muses). The version that ended up on We Cool? is
an anthemic fusion of indie-punk and piano pop, but this acoustic
version is more straightforward, has a Neil Young/Bob Dylan-esque
harmonica solo, and is just as great. When Jeff yells so loud that the
mic distorts a bit, it only adds more charm.
Joyce Manor – “DFHP?”
Before Joyce Manor released their now-classic
2011 self-titled debut album, they put out a 2010 split
with Summer
Vacation (a band Joyce Manor themselves were
influenced by early on), and that split contained the 50-second
song "DFHP?," an early example of Joyce Manor's ability to make
impactful indie-punk with absolutely zero fat. They also had an
acoustic version sitting in their vaults somewhere, which finally got
an official release on 2020's Songs
From Northern Torrance compilation, and this version is great
too. If you like the weirder, non-punk songs of their underrated 2012
record Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired, you'll like the
acoustic "DFHP?" too.
Lagwagon / Joey Cape – “May 16”
Lagwagon have always brought a sense of traditional songcraft to their
snotty skate punk, so it's no surprise to hear frontman Joey Cape loves
stuff like The Byrds, Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel, Love,
XTC, Teenage Fanclub, Elliott Smith, and Echo & the Bunnymen, or that
he's led a folky solo project for over a decade. In addition to his
solo albums of new original music, he also does lots of acoustic
versions of Lagwagon songs, like on his two Acoustic split
albums with the late Tony Sly (of No Use For A Name) and on 2010's Don't
Wake Up The Kids!!, a Japan-only split with Hi-Standard's Ken
Yokoyama and Snuff's Duncan Redmonds. It was on that split that Joey
did a solo acoustic version of Lagwagon's most-loved song, "May 16,"
which sounds especially lovely in this form. When you strip away the
double-time drumming and brattiness of the Let's Talk About
Feelings version, it becomes even clearer that "May 16" was in the
same classic pop tradition as Belle & Sebastian and The Byrds all
along.
The Menzingers – “High School Friend”
The Menzingers' newly-released From
Exile is a reworked folky version of 2019's Hello
Exile, and the versions of these songs sound so great and so
natural that it's almost hard to believe they were punk songs first.
The Menzingers make a pretty damn good Americana band, and that very
much comes through on "High School Friend," which finds them
incorporating some Bob Dylan/Neil Young-esque harmonica, gently
rollicking rhythms, and soaring countrified harmonies. This album was
born out of the inability to tour during the pandemic, but let's hope
The Menzingers do more stuff like this. It suits them perfectly.
No Use For A Name / Tony Sly – “Justified Black Eye”
Like Joey Cape, the late Tony Sly brought classic pop sensibilities
and detailed lyricism to his skate punk band (No Use For A Name), so
it's no surprise that he and Joey were so close and released two split
albums together. The first of those, from 2004, includes this
hauntingly beautiful, string-laden rendition of "Justified Black Eye,"
the classic opener of 1995's ¡Leche con Carne!. The original
is such a ripper that you almost don't notice the melancholy in it,
but this version is damn near heartbreaking.
NOFX – “Just The Flu”
NOFX had their big breakthrough with 1994's Punk In Drublic,
but they'd already established their beloved snot-nosed sound a few
years before that and they'd already released some landmark albums
within the punk community, like 1991's Ribbed. One song on
Ribbed, "Just The Flu," has lyrics that are eerily prophetic
now that we're living through a pandemic 29 years later. And while
stuck at home during this pandemic, Fat Mike & co decided to record an
acoustic version of this song, which feels like it could've been
written yesterday. On the Ribbed version, NOFX sound like
brash, DGAF punk kids, but on the 2020 version, they sound mournful
and exhausted. Who could blame them?
+44 – “Baby Come On”
When blink-182 were on hiatus in the mid/late 2000s, Mark Hoppus and
Travis Barker released the sole album by their underrated side project
+44, which remains home to some
of Mark's best songs. He showed off a more somber side of his
songwriting than usual on that album, like on "Baby Come On," which
was more like an emo power ballad than like the juvenile pop punk
blink-182 were best known for. For the second volume of Fearless
Records' Punk Goes Acoustic series, +44 contributed a version
of that song that stripped it down to just acoustic guitar, piano, and
Mark's voice, and in this form, it's even more of a show-stopper.
Ramones – “Don’t Come Close”
The Ramones always had affinity for pop ballads, but they were usually
masked in the band's fuzzed-out exterior, like on "I Remember You" and
"Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," but by 1978's Ed Stasium-produced Road
to Ruin, they allowed themselves to go full jangle pop on "Don't
Come Close." It's one of the band's sweetest sounding songs and it
rivals just about any of their punk rippers, and it was the perfect
song for an acoustic version. They actually recorded one back in the
day, and when the album got a deluxe
40th anniversary reissue in 2018, that acoustic version was
included. It's just Joey singing over an acoustic guitar with no bells
and whistles or anything, and even in this bare-bones form, it still
feels like a stone cold classic.
Rancid / Tim Timebomb – “Fall Back Down”
Tim Armstrong does lots of acoustic versions of Rancid songs under his
Tim Timebomb moniker. It was hard to pick just one for this list, but
I had to go with "Fall Back Down," the band's most straight-up pop
moment. As big as ...And Out Come the Wolves was and still is,
"Fall Back Down" is the song that introduced Rancid to non-punk
listeners, which makes it very conducive to being reworked in a
non-punk fashion. The iconic organ, gang vocals (here provided by The
Interrupters), and rockabilly solos of the original are intact on this
one, but Tim and his acoustic guitar do the bulk of the heavy lifting,
and the result is a version of the song that's just as essential as
the one Rancid released a decade before this came out.
Rise Against – “Everchanging”
Despite being a largely a
melodic hardcore band, Rise Against's breakthrough song was the
acoustic "Swing Life Away," so it should come as no surprise that Rise
Against were pros at embracing a more tender side. That's exactly what
they did when they recorded an acoustic version of "Everchanging," a
rippin' highlight of their 2001 debut LP The Unraveling, and
the song took on a whole new life with this version. It works so
perfectly this way that you almost forget it was ever a fast-paced
punk song.
Saves The Day – “Jesse & My Whetstone”
n between their 1998 debut LP Can't Slow Down and their 1999
sophomore LP Through
Being Cool, Saves The Day released the fully acoustic I'm
Sorry I'm Leaving EP. One of its songs, "Jesse & My Whetstone,"
became an electric full-band live band staple, and that version was
eventually immortalized with a 2003 live recording on their 2004
compilation Ups & Downs: Early Recordings and B-Sides. It's
also a song that -- even in its acoustic form -- always sounded like
it begged to be fleshed out as a full-band pop punk song (and when
Saves The Day's pals Say
Anything covered it, that's how they did it). But regardless, the
song in its original form was just Chris Conley with his acoustic
guitar, and over 20 years later, it still sounds classic and timeless
this way.
Social Distortion – “Story Of My Life”
After starting out as a
hardcore band, Social Distortion got increasingly melodic and
increasingly countrified, and by their 1990 self-titled major label
debut, they were writing straight-up folk songs with a punk exterior.
At some point (I'm not sure when or where this recording is from),
Mike Ness decided to play this song as an actual folk song, and it
works out as just as well in this form. If anything, the melancholy
only comes through more strongly.
Strike Anywhere – “Chalk Line”
Strike Anywhere have always been a band who pulled from real-deal
hardcore as well as from more melodic music, making them very good
candidates to appear on Fearless Records' first Punk Goes
Acoustic album. They ended up contributing an acoustic version of
"Chalk Line" from their now-classic 2001 debut album Change
Is A Sound, and even though the original is pretty melodic as
is, this is far from a straightforward "acoustic version." Strike
Anywhere totally reinvented the song, slowing it down, adding in some
atmospheric keyboards, and turning the melodic hardcore rager into
something glistening and delicate.
Tigers Jaw – “I Saw Water”
Tigers Jaw had their big breakthrough just as three longtime members
were leaving the band, and at this point, the more polished, "mature"
sound they've been honing since the classic lineup's final album
(2014's Charmer) is what they're best known for. But in certain
underground punk/emo circles, the Tigers Jaw fan fave will always be
their scrappy self-titled 2008 album (which got a 10th
anniversary tour at smaller venues than Tigers Jaw normally play
these days, further proving its status as a cult classic). If you
can't pick a side, or you just like both, the perfect middle ground is
their 2015 acoustic album Studio 4 Acoustic Session. Recorded
by the remaining core duo of Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins, the album
features highlights from the s/t like "I Saw Water" and "Plane vs.
Tank vs. Submarine" reworked in a manner that's closer to the music
Tigers Jaw make now. There's no drums and the moshable energy of the
album version is gone, but I might actually say this version suits the
song even better. It really brings out the passion in the lyrics, and
Ben and Brianna's harmonies really shine.
War On Women – “Predator In Chief”
One of the great anti-Trump punk songs is War On Women's "Predator In
Chief" from their 2018 album Capture
The Flag. In its original form, it's a thrashy double-time
punk ripper, but for the band's acoustic Live From Magpie Cage
EP, they reworked it in a way that's warmer and more tender but
without losing the charm and the bite of the original. Shawna Potter
is a punk vocalist who really knows how to sing, and she puts
those chops to the test on this rendition, replacing the shouts of the
Capture The Flag version with a delivery that really shows off
her range. And when she gets to the "fuck this fucking rapist"
line, it's just as goosebump-inducing as when she scream-sings it on
Capture The Flag.
The Wonder Years – “Passing Through A Screen Door”
Modern-day pop punk greats The Wonder Years have now released two
acoustic EPs in their Burst
& Decay series, the latest being Burst & Decay, Volume
II from 2019. Most of the songs on that EP were slower/softer
Wonder Years songs in the first place, but my favorite song on it was
the version of "Passing Through A Screen Door," which originally
appeared as one of the hardest hitting rippers on 2013's The
Greatest Generation. This one had to be majorly reinvented, and
the band pulled it off expertly, adding in a string quartet and piano
and totally restructuring the song. It's also one of the more
personal, vulnerable songs Dan Campbell has written, and that emotion
is even more intense on this version.
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