Some say punk music is making a comeback, others are saying
that it never really died. In any case, while plenty of post-punk bands from
the 1990s and 2000s borrowed the basic fury of punk music and morphed into
something else, I am seeing an increase in the number of new aggressive bands
recreating the original unfiltered look and sound of hardcore punk. These bands
are rallying a new generation of youth who were not yet born when the original punk
music culture started in the 1970s. This downtown scene is as far as you can
get from the Julliard School of Music uptown.
Take the Stupid
Naturals for instance, a three-piece punk band formed in the Bronx in 2012.
The band has been playing clubs in Brooklyn and today returned to Tompkins Square Park for a free outdoor
show with Yo!Scunt and others. The
Stupid Naturals performed a finely-played set of original songs that were
designed to be loud and simple expressions of an estranged youth. Yes, this has
been done before, but the youth that gathered in the park today seek a new generation
of spokespersons and events to rally the growing neo-punk community. The
human person is engineered to crave belonging, and bands like the Stupid
Naturals, playing good, solid punk music as a tool, may be effective in anchoring this
local punk revival.
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