Friday, September 12, 2008

Punk Blues

Punk blues is a fusion of punk rock and blues music. It also can take influences from garage rock.Punk blues musicians and bands may incorporate elements of related subgenres, such as protopunk music or blues-rock. The style is similar in spirit to other punk and roots music fusion styles such as cowpunk and psychobilly.

With very few exceptions, punk blues predominantly tends to be an American underground music style in terms of music genres, and is mostly unrecognized by the mainstream, or mislabeled a neologism due to its low visibility. Punk blues can be said to favor the common rawness, simplicity and emotion shared between the punk and blues genres over the politics and lifestylism prevalent within the broader punk subculture and, in turn, it is much more a musical style than a counterculture.

Rooted in and often aligned with garage rock or blues-rock, many bands in the genre opt explicitly to spell out the two elements of the music, such as the modern punk blues band The Immortal Lee County Killers. Immortal Lee County Killers singer/guitarist Chet Weise refers to the style as "the fucked up blues" and has stated, "Punk and blues are both honest reactions to life. It's blues, it's our blues. It's just a bit turned up and a bit faster."

Allmusic states that punk blues draws on the influence of the "garage rock sound of the mid-'60s, the primal howl of early Captain Beefheart, and especially in the raw and desperate sound of the Gun Club's landmark Fire of Love LP from 1981." Also according to Allmusic.com, "...punk blues really came to life in the early '90s with bands like the seminal Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Oblivians, The Gories and the Gibson Brothers", and "...continued into the 2000s with even more visibility thanks to the popularity of The White Stripes."

In Pulaski, Tennessee, there is a Punk N Blues Cafe specializing in music oriented towards fans of punk blues. Additionally, many punk blues bands perform at the Deep Blues Festival. Their activities and releases are often chronicled by Punk Rock Blues, self-proclaimed "London-based promoters of hard rockin', punked-up, primal blues mayhem" who also manage Not The Same Old Blues Crap.

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