God bless Portsmouth, NH's The Queers. Influenced by The Beach Boys and The Ramones, and pretty much nothing else, Joe Queer and his mates have ignored every fleeting "cool" trend in punk rock since their formation in 1984 and focused squarely on light-hearted and fun pop-punk for the rest of us. Don't ever change, boys.

Every Monday night, C&L's Late Nite Music Club showcases an act from every state, alphabetically by state, as part of LNMC's 50 State Strategy. Know a band or artist that you think is the best in their state? Email suggestions to latenitemusicclub [at] gmail.com. Next week: New Jersey.

I've always dug the way Agent Orange melded punk rock and surf music. Likewise, I love any song that mentions rich girls, cheap thrills, or bloodstains. This one has all three!

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I'm with Howie: Green Day's new album, 21st Century Breakdown, is yet another great piece of songwriting. I'm astonished that at the very least it equals American Idiot, which I thought would be an impossible album to top.

They're kicking off their national tour Friday night in Seattle at Key Arena. I still haven't wrangled a pass yet, but I'm hoping to figure out a way to get in and report back. In the meantime, I wanted to run this live version of "Viva La Gloria" as a kind of warmup.

X-Ray Spex were, in my mind, the very best of the one-album-wonder punk bands. Germfree Adolescents is very nearly a perfect album, and then Poly Styrene got religion and quit.

Well, at least she's still alive.

By the way, this is a studio overdub; the track is taken straight from the album and synched up to the live performance. Still, it's such a great song. A somewhat more authentic video is the "Identity" video.

Taking the cue from Gordon ... It was 15 years ago tomorrow that I rode my bike past Kurt Cobain's house and knew there was something wrong from all the police cars outside. On my way home that night, the crowds had already gathered.

"Dumb" was always one of my favorite Nirvana songs, especially because I could see someone from Aberdeen writing it.

Although there were precursors-- like the Stooges and the Velvets-- most music historians date the beginning of the punk rock movement with the release of the first Ramones album early in 1976. The second single released by Sire from that album is a song that has never lost its controversiality, "53rd & 3rd." Dee Dee wrote it and it refers to his days as a male prostitute. I've talked with each of the Ramones about this and even they didn't agree with each other about what the lyrics mean! The corner was a notorious hotspot for pre-Internet gay prostitutes. But now there's a Citibank skyscraper there. What's your favorite Ramones song?

If you were listening to KCBS in San Francisco around noon today, and stuck around after the traffic report, you might have heard me talking about the death of Hilly Kristal (at 75), the founder of NY's legendary punk rock club, CBGB's.

My first visit to the club, to see a very early Ramones show, changed my life entirely and led to decades of punk rock evangelism in the press, on the radio and in the record industry. It also led to a friendship with Hilly which worked out especially well later when I was running Sire Records and he was managing Cleveland's Dead Boys. Here's a classic performance of their biggest song, "Sonic Reducer," at CB's. (I would have rather posted "Caught With The Meat in Your Mouth" as a dedication to our friends in the GOP but I couldn't find a great version.)

What was your best CBGB's experience ever?

I've been chided that our Music Club has been a little skimpy in some genres. I asked C&Ler Gregory to suggest something that might be a little different from what we normally offer and he suggested The Tossers.

Good Mornin' Da from The Valley of The Shadow of Death

Raised on the South Side of Chicago which is known for its huge Irish Catholic community, The Tossers emerged in the early 90s with their own brew of Celtic music fueled by a love of traditional folk songs and punk rock fury. They named themselves a pejorative term that some trace back to Shakespeare; depending on who you ask, it means commode, drunk, or the currency of Britain rejected when the Irish established their independence in the 1920s. After twelve years and four albums, The Tossers are back with their follow up to The Valley of the Shadow of Death, called Agony. It is a collection of songs that run the gamut, from slow to fast, sweet to angry and back again.

Loudmouth

Wikipedia: The Ramones were an American rock band and are widely considered to be the first punk rock group. While acknowledged as defining the sound and attitude of mid-1970s punk, they never really achieved the commercial success of their contemporaries The Clash or the notoriety of the Sex Pistols, but still had an immense impact on the punk and alternative music scenes

The Ramones...

(h/t Tommy)

Kick Out The Jams!

Wikie: MC5 was a protopunk band that came out of Detroit, USA in 1964, and was an important precursor of and influence on punk rock (see protopunk and List of forerunners of punk music). It featured Wayne Kramer (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), Rob Tyner (vocals), Dennis Thompson (drums) and Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar). The MC5 described their music as "New Music" and cited the Yardbirds and The Who as the leaders of the New Sound...read on

I've jammed with Wayne Kramer (guitar) and he's a terrific musician.