This list does not reflect my favorite records. It is a list of what I consider to be the most important punk and hardcore albums. It can even be argued that these are not the best records by the bands. Minor Threat had reached pseudo god status before the released Out of Step, but once that record was released - it was everywhere. If you liked Hardcore back when it came out, you owned it. You played it and you knew the words to every song. It didn't matter if you were straight edge, or peace punk. It is this quality that makes these the most important ten records.

Number one should be obvious.

1) Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

It doesn't matter what Malcolm McClaren did before or after. It doesn't matter if he created the band, it doesn't matter if the rumors are true that the album is 100% scam. It doesn't matter because the album was an atomic bomb. No other album ever had the impact that it had. Even Gangster Rap cant touch it. It was banned, censored, discussed, reviled, hated, loved and eternal. It's been 25 years, and kids still spike their hair, color it blue, purple, etc. It's not all because of the Pistols, but, the pistols made Punk a household word.

2) Crass - Stations of the Crass

I had a tough time putting crass into second place. CRASS the ideal defined how we all came to see punk. If the pistols took a spark and turned it into an atomic bomb, crass took that bomb and gave it to the people. No longer would punk be a major label commodity. It became a true movement with CRASS. Their label inspired millions of kids to start their own bands, play in clubs, put out their own records, zines, etc. Punk would never again be a commodity, it became a true peoples craft, a culture with a true ethic. DIY. (Do It Yourself)

3) Discharge - Hear Nothing - See Nothing - Say Nothing

Kaboom. This was is. The loudest record ever made. This record was so powerful that even the heaviest of the heavy metal bands, realized they had been outdone by a bunch of punks. Even now, you cant hear a metal band without hearing this in the back ground. If you go out to Profane Existence, or Havoc records, and pick an album at random, it will sound like this record. This record could have been listed at number one, or two, except for the fact that punk wouldn't have made it past it's infancy without the pistols, and the CRASS ideal was so powerful that when Discharge was approached by major labels, they refused to sign, because, and you can read this on their website, "it was frowned upon for punk bands to sign to a major label". The DIY ethic was so powerful that it would have been the death of the band. To sell out would get you shunned.

4) Ramones - Rocket To Russia & Road To Ruin

Safe punk for the masses? Maybe. But they did it and these two albums made them almost god like. Unlike the first three bands, the Ramones kept at it. Doing over 2200 shows. How influential were the Ramones? Well, the Ramones were able to take an established mainstream product and make it punk. Converse All Stars. I'll bet they never dreamed they would be the punk shoe company, but that's what happened. We had our ethic, and we had our uniform. Converse All Stars, ripped Blue Jeans, T-shirt, Biker Jacket. Welcome to the sub-culture. Punk is now a lifestyle.

5) Minor Threat - Out of Step

Hmmm. An alternate ethos appears. I couldn't dig it, but it was huge. Punk is now big enough to support distinct sub-cultures within its own mega-sub-culture. "Don't Drink, Don't Smoke, Don't Fuck" - I don't know how this got to be popular, but it was, and still is. Possibly bigger than Discharge, but I never got into this side. Straight Edge seemed to similar to Reagan's Moral Majority.

6) Dead Kennedy's - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

The record that created the band that created alternative tentacles. And, spawned a guy named Jello Biafra. The DK's and the rest of the bands on this list were great, but not big enough to generate their own subculture with it's own ethos / mythos.

7) Misfits - Walk Among Us

Still going strong. Almost a subculture, but more of a sideshow.

8) SS Decontrol - The Kids Will Have Their Say

The straight edge gods of Boston. This LP is better than the Minor Threat LP above, but SSD were still second to Ian MacKay. Amazingly, they only printed one thousand copies of this LP, and it is currently out of print. Back in the day, everyone had a tape of it because it was nearly impossible to find. I've seen numerous bootlegs, but no legit CD. This band could have been bigger than Minor Threat, but they released a couple of terrible rock-metal albums, and lost all of their fans. (The lesson here is Don't Fuck With A Good Thing).

9) GISM - Detestation

Cool Japanese Hardcore. Imploded by releasing a metal album. Wonderfully mangled English with a snarl. Lots of bands tried to duplicate this madness, none of them could, so this never became a subculture. "Endless Blockades for the Pussy Footer" and "Bloody Bombs Descend To You" - You gotta love it.

10) Black Flag - Damaged

Black Flag was a popular West Coast Hardcore band, then they added Henry Rollins. They became huge! HUGE! Then they got into an argument with their label, and didn't release anything for a while. I was a huge fan of this record, but I'm on the East Coast, they're on the West Coast, I saw them in Bridgeport, at Pogo's, but there wasn't any more output for a while and we drifted apart. Then what they released was different. Obviously Black Flag, and yet, different, not my cup of tea.

Dishonorable Mention's

I left a whole section of punk out of this list. And a couple of those albums could have been up in the top five. The problem is they were assholes. They were the biggest problem in punk and Hardcore back in the early to mid eighty's. That's right, the skinheads. The straight edge skin heads were bad enough, but the white power skins were just nazi thugs. They had their own uniform, Doc Martin boots, Blue Jeans, with the ends rolled to the top of the boots, and Suspenders. They were the internal cancer on the scene and eventually killed it. Independent punks left, and the others lost the CRASS ideal and went mainstream.

X) Screwdriver - LP's

Really dumb white power skinheads. Probably financed by the KKK or some other group of wack-o's. If anyone remembers the late 80's and into the 90's, these type of people ended up in the back woods of Wyoming, with assault riles. Ignorant Racist Thugs.

X) Blitz - Voice of a Generation (UK)

Oi! Not the first, possibly not the worst, but by the time this came out it was an anthem to fighting. Not to fighting against the system, but fighting against punk.

X) Agnostic Front - Victim In Pain (NYC)

Never underestimate the stupidity of a New York City skinhead. Yeah, most of them came from the suburbs to fight in the city. Stupid fucking skinheads.

X) Cro-Mags - Age Of Quarrel

Harley Flanagan, the ego maniac skin. Just another dumb thug who thinks rebellion is beating up your neighbor. The problem here is that "Age of Quarrel" is a damn good record. Almost a cliché. The Cro-Mags single handedly killed the NYC scene. Nobody would go to gigs there. It sucked. They were assholes, and they fucked it up for everybody. Harley still thinks "Age of Quarrel" was the best album ever, and that the Cro-Mags were the best band ever. He still cant see that they were the worst possible thing that could have happened to the scene. Harley is a mini-Mussolini, and should have been strung up on a light post.

[Edit] A couple of Skrew-Heads from Combat 18 decided to stop by and prove that they truely are ignorant racist thugs. I guess they got tired of goose stepping each other in their mommies basement and decided to troll the web. Their sad pathetic shit is at once sad and perverted. They think you can live a life of hate and expect the world to somehow become better.

I've got news for you Skrew-Head guys. Your world will always be shit, because you belive in shit, you talk shit, you act like shit. You become the hate you espouse and in turn you spread the cancer at the heart of ignorance, and your sorry pathetic ignorant lives are your own fault. You're just to stupid to realize it.