Written by: Dave Cantrell
We here at SEM have offered you quite the parade of vintage post-punk in the past few months, from singles to albums to a list of best cover versions – all of which will likely see second chapters in the coming months – and that’s all well and good except it might leave the impression that everything post-punk worth hearing is all in the past, glorious, ambered (if rather angular) icons of a legendary moment in musical time that occurred thirty-five years ago or so. But of course that’s most emphatically not the case. Any movement that, well, moved people as vividly as that original eruption, that flashed with such energy, inspiration, and bloody-minded intelligence, will continue to flare long after its initial rush has subsided. There hasn’t, in fact, been an ensuing decade when the spirit of the thing hasn’t come back and ignited another generation of young musicians that find themselves suddenly in its thrall. As it happens, we are indeed going through one of those resurrections right now, and it’s a particularly potent one. So, in continuing our post-punk public service, we present to you twenty of the best young bands (hence no Fall, Stranglers or Wire in here) currently shooting off their incendiary sparks, and where they’re from. The single criterion for inclusion was that the band has at least an EP to their name (most have multiple albums, for which you’ll find links down below), and please know that winnowing this list down to twenty was no easy task, which can only portend, yes, another chapter for this installment as well somewhere down the road. [to see what have become known as the ‘NEXT’ lists – as in ‘The Twenty NEXT Post-Punk Bands etc etc – click here. Current count is fifteen]
EAGULLS (Leeds, England)
THE ESTRANGED (Portland, OR)
THE CALLAS (Athens, Greece)
HOLOGRAMS (Stockholm)
VÅR (Copenhagen)
THE SOFT MOON (San Francisco)
GIRLS NAMES (Belfast)
SOVIET SOVIET (Pesaro, Italy)
WINTER SEVERITY INDEX (Rome)
TRAAMS (Chichester, UK)
OCTOBER PEOPLE (Madrid)
ARCTIC FLOWERS (Portland, OR)
FRUSTRATION (Paris)
ELL V GORE (Toronto)
COLD PUMAS (Brighton, UK)
LEBANON HANOVER (Berlin)
BERNAYS PROPOGANDA (Macedonia)
HUMAN TETRIS (Moscow)
MOTORAMA (Moscow)
MODE MODERNE (Vancouver, BC)
Eagulls – http://www.eagullsband.bigcartel.com/product/eagulls-lp
The Estranged – https://dirtnaprecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-estranged-the-subliminal-man
The Callas – http://innerear.bandcamp.com/album/am-i-vertical
Holograms – http://www.capturedtracks.com/?ct_artist_page=holograms
Vår – http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/releases/sbr088/
The Soft Moon – http://www.thesoftmoon.com/
Girls Names – http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/246
Soviet Soviet – http://sovietsoviet.bandcamp.com/album/fate
Winter Severity Index – http://winterseverity.bandcamp.com/
Traams – http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/site/artists/traams
October People – http://octoberpeopleband.bandcamp.com/album/october-people
Arctic Flowers – http://arcticflowers.bandcamp.com/
Frustration – http://www.bornbadrecords.net/
Ell V Gore – http://badactorsinc.bandcamp.com/track/lobotomy
Cold Pumas – http://coldpumas.bandcamp.com/
Lebanon Hanover – http://lebanonhanover.bandcamp.com/
Bernays Propoganda – http://www.moonleerecords.com/artists/bernays-propaganda/
Human Tetris – http://humantetris.bandcamp.com/album/human-tetris-ep
Motorama – http://talitres.bigcartel.com/artist/motorama
Mode Moderne – http://modemoderne.bandcamp.com/
