Punk is such a gateway genre.

If you ask any heavy music fan about how their taste in music evolved, I’d be willing to bet that 7 or 8 times out of 10, they will name a punk band that started everything for them. Aside from obvious bands like The Ramones or Green Day, for me, it was MXPX, and ska bands like Five Iron Frenzy.

You have to keep tracing that lineage back, though, to find your roots. And for all the Black Flag’s and Circle Jerks’ and Descendents’ and Misfits’, there are several more underrated bands that we should really be talking about a lot more these days. Like…

Adolescents

The Adolescents emerged from the Southern California punk scene during the same era that saw the birth of bands like Social Distortion and Agent Orange, and even if you didn’t grow up listening to punk music, you’ve almost definitely heard of them.

So what makes the Adolescents underrated? I’m glad you asked. It really comes down to the band’s self-titled debut album, which is referred to as The Blue Album. It’s a phenomenal punk rock record that made way for so much killer hardcore punk music in its wake. I mean, you could argue that there is a world wherein we never get Fugazi or Dag Nasty or Youth of Today without Adolescents.

Government Issue

Among the many crucial bands to emerge from Washington D.C.’s punk scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s was one you might know very little about: Government Issue. They never got as much praise as Bad Brains or Minor Threat, but they played some incredible hardcore punk, fast and vicious, and a little sarcastic.

If you want to really experience Government Issue, I highly recommend their Complete History Volumes One and Two albums.

Negative Approach

Piggybacking a little off of G.I., we have to start talking about Negative Approach again, and with younger fans. These dudes have long been heralded as one of the founders of the hardcore punk movement, and are considered hometown legends in Detroit, Michigan.

Negative Approach’*s Total Recall *compilation album is a great place to start if you’re looking to rediscover their clever brand of fast, chaotic punk rock, which definitely inspired a lot of ’90s punk like Pennywise and Good Riddance, and very likely had some influence on the ’80s thrash scene… but that’s a conversation for another time.

Operation Ivy

There are not many times in my life when NOFX frontman Fat Mike and I have been on the same page about something, but Operation Ivy is a band we’re fully in agreement on.

One of my absolute favorite podcast clips of all time is when Mike was interviewing Finn McKenty (The Punk Rock MBA), and Mike asked him to name the greatest ska band of all time.

“My honest answer would be Sublime. That is my honest opinion,” McKenty said, to which Mike just effortlessly replied, “I didn’t want your honest answer, and no, it’s wrong. It’s Operation Ivy.”

Now, is Op Ivy underrated? Overall, no. But… we’re at this very pivotal moment in culture where, for those of us who grew up with or are only about a decade removed from these formidable bands, it’s very important to make sure the coming generations know how we got here and who was leading the way. “Op Ivy is for the children.”