Punk in Drublic

I'm going to start a punk series on my blog. Because I can. I got into punk music in high school and it went hand in hand with my skater/snowboarder days. That's when me and my buddies were all bad asses. That's when bands like The Offspring, Green Day and Nirvana were all getting their start. I fell in love with the California punk scene in particular. Bands like Bad Religion, Nofx and one band in particular called Lag Wagon.

Lag Wagon was pretty hardcore skater punk. Songs with fast riffs featuring lyrics of road trips and beer goggles. Their debut album was called Duh. Joey Cape is the front man of LagWagon and he has contributed to the punk movement significantly. He's had many side projects, including one of my favourite bands of all time, Bad Astronaut; and he's even released solo albums. Joey Cape is this short brown haired Italian guy who you wouldn't think would tear up the punk scene.

Lag Wagon continued to make records including albums such as Hoss, Blaze, Double Pladinum and Trashed. Their latest album is called I Think My Older Brother Used to Listen To Lag Wagon and it's a shot at themselves for being so old. But when you think about it, it's really making fun of all the fans for being old and still listening to them. So really it's making fun of me. So be it.

On a serious note, one of the band's original drummers Derrick Plourde took his own life for reasons only he and his close family will ever know. This was obviously devastating to the band and Joey. Their next album called Resolve was written entirely about Derrick and expressed the anger, despair and sadness felt by all in the band. Derrick was an amazing drummer.

I had the opportunity to go and see Lag Wagon live in Toronto and it was one of my favourite concerts. They absolutely rocked the house. At first as I headed toward the venue I had a sense of trepidation that I would be surrounded by teenagers who maybe got into the band late. But to my surprise it was mostly all of us original fans. And we all bonded and celebrated our oldness together and enjoyed a wicked band.

So, check out Lag Wagon