BUZZCOCKS | ANOTHER MUSIC IN A DIFFERENT KITCHEN

BUZZCOCKS | ANOTHER MUSIC IN A DIFFERENT KITCHEN

With their crisp melodies, Pete Shelley's biting lyrics, and Shelley's and Steve Diggle's driving guitars, Buzzcocks were one of most influential bands to emerge in the initial wave of punk rock. Buzzcocks were inspired by the Sex Pistols' energy, but they didn't copy the Pistols' angry political stance. Instead, they brought that intense, brilliant energy to the three-minute pop song. Kicking off with the "Spiral Scratch" single -- made when Howard Devoto was their lead singer -- their initial run of singles were powered by Shelley's alternately funny and anguished lyrics about adolescence and love backed by melodies and hooks that were concise and memorable. They released two albums in 1978 (Another Music in a Different Kitchen and Love Bites) that tightened up and refined their pop-punk sound, then the more experimental A Different Kind of Tension in 1979 before the fast pace of their career and problems with their record label led the band to break up in 1981. When the band re-formed in 1989, it began a long string of tours and albums that exhibited the same spirit the band had shown from the start, including a self-titled record for Merge in 2003 and The Way in 2014, which turned out to be Shelley's last album with the band before his 2018 death. The group's powerful punk-pop proved to be enormously influential and timeless, with echoes of their music being apparent in bands like Hüsker Dü, Nirvana, and the Exploding Hearts, along with almost every band who ever attempted to blend the hooks of pop with the energy of punk.