Dan Ozzi

Not every song in the Berkeley punk band's immense discography is a classic, they’ve managed to amass a deep list of hits that are gospel to punks all over the world.

Of Montreal have had a strange journey as a band. On their debut album, 1997’s 'Cherry Peel,' they started their musical career sounding like a group of 'Sgt. Pepper'-inspired folk hippies. But with each album, they’ve gotten trippier, funkier and more psychedelic...

Alkaline Trio write the songs every pissed-off teenager wishes he or she could write. Their lyrics combine the macabre imagery of the Misfits with the clever turns of phrases of Jawbreaker. Matt Skiba and crew aren’t ones to pull punches, and as a result, they've churned out some of the snottiest, most memorable lines in pop-punk history...

Ted Leo is a well-respected veteran of the punk and indie scenes, but you can’t accuse him of coasting on his reputation. In terms of songwriting, you’ll never catch the New Jersey native phoning it in, and Leo’s albums are deliberately layered, brimming with subtle references and clever nods...

To say the Misfits defined a genre is an understatement. They essentially created horror-punk and owned it so definitively that any band who followed in their footsteps looked like they were doing a second-rate impression.