The Great Punk Rock Songbook: DeeCRACKS’ Essential Picks
The Austrian punk rock powerhouse that is DeeCRACKS has been keeping high-energy, leather-jacket punk rock alive for over two decades. Fresh off the heels of releasing their new album True Nothing via Pirates Press Records – a record packed with their signature buzzsaw guitars, anthemic melodies, and solid hooks – bandmates Matt DeeCrack and Mike Dee Crackus took the time to pick the one song they would like to add to The Great Punk Rock Songbook.
Chosen by: Matt DeeCrack
♫ Ramones - "Havana Affair"
Not only is this the B-Side of the very first (imo) Punk Rock single ever released (Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair Feb. ’76), which definitely should be featured in the Great Punk Rock Songbook, it absolutely shows that you don’t have to be an accomplished musician to write a great song.
Countless people, including myself, taught themselves how to play guitar simply playing along to the first Ramones record and realizing that this is all it takes to start a band. I know this has been said and claimed ad nauseam by too many people already but what can you do? It’s true!
Best Version: Ramones – It’s Alive
Worst Version (by far): Red Hot Chili Peppers
Chosen by: Mike Dee Crackus
♫ Screeching Weasel - "Hey Suburbia"
Punkrock found its way into my household when I was about 7 years old, thanks to my older brother taking a trip to the USA for an youth ice hockey program. He came back to Austria with a bunch of great CDs including Green Day, Rancid, Nirvana and a lot more.
One of them was the Boogadaboogadaboogada! album by Screeching Weasel, which instantly became my favorite out of all of them. I loved the energy and the raw sound and the fun it portrayed even though I didn’t knew any English at that point. Sometimes today I still have flashbacks on fantasy lyrics I sang along back then.
We had MTV at that point too and all of the other bands were on, but never Weasel, which I didn’t get at all. To me they were all the same level of famous. I picked “Hey Suburbia” because it’s one of my favorite tracks of this album.
