Countless debates have been held as to who was truly the first punk band. A good many New Yorkers would argue that punk was born in 1975 upon the release of the Dictators' first album, which featured singer Handsome Dick Manitoba on the cover in a stretchy black wrestling outfit. The sarcastic humor, blunt arrangements, trash-culture fixations, and loud-fast-rules musicianship all point to the Dictators as an important bridge between garage rock, metal, and what would eventually become classic punk. The band only released three proper albums in their heyday (although some live ephemera and a reunion album exist), but the effects of their early experimentations in just being themselves continue to reverberate today.

Listen to The Dictators at Finetune.

• (2005)  Blood Brothers
• (1975)  Go Girl Crazy

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