We recently caught up with The Shell Corporation vocalist Jan Drees to get his take on the songs that got him in to punk rock.  Check out his list here.

1. Green Day – “Longview”

“When I was in junior high, my favorite bands were Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Pearl Jam. “Alternative” music was just the bee’s knees as far as I was concerned. Then I heard Longview on the radio, and thought “to hell with all these flannel-wearing hippies, punk is where it’s at.” It’s been all downhill from there.”

2. Dead Kennedys – “Take This Job and Shove It”

“One of my friend’s older brothers found out we were now into punk, but disapproved of the Offspring and Greenday we were then listening to, so he made us a list of “real” punk records to buy. I was 14 and broke, and MP3s were several years from being invented, so I chose one record off the list at random and skated to Tower Records to find it. When I got home and put “Bedtime For Democracy” on, I was blown away by how fast and angry they were.  My downhill slide began to accelerate.”

3. Vandals –” Mohawk Town”

“I saw the movie “Suburbia” (the original, not the crappy 90’s movie of the same name), which featured performances by TSOL, and the Vandals. I didn’t so much care for TSOL, but the Vandals were rad, so I found a friend who had “When In Rome” and had him tape it for me.”

4. NOFX – “Stickin’ In My Eye”

“On a long car ride to god-knows-where my friend and I were listening to CDs on our headphones using a splitter jack (so as not to annoy his parents, who were driving). He put on this record “Two Heebs and a Bean”. I was pissed that he had waited a whole week to show this record to me. Later we bought “Ten Years of Fucking Up” and wore the VHS tape out. So this is what being in a punk band is like! We immediately started a punk band, because we wanted to have as much fun as them. By now the downhill slide was a freefall and approaching unrecoverable terminal velocity.”

5. The Fixtures – “Warning”

“I was 15 and we talked one of our parents into driving us into LA to see an actual punk show. It was The Fixtures and The Bouncing Souls supporting the Voodoo Glow Skulls and SNFU. The two headliners sounded like shit but the opener blew me away with his manic drumming and operatic singing (at the same time!). Four years after that I was lucky enough to join the band and do my first European tour with them.”

6. Bouncing Souls – I Like Your Mom

“The second punk band I ever saw live in a club (I saw Rancid, the Ramones, and Sublime the month before but that was at the KROQ Weenie Roast and we had assigned seats, so it doesn’t count.) “Good the Bad and the Argyle” stayed in my walkman for a long time.”

7. AFI – “I Wanna Mohawk” (But My Mom Won’t Let Me Get One)

“Another tape made for me by a friend. He was way cooler than me and up on all the new bands coming out. I’ve never been good at keeping current with these things. Anyhow, he wrote the band for a CD, and this guy Davey wrote him back with the CD and bunch of patches and stickers. We thought that was pretty cool, and the CD was really good too.”

8. Propagandhi – “Anti-manifesto”

“Fat Wreck Chords was our source for new bands for the most part. It seemed that every record they put out was guaranteed awesome, so we would take turns buying whatever the new release was that month and taping it for whoever wanted it. Someone bought “How to Clean Everything” and he was busy for a week making tapes for all the people who wanted it. I literally wore that tape out one summer I played it so much.”

 9. UK Subs – “War of the Roses”

“This wasn’t a dubbed tape – this was an actual factory-recorded copy of a greatest hits record that another friend bought and decided it was “too slow and old school” for him, so he gave it to me. Plus, my then new girlfriend (now wife) loved this song, so it was the soundtrack to many afternoons before her parents got home from work.”

10. Jets to Brazil – “Morning New Disease”

“Not exactly punk, but then neither was I at the time. I was in college and had stopped listening to punk rock. I guess I had just fallen out of love with it. I still played my old tapes once in a while, but I hadn’t bought any new music in several years. Then a good friend to whom I owe a lot showed me this new band, and I was immediately hooked. From Jets To Brazil I re-discovered Jawbreaker and Fugazi; bands that I didn’t really appreciate when I was a teenager. I fell head over heels again, and just in time to discover Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, and Thrice. I would have all been lost if not for this record.”