The Lillingtons

Somewhere inside the heart of punk rock music there exists a sub-genre of bands who make a certain topic their primary theme and stick to it throughout their career. This mostly manifests itself with politics, specifically in some notable bands like Black Flag, Anti-Flag, and NoFx in their later years. There's also the "dark and brooding" theme, exemplified by such mainstream bands as the Misfits and,later, the Alkaline Trio. These are tactics that have been largely stowed deeply away behind punk's mainstream pop exterior. My favorite, however, was always the "nerd" theme, which brings up today's topic: The Lillingtons.

Although the Lillingtons existed mostly as a side project, anything they recorded in their time together was top-notch fun, fast paced, and short like the Ramones but smarter and less jewish. Their primary focus was science fiction, and specifically topics like alien attacks, laser beams, and over-the-top communist takeovers. It was always very tongue in cheek and the band never took themselves very seriously, which was always a plus. They don't play together anymore, but they're the type of band that wouldn't surprise if they put out an LP out of nowhere. Above is a solid example from their final album which they did no supporting tour for.