Written by: Dave Cantrell

You know post-punk, we all do. Joy Division, PiL, the Gang of Four. The Cure and Magazine and Siouxsie & the Banshees. Wire. But of course post-punk was so much more than that. It was feverish and profligate and unconstrained and fearlessly experimental. It was pop exploding in your face. Post-punk was monumental and sudden, it never let you catch your breath. And yeah, while those I just mentioned (and many others we could name just as quickly and with little effort) produced a body of work that, taken together, is as enduring as any other era you could mention, the real action was in the regional scenes blowing up all over the UK and, eventually, in the US. And most of it took place on 7″ singles. Here’s twenty of the best (one of which even includes, appropriately enough, a quick snippet of John Peel):

MANICURED NOISE – “Metronome”

 

RESTRICTED CODE – “First Night On”

 

VIVIAN GOLDMAN – “Launderette”

 

I’M SO HOLLOW – “Dreams To Fill A Vacuum”

 

RED GUITARS – “Good Technology”

 

FAMILY FODDER – “Savoir Faire”

 

THE DECORATORS – “Absent Friends”

 

GOLINSKI BROTHERS – “Bloody”

 

DALEK I – “Dalek I Love You (Destiny)”

 

RUDI – “Crimson”

 

EXPLODING SEAGULLS – “Prefab (Buildings)”

 

STEVE MIRO – “Queen of the Sea”

 

EXPELAIRES – “Sympathy”

 

MUSIC FOR PLEASURE – “Human Factor”

 

GLAXO BABIES – “This Is Your Life”

 

THE DISTRACTIONS – “Time Goes By So Slow”

 

SMACK – “Edward Fox”

 

PROTEX – “I Can’t Cope”

 

PINK MILITARY – “Did You See Her”

 

CLIVE OXFORD – “Fading Star”

 

[Check out the LP version of this list here.]