Modern Punk…with a Touch of Journey
PUNK ROCK SOMETIMES gets a bad rap where musicianship is concerned, but Lagwagon guitarist Chris Rest says that hasn’t always been undeserved. “Most of the bands we played with in the beginning were the worst,” he says about his tenure with pioneering SoCal punkers Rich Kids on LSD in the 1980s. “The first couple of U.S. tours we did, every band’s songs were just one or two chords with barking-dog vocals.” But times have changed, Rest says. “Back then, punk did suck, for the most part, as far as the garage bands were concerned. Nowadays, it’s totally different,” he says. “Every band is good.”
Although Rest came from an era of punk that didn’t place virtuosity on a pedestal, his love of
