Know Your '90s Punk: The Stitches

For a long time I've toyed with the idea of doing a book on all of the punk bands I loved in the 1990s. While there was all kinds of great punk music being made in the '90s, I personally gravitated to the more '77-inspired bands of that period. I began touting those bands, and here we all are 25 years later! While I may never actually write my book, a cooler project would be to feature a lot of those bands here - where I can embed some of the actual music. For my "F & L Hall of Fame" series, I've already written about a lot of those groups such as the Dimestore Haloes, Moral Crux, and Dead End Cruisers. So now that I have a little extra time on my hands, I would like to go further with this project. And when it comes to bands of the '90s that sounded like '70s punk, you can't talk too long without bringing up The Stitches. They may have been the best out of that whole lot!

It's kind of weird to be referring to The Stitches in the past tense since they are still an active band. But my focus here is on the band's incredible run of releases from 1994 through 1997. The group's debut 7" "Sixteen" came out in '94 and in my book is one of the greatest punk singles ever released. It was as if the Sex Pistols, Pagans, Dead Boys, and countless Killed By Death favorites had coalesced into one wild and explosive band. The energy, power, and guts just bled out of your turntable speakers! In a single moment, Michael Lohrman and Johnny Witmer emerged as a vocal/guitar tandem of legendary proportion. "Sixteen" arrived at a time when nothing that sounded quite like it had been heard in years, and it inspired the growth of "snotty punk rock" as a genre onto itself in the later '90s and beyond. Six more singles and EPs followed over the next several years, and many of us can recall a time when the arrival of a new Stitches record was always an event (remember how they dominated those Maximumrocknroll top ten lists?!).

While The Stitches never released a proper album until 2002 (at a point when their sound had evolved considerably), their 8 x 12 EP from 1995 is a bona fide classic and still well worth seeking out. I have assembled a YouTube playlist that compiles most of the band's early output. It's basically a '90s Stitches singles collection plus all of 8 x 12. Listening to all of these song comped together definitely brings back memories of a time when my musical education in punk rock was really just beginning. At the same time, I can say that these recordings still hold up after a quarter of a century. If I ever compile my ultimate compilation of '90s punk rock, "Sixteen" will be track one for sure. Listen and love!




-L.R.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqH36mfe77ObVUaX8GLUaXdd-oRtbRvZB
https://www.facebook.com/thestitches/
https://www.discogs.com/artist/759397-The-Stitches