BEST MUSIC POLL
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NATIONAL
Best Punk in National
Dropkick Murphys
Within the last year, our resident overlords of Celt-punk released their most folk- and tradition-tinted offering yet, Going Out in Style, and in the process collaborated with Bruce Springsteen and Michael Patrick MacDonald. And then they fought the good fight for Wisconsin workers' rights. As for the 2011 BMP Best Punk category, their nearest contenders were a gypsy band, Social Distortion, and an outfit recently tagged "emo" by a Phoenix headline writer. Today, punk signifies an amorphous catch-all for uproariousness; the narrow-minded emphasis on ugly haircuts and three-chord structures is dead. Perhaps the Dropkicks should write a cheery anthem for its funeral, à la the title track on Going Out In Style.Runners-up
2. Gogol Bordello
3. Social Distortion
4. Against Me!
by BARRY THOMPSON
