Punk was something that happened a long time ago and spirit of punk lives on in many bands from Green Day to Sonic Youth and equally all the other bands that were inspired to pick up a guitar and play after listening to The Clash or The Ramones….

….Punk has gone in many directions over the years and if you wanted you can trace it all the way back to the garage bands of the 60’s. It’s pointless arguing about who’s punk and who isn’t… To me Bob Mould is still punk even when he’s playing electronic music because punk is about being yourself and expressing yourself freely without the contraints of fashion, it’s about not giving a shit when people don’t like what you are doing as long as YOU believe in what you are doing..

.. more than anything it’s about freedom of expression, punk allowed sonic youth to be avant garde, punk allowed green day to be political and it allowed small bands to press thier own records and sell them at gigs. That is why the spirit of punk will never die, it will be taken in every musical direction imaginable and lots of people will say ‘that’s not punk’ and the kids playing the music in the pub will stick two fingers up at them, just like the pistols did in ’76 … because they know what it really means to be punk.

i always talked about avant garde as free form “beat” jazz

I think avant-garde is way to broad to be used as a label for a particular genre of music. And it’s also in the eye of the beholder, because so much of the art that’s been described as such is in fact anchored in the period of its conception.

PS: The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for “agent provocateur”. 😆