The other thing about punk is that it's really more an attitude. Some punks are really skilled musicians and lyricists that bring a lot of outside influence into their music.
I got into playing the accordion because I decided that I wanted to learn some Dead Kennedys songs on the accordion (no I am not duckmandu). Some of them are quite tricky. Compare to the Sex Pistols who are musically boring but more than made up for it with the attitude and lyrics.
Good choices. I was thinking of Bad Brains, who started out as a fusion band, and Craig Finn's early stuff, but that probably gets into more post-punk.
If we're going out in the world of genre-spanning punk, Husker Dü, Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu, Wire, and (possibly if you count them) Shellac deserve a strong recommendation. The creativity and diversity in the world of post-punk is remarkable.
Was just reading parent comment and thinking “we don’t play ska anymore, we don’t play ska anymore, because it sucks”
Punk is so interesting in his variations. Compare with metal where speed, black, alternative etc are quite coded and baroque, whereas punk still manages to stat fresh.
I think while there are plenty genre that requires more skill than punk, that doesn’t make punk itself the musical equivalent of simpleton.
In some aspects, it’s the artigianal counterpart of the mass produced pop.