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Music

Hardcore Kitsch 101: The Punk Rock Beer Koozie

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Our brains are hard-wired to generate patterns, right? Well here’s one I can’t stop thinking about: punk rock beer koozies. Every time I’m at some trashy house party (very often in my own apartment) there’s a bunch of smiley crusties tossing back cheap beers squeezed into these tiny, neoprene sleeves. What’s the deal? It turns out that the original koozie design dates back to the 1920s, but it wasn’t until 1980 that Bonnie McGough of Caldwell, ID filed for the first patent on an “insulated beverage cozy for use with cold drinking utensils such as a twelve ounce beverage can.” Six years later, a Texan named Scott Henderson upgraded the model to include a collapsible support base. Over the past decade, koozies have been ubiquitously used as merch by a subset of D.I.Y. punks. That community is on display at three annual underground festivals: the Fest and Awesomefest in Florida, and Best Friends Day in Virginia. These festivals are excuses for the US punk diaspora to hang out, see bands, and drink too much. Recurrent acts include the Dillinger Four, Cheap Girls, Bridge and Tunnel, and Noisey pop-punkers Off With Their Heads. Our friend Lauren Denitzio sings in a punk band called the Measure [SA]. The band is a stalwart act at all three of these festivals, and is actually playing its farewell show at this year’s Fest. She lent us her collection of koozies, and broke down her top five. It’s the simple things in life that impact our sense of wellbeing most positively. From last year’s Best Friends Day. It looks like a grubby bodega bag, but it’s actually insulated with a high-quality Styrofoam lining and printed in Garbage Pail font. Awesomefest went all in on this one. It’s printed on heavy-duty synthetic rubber and feels like something out of Star Trek. Lauren calls it the “180 gram koozie.” Here’s a little meta-koozie action from California. In response to Razorcake Fanzine’s beer sleeve, San Jose pop-punkers the Pillowfights drafted up a subtle critique in the form of this burgundy koozie. Lauren’s dad picked up this little bruiser at a Yankee game. It’s not really a punk koozie, but it’s cute.