They were in the late 60s, early 70s. Proto-punk.
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The Baroqueans.
The Rennaisance influenced the Baroqueans.
Lou Reed, New York Dolls stooges and MC5 (not to be confused with MC Fly) even U2 played RAMONES covers in 1979 (glad to see you go, blitzkrieg bop) and the undertones did the same (basically what you`d call a ramones tribute band these days)
the proper question is "which band popularized punk rock?" because most of us haven't heard underground punk from during/before the time of sex pistols and such.