I remember being really uncomfortable watching the film "High Fidelity." Jack Black plays the stereotypical condescending record store know-it-all. There's a scene where Echo and the Bunnymen fans are shopping in the store and he finds out they don't have "Psychocandy" and he just reams them for it. You're supposed to laugh at what a jerk he is, getting so bent out of shape over such musical minutia. I sat there thinking "What kind of asshole loves Echo and the Bunnymen but doesn't have 'Psychocandy' by the Jesus and Mary Chain?" Like, I got the joke, but Jack Black was absolutely right.
Eno has to be first among equals when talking pre-punk/proto punk. I can't believe "Third Uncle" is from 1974. It doesn't sound a bit out of place among the shoe-gazing stuff of the early 90s a la Mary Chain and Catherine Wheel.
Captain Beefheart Blue Cheer I remember hearing T. Rex for the first time in 1971 and thinking, "That's a real back-to-basics sound." I think that marked a musical trend in Britain that led to the punk breakout later on. Of course Marc Bolan went the glam route, but I think a lot of British punk had some glam aspects, albeit with safety pins instead of eye shadow.
I don't see Velvet Underground that way. The band was way out there, but Lou Reed was ultimately a songwriter. Their strangest stuff was not very punk. If your drummer not being able to play is the definition of punk, they might qualify.