California punk scene

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The California punk scene is a regional punk rock music scene that started in the late 1970’s and still exists today. It primarily consists of (but is not limited to) bands from the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.

[edit] History

[edit] First Wave

Flyer for an early 80’s punk show featuring Social Distortion and The Vandals

In the late 1970’s, following the exposure of punk bands like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Clash, a number of Los Angeles area teenagers started their own punk bands. Between the late 70’s and early 80’s, bands like Agent Orange, The Adolescents, Bad Religion, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Descendents, The Dickies, Fear, The Germs, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, TSOL, The Vandals, and X were all formed.

While all these bands came from the Los Angeles area, the popular San Francisco punk bands Dead Kennedys, and Flipper where also formed during this time.

Many of the bands lyrics focused heavily on liberal idealogy, and was seen as a reaction to Reagan-era politics. A lot of them also featured more of a hardcore punk sound, as opposed to the pop punk style of the Ramones.

This early scene was chronicled in the Penelope Spheeris documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization, which exposed many people to these bands for the first time. One of the bands, The Dickies, even got a major label contract, signing with A&M Records (some claim however that this was becasuse one of the members uncles worked for the label [1]).

[edit] Second Wave

By the end of the 1980’s Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Descendents, Flipper, and The Germs had all broken up, and a new scene was developing in the San Francisco area. This new scene would produce bands like Crimpshrine, Green Day, Jawbreaker, The Lookouts, The Mr. T Experience, NOFX, No Use for a Name, Rancid, and $wingin' Utter$.

Some Los Angeles area groups like Guttermouth, Lagwagon The Offspring, and Pennywise also started to gain a following during this era.

Unlike the last wave of bands who had harder music and that lyrics focused much on politics, many of the San Francisco bands (with a few exceptions like NOFX) had more Ramones influenced music, that include a more pop punk sound, and lyrics that focused on things like girls, drugs, and having fun.

Many of these bands also appeared on Lookout! Records, a label started by Lookouts frontman Larry Livermore. They also helped make successful one of the countries most famous rock clubs, 924 Gilman Street, which held much of the same role that CBGB’s did to the New York City punk scene.

[edit] Mainstream Success

The album cover for Dookie, one of the first albums from the scene to be released on a major label, and the most sucessful.

In 1989 Social Distortion signed with Epic Records becoming the first band from the scene, since The Dickies in the late 70's, to get a major label deal. Their album, simply titled, Social Distortion became a minor hit with three singles “Let It Be Me”, Ball and Chain and a cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire all charting on the Modern Rock Tracks top 25.

In 1993, following the success of Social Distortion, and other punk-influenced bands like Nirvana, Green Day signed a deal with Reprise Records and released their first major label album Dookie in 1994. Dookie became a huge success, peaking at #2 on the billboard top 200 album chart. Shortly after the success of Dookie, The Offspring’s album Smash achieved similar results. However Smash unlike Dookie, was released by Independent punk label Epitaph Records, becoming the bestselling indipendent album of all time, and paving the way for other indipendent punk bands to achieve success.

Soon thereafter, Green Day, and The Offspring, were joined by Bad Religion, NOFX, and Rancid, whose albums Stranger Than Fiction, Punk in Drublic, and ...And Out Come the Wolves, were all certified Gold or Platinum (with the first two being released on Epitaph).

The success of these bands, also led to success for Los Angeles area ska punk bands like No Doubt, Sublime and Reel Big Fish.

[edit] Third Wave

blink-182 came out of San Diego rather than Los Angeles or San Francisco

Influenced by the success of previous California punk bands, many bands formed in the early or mid 1990’s, started getting noticed. San Diego’s blink-182 earned a platinum album for 1999’s Enema of the State, and helped bring exposure or recognition to other California bands like AFI, Enemy You, The Matches, Something Corporate, Sugarcult, and blink-182 spin-off band +44.

Like the previous wave of bands, most of these bands played music in a more pop punk style than their predecessors. Because of the more poppy sound, these bands, particularly the ones that appear on major labels, are sometimes derogatorily referred to as Mallpunk bands.

[edit] Labels

While a few bands like Green Day, The Offspring, and AFI appear on major labels, many of the bands are signed to local independent punk labels. Many of these labels where started by local musicians as a way to sell their own bands records, but grew into labels with a large roster of bands. Some of these labels include:

• Adeline Records- started by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong
• Alternative Tentacles- started by Dead Kennedys members Jello Biafra and East Bay Ray
• Epitaph Records- started by Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz
• Fat Wreck Chords- started by NOFX’s Fat Mike
• Hellcat Records- started by Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz and Rancid’s Tim Armstrong
• Lookout! Records- started by The Lookouts frontman Larry Livermore
• Nitro Records- started by The Offspring’s Dexter Holland

[edit] External links

• http://www.calpunk.com/