Since the late 1970s, California has had a thriving regional punk rock movement. It primarily consists of (but is not limited to) bands from the Los Angeles, Alameda County, Orange County, Ventura County, San Francisco, and San Diego areas.
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Los Angeles had a very strong experimental rock scene in the early 1970s. Many figures from this earlier scene would play notable roles in the later punk scene. The experimental LA rock scene was centered around a club called the Rock n Roll Disco, run by Rodney Bingenheimer, who later, as a disc jockey for KROQ's "Rodney on the Rock", did much to promote LA punk bands.
In the mid-1970s, a wave of protopunk hard rock bands emerged, notably The Runaways.
Starting in 1976, following recent releases of recordings by punk bands such as the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Damned, a number of punk bands formed in the Los Angeles area. Among these bands in L.A. were The Weirdos, The Germs, The Plugz, The Controllers, The Skulls, The Dils, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, Catholic Discipline, The Go-Go's, The Screamers, The Dickies, X, The Zeros, The Alley Cats, Hal Negro and the Satintones which featured Masque nightclub owner Brendan Mullen who co-authored three books in the 2000s about the punk era in Los Angeles, and The Bags.
Many bands also formed in the San Francisco Bay Area; The Avengers, The Nuns, Mutants, Flipper, Negative Trend, The Offs, and the Dead Kennedys. California punk of this period was musically very eclectic, and the punk scene of the time included a number of bands whose sound strongly crossed over to Art/experimental Punk, new wave, synthpunk, Rockabilly, and hard rock.
In 1978 in Southern California, the first hardcore punk bands arose, including The Middle Class, Black Flag, Vicious Circle, and the Circle Jerks (in late 1978). Hardcore bands and fans tended to be younger than the art punks of the older LA scene and came mainly from the suburban parts of the Los Angeles area, especially the South Bay and Orange County and San Diego. This resulted in a rivalry between the older artsy "Hollywood" scene and the hardcore "suburban", "surf punk", or "beach punk" scene. Those in the "Hollywood" scene often disliked what they saw as the musical narrowness of hardcore and the violence associated with "suburban" punks (the South Bay and Orange County punk scenes had a particular reputation for violence), while the "suburban" punks looked down on what they perceived as the lack of intensity of older "Hollywood" bands (The Germs being a notable exception with lead singer Darby Crash) and the fashion consciousness of "Hollywood" punks. The Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, shot in early 1979 and early 1980, documents the period when the older LA punk scene was being completely taken over by hardcore and features performances by bands from both scenes.[1] Decline was filmed in part at punk shows sponsored and promoted by David Ferguson, who in 1979, formed CD Presents, a recording label that would record and promote a number of pioneering groups from the California punk scene. Ferguson and CD Presents organized New Wave 1980, the first festival gathering and showcasing punk bands from all over the West Coast.
By 1979, hardcore had displaced the Hollywood scene and become the dominant expression called hardcore punk in both Northern and Southern California. By this time, many of the older punk bands had broken up or become relatively inactive. A few, such as The Go-Go's, The Dickies, and X, went on to mainstream success (in some cases, X, almost abandoning punk entirely), while a few others, such as The Dickies, embraced hardcore completely.
In the early 1980s in California, hardcore was the dominant form of punk. Many considered the Circle Jerks, to be the definitive hardcore band of the time. Other notable hardcore bands active in that period included, Black Flag, The Adolescents, Agent Orange, The Vandals, Girl Scoutz, Wasted Youth, Verbal Abuse, D.I., The Mentors, Fear, and T.S.O.L. in Southern California, and The Dead Kennedys and D.R.I. in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Though hardcore became dominant during this period, punk also began to diversify. Agent Orange had a noticeable hardcore surf rock influence, while the Angry Samoans were strongly influenced by 1960s garage rock. Social Distortion became popular by playing a form of Punk Rock mixed with a rockabilly/Rock n'roll influence.
Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, T.S.O.L., The Middle Class, Fear, D.I., The Adolescents, Detours, The Slashers, China White, D.R.I. and many other bands, were big influences on later metal bands like Anthrax, Slayer and Metallica. These hardcore bands also created a crossover sound. The genre of thrash grew out of this fusion.
The hardcore scene, particularly in Los Angeles and Orange County, gained a reputation for violence because several violent hardcore punk gangs had formed in Southern California. The punk gangs were white and would do a lot of violence to anyone who got in their way. Even beating up and shooting at black gangs in Watts. Some of the earliest gangs were formed in 77'-80'. The L.O.D.(Lords of Destruction), Vicious Circle, FFF(Fight For Freedom), LMPs(La Mirada Punks), Circle One,East Los Angeles ESP's (East Side Punx) and the L.A.D.S.(LA Death Squad). Reputed violence at punk concerts was featured in episodes of the popular television shows CHiPs and Quincy, M.E., in which Los Angeles hardcore punks were depicted as being involved in murder and mayhem.[2] In the early 1980s, punk concerts increasingly became sites of violent battles between police and concertgoers, particularly in Los Angeles, but also in San Francisco. Henry Rollins argued that in his experience, the police caused far more problems than they solved at punk performances. At one point, Black Flag was under heavy surveillance by police convinced that the band was the cover for a drug ring.
Towards the later 1980s, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, and Dead Kennedys, had all broken up, and a new scene was developing (though some older hardcore bands such as D.I., The Adolescents were still releasing new material). This scene and sound was created by 1980s hardcore punk bands such as D.R.I. (who were originally from Texas but moved to California in the early 1980s), Chaotic Noise (now known as Excel), The Vandals, The Descendents, Agent Orange, Social Distortion, Bad Religion and Suicidal Tendencies, who were changing or re-tooling their sound to a more hard rock or metal style.
It first happened in Los Angeles and then in and San Francisco. This new scene would produce bands such as ALL, Chemical People, Guttermouth, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jughead's Revenge, Lagwagon, The Offspring, Pennywise, Face to Face and Big Drill Car, and in San Francisco, No Use for a Name, Jawbreaker, The Lookouts, NOFX, and the Swingin' Utters.
In Los Angeles, Bad Religion also returned after a hiatus with their third album Suffer (1988). Despite lack of mainstream success, they were about to gather a new following as well. This was also true for some bands in other areas of the state such as Sacramento's The Groovie Ghoulies. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, San Diego was home to a burgeoning post-hardcore scene centered around bands like Pitchfork, Rocket From the Crypt, and Unwritten Law. Several of these bands played important roles in the so-called math rock movement.
In the late 1980s the bay area punk scene began to flourish and many of the biggest and most influential punk bands of all time were forming. In 87, Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong of later Rancid fame, started Operation Ivy. Other bay area bands such as MTX, Isocracy, and later Green Day along with Op Ivy developed a bay area punk scene that combined punk generas such as hardcore, ska/reggae, and traditional '77 style into one scene and started a movement of peace and respect between the different styles and a punk rock message that was more about societal truths and freedom to choose your own life. Over the next 20 years the bay area punk scene formed such influential and kick ass punk bands along the likes of Swingin Utters, Rancid, One Man Army, The Forgotten, The Bodies, AFI, and Dead to Me.
Unlike the first wave of hardcore bands who had harder music and lyrics that focused much on partying, anti-authority, destruction and politics, many of these newer bands (like Chemical People) had more of an emphasis on partying and writing songs about relationships and funny situations. Some of this stuff had a more mainstream or bubblegum-punk sound, and lyrics that focused on things like relationships and having fun—traits.
Still later on in the early to mid 1990s, bands like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Green Day, AFI and Blink-182 became mega successful and played on MTV as well as mainstream radio. Up until that point, only edgy big FM stations like KROQ 106.7 in Los Angeles, KWOD 106.5 in Sacramento, 91X in San Diego, Live 105 in San Francicisco and Channel 92.3 in San Jose, as well as local alternative and college radio stations played punk music.
In the early 90's there was a southern california punk rising that focused on the original sound developed by the likes of The Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Misfits. Some of the bands that started this change back to a more streetpunk 1977 style were The Exploding Fuck Dolls, The Stitches, U.S. Bombs, Schleprock, Agent 51, and John Cougar Concentration Camp. This new style would later infuenced bands like The Generators, The Briggs, Time Again, Die Hunns, and also re-fueled reunions of old school bands like Youth Brigade, The Descendents, and even some Black Flag performances.
In 1989, Social Distortion signed with Epic Records becoming the first band from the scene, since The Dickies in the late 1970s, to get a major label deal. Their album, simply titled, Social Distortion became a minor hit with four singles "Let It Be Me", "Ball and Chain", "Story of My Life" 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, Bad Religion were signed to Atlantic Records and reissued then-current album Recipe for Hate for the label that same year. Unlike Social Distortion however, Recipe for Hate initially received mixed reviews from music critics but brought the band a little success, peaking at #14 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart.
Also in 1993, 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 independent album of all time, and paving the way for other independent punk bands to achieve success. Blink-182, having already released their debut album Cheshire Cat, were beginning to gather a following in San Diego and they would soon grow, along with The Offspring and similar bands to achieve massive mainstream success in the late 1990s.
Soon thereafter, Blink 182, Green Day and The Offspring, were joined by Bad Religion, NOFX, and Rancid, whose respective albums Stranger Than Fiction, Punk in Drublic, and ...And Out Come the Wolves, were all certified Gold or Platinum (with the first being released on Atlantic and last two on Epitaph). Also during this period, ALL, Face to Face and a reunited Circle Jerks were all signed to major labels, Interscope, A&M and Mercury respectively.
The success of these bands also led to success for Southern California ska punk bands like No Doubt, Sublime, Reel Big Fish, and Goldfinger.
The proliferation of punk concerts and albums in California generated a like proliferation of flyer and album cover art. Some of the artists involved in producing art for the early punk scene later went on to greater notability. Mark Vallen, a painter and graphic artist, was associated with the early LA punk scene; his work was featured on a number of fanzine and album covers. Gary Panter was also closely associated with the early LA punk scene and produced The Screamers distinctive logo. Raymond Pettibon (brother of Greg Ginn of Black Flag) was similarly associated with the LA hardcore scene, especially Black Flag and The Minutemen, producing Black Flag's distinctive "four bars" logo. Winston Smith, a San Francisco collage artist, was associated with the Dead Kennedys and also did a piece of artwork named "God Told Me to Skin You Alive" for Green Day's fourth album Insomniac.
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 were 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:
| Book: Punk rock in California | |
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