Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 9 Weeks Out
Alright. Here we go for Surf City Blitz. It’s really at who’s who for California punk bands. It’s got about all of the second wave of punk bands that were big out of California, except Green Day and NOFX. It’s even got some older bands that influenced many of them like Fear and TSOL. And some up and comers like The Interrupters. Social D, Pennywise, Offspring, Rancid, and Bad Religion cover much of California Punk. Bad Religion (who Rich was on to much before me and could tell us more about them) were the intellectual punk rockers. Pennywise (who Charlie would be the resident expert) is the surf and skate punks, with a little surf guitar. Rancid is the band that pays homage to the old punk bands (I feel seeing them is the closest we’ll ever get to seeing the Clash). Offspring, to me, was the goofball punks with a guitarist named “Noodles” and a singer with cornrows. And Social D, was the real deal punks with a singer who spent his youth in jails and slept in the tour bus (check out the documentary “Another State Of Mind” following their tour with Youth Brigade).
And we’re gonna start with Social Distortion. They’re hometown boys from Orange County. Mike Ness is the only remaining original member, but their guitarist has been around for a while. They really weren’t the second wave of punk (and neither is Bad Religion) as they were actually formed in the early eighties during the first wave. I’ve heard them described as a cross between the Clash and Johnny Cash. And I didn’t believe it until I saw them at Coachella 2013. Awesome. There’s a lot of videos here but they’re all amazing. Jimmy, if you watch only one…watch Bad Luck. And Ball and Chain. Okay, two. Stiffy….watch them all!
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 8 Weeks Out
Okay, this week we’ve got The Interrupters. Three brothers and Aimee Interrupter. They’re from LA. Fun old school 2Tone style ska. I saw them open for the Bosstones four years ago and they were very fun. “Take Back the Power” was featured on a TMobile commercial if it sounds familiar. This would be Kyle’s favorite band at SurfCity. Subsequently, Aimee Interrupter may be the only female performing from what I can tell. They are on Rancid’s Hellcat label and work closely with them. Rancid has been on a couple of their songs and Tim Armstrong seems to show up at a lot of their gigs. And there’s a great chance they do something together at Surf City. As much as I love their sound, I also like that they pay homage to the old school (much like Rancid)…an album cover pays respect to the Specials, a pink checkered design looks like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and a shirt design using the Ramones’ Road to Ruin album cover design.
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 7 Weeks Out
Rancid! See ya in the pit!
They’re an East Bay, Berkley, CA band. NoCal. I know Charlie, Rich, and I don’t need any prep for these guys. But I wanted to hit them early to allow Todd and Jim ample time. Rancid deserves it. We saw them just last summer with Dropkick in Denver…23 years after the three if us and Stauffer saw them at CU Boulder. Without question, my favorite act here, and one of my top of all time. A lot of that is due to the homage they pay to the birth of punk in the late 70s. Lyrics cite the Clash, Sham ’69, Toots, Desmond Dekker and other London and Jamaican bands. Plus they combine ska/reggae with punk like the Clash first did. And that doesn’t even mention that Tim Armstrong (Lead) and Matt Freeman (bassist) were in Operation Ivy. Regarded as the godfather band of all the crazy 90s punk explosion. Without Op Ivy, Green Day probably wouldn’t have been. Billie Joe Armstrong actually considered joining Rancid before Rancid added Lars (and before Green Day put out Dookie).
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 6 Weeks Out
Three undercard acts for this week. And quite a mix. A garage rock band with paternal roots in Eighties Alternative. Two bands with horns. One from the friendly confines of Santa Barbara . The other is a Hispanic band from CA’s Inland Empire.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are from San Francisco. Remember the band “The Call” from the 80’s? “Let the Day Begin”? Michael Been was lead singer of The Call and his son is bassist/guitarist/singer for BRMC. Michael died of a heart attack a few years ago while handling sound board duties for BRMC during a European festival. They will sometimes cover a The Call song. I’d call them more garage rock than punk, but that’s okay. They’re pretty good and could become a favorite. I’d love to catch them at some small Thalia Hall-like venue. Too bad we don’t have aftershows this time around.
Voodoo Glow Skulls. From Riverside. They’re punk. They’re ska. They’re Hispanic. Three great tastes that taste great together. They hit it pretty big when punk and ska were blowing up mid to late nineties. I remember them on some Epitaph sampler CDs. They will have a horn section, but it will likely be overshadowed by some heavy punk.
Mad Caddies. From the Santa Barbara area. Been around for a while, but this is the first that I’ve paid attention to them. Ska, but a softer side to complement the harder sound of Voodoo Glow Skulls. And they have a horn section also. Their last album was ska/reggae covers of punk bands including Green Day, NOFX, and Bad Religion. They’ve been playing a few in concert including a cover of Propaghandi and Green Day. Wonder if they have the guts to do Bad Religion’s “Sorrow” at SurfCity…
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 5 Weeks Out
This week it’s about Friday night in Long Beach. Long Beach is the gritty side to LA’s glamour with some dark alleys and interesting corners. Alex’s Bar is kinda famous on the punk rock circuit. Here’s a write up about it.
http://divebarculture.blogspot.com/2013/06/alexs-bar-long-beach-ca.html
It’s super small, and with the bands we’re seeing could be a rough crowd. I will try to avoid the pit. The bands…they’re a widespread sample of punk…there’s the classic British band, the SoCal Surf Guitar, and the goofy and obnoxious SoCal punks….kinda like a Rancid, Pennywise, and Offspring, respectively.
Guttermouth’s from SoCal. Their “singer” has pretty recently been in jail in Tijuana after being homeless and panhandling in TJ. They’re the goofs. Pretty infamous for trying to cause controversy with crazy lyrics of stage antics. They’ve been banned in a few countries….the 2LiveCrew of punk bands
UK Subs are one of the early punk bands from England. They were cutting their teeth back with the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned and our friends from RiotFest, Buzzcocks. The only original is their singer, Charlie Harper, and he’s 74. So I don’t know what to expect, but this may be the only time we get to see anything from them. Odd fact…they’ve released 26 albums, each titled beginning with a different letter of the alphabet in order…from “Another Kind of Blues” to “Ziezo”.
Agent Orange is from Orange County. They weren’t really a one hit wonder. But they might have been a one hit album wonder. Their first album was amazing. With seven of the eight songs being great fast punk songs with surf guitar and crisp vocals. The eighth song is a punk version of the surf guitar classic Miserlou. But they never recaptured that on their other two albums. They claim to be the last of the independents in punk. I’m not sure that was their choice as I don’t know how many labels were after them considering their last two albums. Kinda like me saying I still have four years of college football eligibility left. The singer/guitarist is the only original left. Recorded they sound great. Not too sure how they’ll sound live. Videos of them leave a lot to be desired live. A lot.
Guttermouth
UK Subs
Agent Orange
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 4 Weeks Out
This is my “goof” of a punk band. Not that they aren’t as intelligent as others, but “You Gotta Keep Em Separated” and “Give it to me baby, uh huh, uh huh” just don’t seem like serious punk. Not to mention that lead singer Dexter sported cornrows when they were blowing up. But that’s okay. Punk doesn’t have to be all about anarchy and politics. See anything by Toys Dolls, “Big Women” by GBH, “TV Party” by Black Flag, and “Cheap Beer” by FIDLAR. And while I won’t call them the smart ones of the festival (that comes next week), Dexter has a PhD in Molecular Biology from USC. They’re from OC and went to high school not far from Huntington Beach. Dexter, guitarist Noodles, and bassist Greg K. are all originals from the mid 80s. Their album “Smash” set a record for biggest selling independent label album ever (btw, “Dookie” wasn’t independent). And it pretty much catapulted the momentum that Green Day started with the early 90s punk revival. While my least favorite of the five headliners (and not a knock…they’re a bucket list see for me as they’re the only ones I haven’t seen), they are probably most omnipresent with their sounds being everywhere. And they’ve put out the most recent radio popular music. And it’s pretty good. But I really want to see them do some stuff from the album before Smash, “Ignition” like Session or Kick Him When He’s Down.
The Offspring
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 3 Weeks Out
Rich was on to these guys before anyone I know. They’re the brainiacs of the punks. Bad Religion. From SoCal and formed early 80s while Social D was starting. Songs citing Hemingway and Jack Kerouac give them the nod for the smart guys. Lead singer Greg Graffin has a PhD from Cornell for god’s sake. He and guitarist Brett Gurewitz are the core of the band, though Brett doesn’t tour much anymore. It would be great if he made a hometown appearance. Brett’s pretty busy running his record label, Epitaph. He created the indie label to produce the third Bad Religion album and hasn’t stopped. Looking at the bands that have been produced on Epitaph, without argument you can say he had more to do with the explosion of California Punk in the 90s than anyone. So seeing Bret perform with Bad Religion would be a treat. They will also be the most political of the acts. While they haven’t beaten up an audience member in a MAGA hat recently like Mike Ness, we could safely assume Guiffre would not be watching them a la Prophets of Rage. Their new song is called “The Kids Are Alt-Right” – check it out. I’ve seen them only once. They opened for Pearl Jam at Red Rocks in like 95 or 96 (the Pearl Jam hates Ticketmaster tour). I wasn’t very impressed, but they might not have been in their element. I’m looking forward to seeing them again.
Bad Religion
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 2 Weeks Out
Suicidal Tendencies, Fear, TSOL
This week covering some classics…Suicidal Tendencies (Los Angeles), Fear (LA), and TSOL (Long Beach).
Remember the movie “Repo Man” with Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton? It had a cult following but likely more popular was its soundtrack. It was a punk compilation with Iggy Pop, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, the Plugz, Burning Sensations (Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole…) and two bands we’ll see here…Suicidal Tendencies (with Institutionalized) and Fear (with Let’s Have a War). I think it interesting that 35 years later two of these bands meet up here.
Suicidal Tendencies have been around since early eighties, though the only remaining member is their lead “singer” Mike Muir. They really hit it big with “Institutionalized” early. Remember “all I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi”? They were early on the punk and metal and rap mix. Known as a pioneer of speed metal. Which is cool, but there’s an argument you could blame them for Limp Bizkit and Sugar Ray, which isn’t cool. Live – they’re loud, and fast, and metal, and as unmelodic as possible. And there will be a lot of bandanas.
Fear was a super influential early 80’s punk band. Like many of those bands, they only really had one album but it was good. Nirvana even cited it as one of their favorites. Also a fan was John Belushi who invited them to plan on Saturday Night Live. The performance is pretty infamous and they invited a bunch of punks to “dance” live to them. It’s cited as possibly the first slam dancing, at least the first time the general public had been exposed to it. They just reunited with three original members. There isn’t much video of this configuration playing. Just remember they are old. But considering how much they influenced they deserve some attention.
TSOL, which stands for “True Sounds of Liberty”, is another early 80s punk band. I remember them around the skate scene and debating what TSOL or GBH or what other punk stuff stood for. I remember their name and logo skate stickers more than any of their music though. They changed up their sound a few times, even going goth for a bit. But they are super influential to many of today’s bands. And as far as influential goes, they have a huge tie to one of our Lolla and RiotFest favorites. TSOL’s guitarist/keyboardist’s sons are the drummer and guitarist for FIDLAR. Safe to say, without TSOL we wouldn’t be singing so loudly about liking “Cheap Bear, so what, f… you.”
TSOL
Fear
Suicidal Tendencies
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – 1 Week Out
Saved Pennywise for the end…most of us saw them at RiotFest, though our resident Pennywise historian, Charlie, will tell you it wasn’t their best show. But it was pretty damn good. Plus we found out GWAR is a Pennywise fan. Good enough for me. I first heard Pennywise in 1994. Kilby had a cassette tape a friend of his from San Diego made and took it to Costa Rica with us. One side was Pennywise “Unknown Road” and the other side was Green Day “Dookie”. We played the hell out of that tape not knowing that Dookie was about to blow up stateside. But I kinda liked the Pennywise side better. Interesting paths the two bands took afterwards. Pennywise is surf guitar and skate punk with a little Bad Religion attitude thrown in. With a guitarist bigger than most bouncers. They usually play a cover of a classic punk song during their set which is fun when they break into Blitzkrieg Bop or a Black Flag or Circle Jerks song; or even AC/DC or Beasties.
Surf City Blitz Weekly Countdown – Launch
Alright…here we go. A few last links. There are a couple other undercard acts. One I really like but I know the chance we see an early act is as low as me seeing the closing act at Coachella.
Sharp Shock is at 12:50 on Saturday right before Voodoo Glow Skulls. I never heard of them before they were added to the lineup. But I like them. They’re a trio and remind me of The Jam.
The Wrecks are Sunday at 1:55pm before the Interrupters. We’ll probably be there for at least the end of their set ‘cuz I really want to see the Interrupters. They get played on Alt Nation a bit. And are pretty good though they remind me a little too much of Fall Out Boy or some of the other pop punk sell outs.
Aaron Lee Tasjan is another act that doesn’t seem to fit. Singer-songwriter in a world of punks.
And each day starts with the “KLOS Band”. KLOS is the radio station sponsoring the event. Who knows what their band may be, but Steve Jones, former Sex Pistols guitarist, has a midday show on KLOS so one could imagine him out there. He’s been rehearsing with Billy Idol and Tony James of Generation X and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols with a new band they’re calling “Gen-Sex”. So….who knows?