Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
History Pre-1976 Los Angeles had a very strong glam rock scene in the early 1970s, mostly centered on the club Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, run by Rodney Bingenheimer, who later, as a disc jockey for KROQ's Rodney on the ROQ radio show, did much to promote LA punk bands. Many figures from this earlier scene would play notable roles in the later punk scene.
In the mid-1970s from 1974 to 1975 a wave of proto-punk bands emerged from Los Angeles, including the Flyboys and Atomic Kid.
The Runaways, an all-female teenaged band featuring Joan Jett, Sandy West, and Micki Steele, formed in Los Angeles in 1975 under the management of Kim Fowley. The band combined elements of glam rock, hard rock, and proto-punk rock. The group would become one of the first punk or punk-adjacent bands anywhere to release recordings, with their self-titled debut LP and its single "Cherry Bomb" released the following year.
1976–1979 Starting in 1976, following recent releases of recordings by punk bands such as the Ramones, a number of punk bands formed in the Los Angeles and Orange County area. Among these bands were the Dils (originally from Carlsbad),the Zeros (originally from Chula Vista), the Weirdos, the Screamers, the Germs, the Dickies, Nervous Gender, Bags, X, Black Randy and the Metrosquad and the Go-Go's. Many bands also formed in the San Francisco Bay, including The Nuns, Crime, Avengers, Negative Trend, The Mutants, The Sleepers, The Offs and 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 crossed over to art punk, experimental punk, new wave, electropunk, punk-funk, rockabilly, deathrock and hard rock.
The Damned's first Los Angeles visit in April 1977 became an early rallying point for the city's punk scene. The Weirdos used the Damned's crowded appearance at Bomp! to promote their self-booked show at the Orpheum Theatre later that night. Among those who came to see the Damned were Bobby Pyn, Pat Smear, Lorna Doom, and Donna Rhia of the newly formed Germs. When Pyn and Smear claimed that the Germs were ready to play, the boast became a challenge, and the Weirdos added them to the Orpheum bill. That night, the Germs gave their first live performance. Captain Sensible also joined the Weirdos for "Pushin' Too Hard"; the November 1977 issue of Bomp! later called the concert a "now-legendary show". Cornell University Library's history of the scene calls the Orpheum concert punk's "spectacular start" in Los Angeles.
When the Damned's planned Whisky a Go Go appearance with Television fell through, Tomata du Plenty and The Screamers housed the stranded band at the Wilton Hilton. Stan Lee of The Dickies secured a last-minute booking that brought the Damned and The Quick to the Starwood on April 18 and 19. Alice Bag recalled that much of the Orpheum audience returned for the Damned two days later. To Bag, the speed with which word spread and the replacement show filled demonstrated that Los Angeles's scattered punks were becoming a scene.
The Starwood audience included Joan Jett, Clem Burke, Chris Stein, Leonard Phillips, Pleasant Gehman, and Robert Lopez, whose later accounts captured the concert's spectacle, its challenge to conventional rock performance, and the burst of band formation that followed the Orpheum and Starwood shows. Burke remembered that "all hell was breaking loose on stage": Rat Scabies set fire to the cymbals while Captain Sensible appeared in a tutu. As the performance erupted, Jett removed a studded belt and swung it around while the group shouted from the balcony. With flames rising from the cymbals, Burke characterized the scene as "pretty much perfect chaos." A contemporary review in Slash similarly emphasized the band's speed, theatrical presentation, instrumental force, and rejection of polished rock convention. Phillips contrasted the Damned's short, disorderly set with the long songs, instrumental solos, and emphasis on expensive equipment that had previously shaped his idea of a rock performance. Gehman described the night as a personal turning point, while Lopez associated the Orpheum and Starwood shows with a rush of audience members starting bands. John Doe of X, who lived in the apartment opposite the Starwood, remembered the Damned's debut there as one of the defining shows witnessed from that apartment. Photographer Jenny Lens recalled Rodney Bingenheimer joining Captain Sensible onstage at the Starwood. Lens also stressed the importance of Rodney on the ROQ as the radio program through which Los Angeles punk listeners heard new records and learned about concerts. Melanie Nissen connected the visit with the launch and visual direction of Slash, which became central to the first-wave Los Angeles scene.
Emergence of hardcore punk
In 1978 in Southern California, the first hardcore punk bands arose, including Middle Class, Black Flag, Vicious Circle, Fear, and the Circle Jerks. 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. 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. It features performances by bands from both scenes.Spitz, Marc with Mullen, Brendan. (2001). We Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk. New York: Three Rivers Press. Decline was filmed in part at punk shows sponsored and promoted by David Ferguson, who in 1979 formed CD Presents, a 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 of these, such as X and The Go-Go's, went on to mainstream success as punk or new wave bands.
1980–1984 By the early 1980s, hardcore was the dominant form of punk music in California. Notable hardcore bands active in that period included the Circle Jerks, Black Flag, the Adolescents, Minutemen, Descendents, T.S.O.L., China White, Agent Orange, the Vandals, Love Canal, Wasted Youth, Social Distortion, D.I., White Mice, Channel 3 (band), Dr. Know, the Mentors and NOFX in Southern California, and the Dead Kennedys, Flipper, MDC, and Verbal Abuse in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Despite the dominance of hardcore during this period, punk also began to diversify. Agent Orange had a noticeable surf rock influence, while the Angry Samoans were strongly influenced by 1960s garage rock. Other bands such as the Joneses and Tex and the Horseheads became popular for playing a form of punk rock influenced by simple rock n roll without the ultra-fast beat of most hardcore bands.
Black Flag, T.S.O.L., Fear, D.I., the Adolescents, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I. and others influenced later metal bands such as Anthrax, Slayer and Metallica. These hardcore bands also created a crossover sound: the genres of thrash and early metalcore grew out of this fusion.
The hardcore scene, particularly in Los Angeles and Orange County, gained a reputation for violence at shows due to the formation of several hardcore punk gangs. The topic of 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. 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 in fact under heavy surveillance by police who were convinced that the band was the cover for a drug ring.
Cities like Sacramento, Lake Tahoe and neighboring Reno, Nevada followed San Francisco and Los Angeles, creating their own underground hardcore scenes. Local promoter Stuart Katz brought punk rock to Sacramento in the early 1980s, starting off with shows in auditoriums at McKinley Park. Katz eventually opened Club Minimal in South Sacramento, booking early hardcore acts such as Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Flipper and Crucifix, as well as local bands. The police department soon shut down the club, but Katz led a 1960s style peaceful protest inside the lobby of City Hall, joined by more than a hundred punk rockers. The protest made the cover page of the Sacramento Union.
Nardcore
Nardcore is a hardcore punk movement that originated in the Oxnard suburbs of Silver Strand Beach and Port Hueneme. Early bands of the nardcore scene include Agression, Dr. Know, False Confession, Ill Repute, Habeas Corpus, Stalag 13, RKL and Scared Straight.
Around 1977, the first group in the area was a Moorpark band called the Rotters, emulating the new sounds of English punk rock. After playing a few parties for high school age audiences, Agression latched onto the style. The younger, future members of Dr. Know and Ill Repute were in the audiences saying "Oh, we can do that."
The first venues to regularly host punk shows in the Oxnard area were Casa Tropical (a Quonset hut at the Oxnard Airport), Town and Country (Port Hueneme), Skate Palace (Port Hueneme), and Casa de la Raza (Santa Barbara).
The local skate scene played heavily in the scene, many people riding in backyard half pipes or breaking into backyards with empty pools to skate. "We were all skaters before we were punkers," said Brandon Cruz, singer for several Nardcore bands.
There was and still is a strong sense of unity and community among the generations of Nardcore bands. Some unity came from the coverage by a local publication called 60 Miles North, which began in 1983 initially as a xeroxed flyer for an Alley Cats concert in nearby Camarillo. Ill Repute singer John Phaneuf says "Goldenvoice played a big role in getting the Oxnard scene big in L.A."
Much of the early promotion of nardcore was due to Mystic Records, in Hollywood, California, and its founder Doug Moody, and promotion director, Mark Wilkins. Mystic launched many bands onto vinyl which helped them form relationships with the music industry.