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From:
LA Times
February 19
Punk Rocks
EYES closed, facing the crowd,
Alex Flynn of 1208 rips into a fierce anthem called "Next
Big Thing." In front of him, a wiry mix of Redondo Beach
surfers, punks and skaters sing about the sinister music industry
right along with him, even though 1208's album, "Turn of
the Screw," won't be released for four more days.
The group is one of a new generation
of South Bay punk bands, a generation weaned on a musical history
that started in the '70s with punk legends like Black Flag and
the Circle Jerks. Nearly three decades later, the beachside scene
is as alive and tight as ever. Almost everyone at the 1208 show
is wearing T-shirts representing local bands: Instigator, 98
Mute, Pennywise, Prop 13, the Deviates, Toys That Kill. Chances
are, the guy moshing next to you is in a local band, or friends
with the band or on his way on stage. The club—Latitudes,
a beer-soaked nightspot on the pier—feels like a family
affair. And it is. Flynn is punk rock royalty: He's the nephew
of Greg Ginn, the founder of Black Flag.
"In the beginning I was
afraid of it," Flynn says. "Black Flag is such a big
band to live up to."
In the South Bay, punk bands
actually stress over living up to the legacy. So much of the
scene is about what came before it, and lately, there has been
a rush of young groups supported by the veterans. So much so
that more clubs are opening their doors to punk rock.
Some of the revered old bands,
including the Descendents, the Humble Gods and the Last, are
back in action. And thanks to a Redondo Beach studio run by members
of Pennywise, a lot of young groups have begun to record. In
recent months, West Hollywood nightclubs started taking notice
of the beach town bands. The Cat Club, the Roxy, the Troubadour
and the Key Club are all booking "South Bay Surf Punks"
nights.
"South Bay bands are raw,
unpretentious and full of sound and enthusiasm," says Sean
Healy, whose company SHP books shows at the Roxy, the Viper Room
and the El Rey Theatre. "They are just so fresh and energetic
and aren't coming at it from the typical showcase standpoint."
Still, apart from 1208 and the Deviates, the new South Bay sound
is mostly local. Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge believes
it's too early to say if the new bands constitute a third wave
of South Bay significance on par with the '80s scene and the
'90s resurgence led by his own group. But he says that on the
local level, it's as strong now as it's ever been, with a wealth
of activity, including at his Stall No. 2 studio, meant as a
place for young acts to record in a professional but affordable
setting.
"A lot of bands are unknowns,
don't have records out and are just playing parties," Dragge
says. "But it's a strong little scene down here. That's
the cool thing about the South Bay scene: The bands aren't that
interested in being bigger and selling hundreds of thousands
of albums."
Jeremy Perryman is whipping
the locals into a frenzy. Wearing a flipped up cap and white
suspenders, the singer for the Hermosa Beach hard-core band STD's,
is shouting the battle hymn of the new punk republic:
"I don't care what you
say. South Bay! South Bay! We just wanna surf and play—South
Bay! South Bay! South Bay's where I'm gonna stay."
It's a punk rock free-for-all,
as shirtless knuckleheads in the pit push and shove each other
to the point of exhilarating exhaustion. The STD's are headlining
an afternoon party at Naja's Place, a dockside bar in Redondo
Beach. The STD's—which, some say, stands for Surf Til' Death—launch
into a gutterpunk version of "Light My Fire."
The STD's proudly wear their
old school influences on their sleeves—nearly every band
member has the four-bar Black Flag icon tattooed on his arm.
"What I see in old school is raw attitude," says Joe
Hobi, the drummer. "It's about putting your cards on the
table and saying, 'This is who I am.' We like to bring back the
savage, raw, in-your-face kind of music."
Not surprisingly, Ginn is a
fan. "I think STD's is really fun," says Ginn, who
also owns SST records. "They seem to have a really good
time and real good sense of community."
The STD's "destroy" style is just one South Bay flavor.
There is also "emo," the emotional, passion-punk style
of 1208, and more recently, "screamo," a wailing version
of emo, represented by Saint Angeles and Shotblue. Add reggae-punk,
led by Too Rude and Second Nature, and the straight-ahead sound
of the Goods, fronted by a rare female, Katrina Hoffman.
"The South Bay's always
been a vital hotbed for punk rock," says Bad Religion guitarist
Brett Gurewitz, who owns Epitaph Records, the label for Pennywise,
the Deviates and 1208. "It just seems the stuff that comes
out of the South Bay is a little bit more intense, just one notch
more. It's just part of the culture."
That culture is about as far
away from the bright lights of the Sunset Strip as you can go—which
has been an advantage. Instead of trying to impress A&R execs,
South Bay bands are trying to impress the locals.
"There's a lot of great bands on the scene and with the
support of the local bars, they're able to hone their skills,"
says Pennywise singer Jim Lindberg, who has worked with Western
Waste and Too Rude.
The Lighthouse Cafe has become
a mecca for South Bay punk. Six months ago, promoter Lance Ku
started booking shows at the legendary Hermosa Beach bar—a
jazz club from the '40s famous for shows featuring Charlie Parker,
Chet Baker and Miles Davis, who recorded a live album from the
Lighthouse.
Every Tuesday, fans can hear
four bands for free, and Ku selects the best of the new school
as well as veteran South Bay acts. Lately, the punk scene has
spread to other Hermosa bars—Patrick Malloys, the Pitcher
House and the Hermosa Saloon. And the Lighthouse is holding punk
shows on weekends. It's a lot happening in a small area.
On a recent Tuesday, PKG (Punk
Kids on Glue) opens the night with a blistering set of oldies:
"Gettin' Away," "Neighbors" and "Take
a Chance." The band, which formed in 1984, is followed by
Second Nature, a 7-month-old group from Harbor City. With a neck
tattoo reading "Mom" and a graffiti-laden baseball
hat worn low, singer Josh Northrop loses himself in the music.
His soulful voice drops wicked lyrics to a rub-a-dub beat.
Up next is Saint Angeles, a
supercharged band with a singer sporting a classic Mohawk. Ian
Sutherland's ear-shattering wails cut through the sonic set—it's
like an arena show in an intimate beach bar.
Capping off the night is the
Goods; in true local tradition, the band rehearses in a Redondo
Beach shipping container. Hoffman boasts a big New Wave voice
in a petite surfer-chick body and is one of the few women on
the scene. "I do what I do and do my best at it," she
says. "I've always been one of the boys."
If there's one thing the South
Bay has, it's team spirit.
Ginn, who formed Black Flag
in 1977, says it's important to understand there was a time when
a punk band from Hermosa Beach couldn't get a gig.
"When we tried to book
shows, they'd ask us what kind of band we were and we'd have
to soft-pedal it," Ginn says. "We'd tell them we were
a soft rock band with some jazz. There were so few places to
play."
While bands such as Steely
Dan and Fleetwood Mac were permeating the airwaves, Black Flag
was deconstructing the wheel. Fast, snarling songs such as "Nervous
Breakdown" gave the boot to musical elitism.
"Punk started out as a
pretty intellectual movement," Ginn says. "There were
only two rules in punk rock: You can't have long hair unless
you're the Ramones, and no guitar solos. But basically, it was
all over the map."
In many ways, it's not surprising Black Flag was born in Hermosa
Beach. The hilly seaside town has a long history of social movements.
From the jazz era of the '40s to the beatnik era of the mid-'50s
and the hippie movement of the '60s, Hermosa Beach was a counterculture
town. By the '70s, the middle class, drawn by jobs at the oil
refineries, was booming. High schools were crowded, juvenile
delinquency soared and a sleepy artist community faced class
warfare.
"By the '70s we felt betrayed,"
says Joe Nolte, the singer for the Last, Hermosa Beach's first
punk band. "My generation was too young to go to Woodstock,
but we had all these dreams that the '70s were going to be so
great. The older kids were telling us it was gonna be one big
love-in. And it wasn't."
According to Black Flag's original
singer, Keith Morris, it was do or die.
"In the South Bay, we were hated because we weren't a top
40 band," says Morris, now an A&R executive at V2 Records,
home to the White Stripes and Moby. "We were always the
guys who got picked on in school."
By 1979, Morris was living
illegally in the janitor's quarters of Hermosa Beach's famed
"church," a seedy, broken-down Baptist church from
the '30s that was rented out to hippies, artists and poets. Morris
says the police tried to run the band out of town for years,
after the shows became particularly volatile.
"That was the beginning
of the end of that era of the South Bay punk scene," says
Kevin Samera, who in July is releasing a documentary of South
Bay punk, "Common Thread." "Black Flag was on
its last run. A lot of poseurs were coming in. Clubs were getting
shut down."
Today, it's still punk rock.
There's still the occasional brawl. But it's the surf-punk-skater
set that prevails.
"To be a part of this
scene is amazing," says Chris Navarette, the singer of Profusion.
"I'm at every local punk show, I'm always looking for more
influences. And you know what? I feel like everything I need
is right here."
*
Logging on to the South Bay
www.commonthreadpunk.com
Videographer Kevin Samera offers
a history lesson in South Bay punk, as well as dozens of links
to local music sites and archived articles.
www.needscompany.com
The place to find show dates
by South Bay punk bands in venues throughout California.
www.southbaypunk.com
Where A.M.I. Productions, the
South Bay's largest punk rock promoter, posts coming shows.
www.theologianrecords.com
The Hermosa Beach record label
is home to Pennywise's first record, as well as albums by such
local favorites as the Goods, the Deviates, 98 Mute and Prop
13. The site also includes an entertaining historic punk photo
archive (see a young Henry Rollins singing in a Speedo).
www.sstsuperstore.com
One-stop shopping for Black
Flag music and merchandise, as well as other early punk releases.
*
Scoping out the South Bay
Friday: A good introduction
to the South Bay scene: Second Nature, RAD, the Goods and El
Centro at the Lighthouse Cafe, 30 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach; (310)
376-9833. 21 and older, $5 cover.
Tuesday: The Low Class, Shotblue,
Saint Angeles, Toys That Kill and Between Lines at the Lighthouse
Cafe, 30 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach; (310) 376-9833. 21 and older,
no cover.
Feb. 27: Too Rude, a reggae
surf-punk band, and the hard-core STD's join Minutemen veteran
Mike Watt and the Smut Peddlers at Sacred Grounds, 399 W. 6th
St., San Pedro; (310) 514-0800. All ages, $5 cover.
March 5: The Humble Gods (who
went on to become the Kottonmouth Kings), plus Too Rude, STD's
and Vinyl Jesus at Latitudes, 239 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach;
(310) 798-3170. 21 and older, $5 cover.
March 17: Profusion and the
Goods at Keegan's Pub, 1434 Marcelina Ave., Torrance; (310) 533-9225.
21 and older, $5 cover.
March 27: The Last performs
an acoustic set, before singer Joe Nolte teams up to perform
with his new band, Misfortune Cookie, at Sacred Grounds, 399
W. 6th St., San Pedro. (310) 514-0800. All ages, $5 cover.
*
10 classic albums in a long-playing history
Lineage is a serious matter
among South Bay musicians, and Jim Lindberg, the singer in Pennywise,
is no exception.
Here are 10 of his favorite
South Bay albums, ranked in order:
1. "Jealous Again," Black Flag (SST Records, 1980):
"It's raw, explosive, belligerent suburban angst, and rivals
anything New York or London ever produced."
2. "Milo Goes to College,"
The Descendents (SST Records, 1982): "They wrote the book
on melodic, powerful South Bay punk and influenced thousands
of bands. Blink-182, Sum 41 and Good Charlotte couldn't exist
without them."
3. "Group Sex," Circle
Jerks (Frontier Records, 1980): "A blistering indictment
of class tension and police persecution in L.A. in the early
'80s. Keith Morris could have faded away after leaving Black
Flag but instead produced a punk-rock milestone."
4. "Nervous Breakdown,"
Black Flag (SST Records, 1978): "This E.P. is the sound
of Greg Ginn and Keith Morris creating their own interpretation
of what they heard coming out of New York and London."
5. "L.A. Explosion!"
The Last (Bomp Records, 1979): "Stripped-down, neo-psychedelic
garage rock that was revolutionary when you consider the radio
only played the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac at the time. [Lead singer]
Joe Nolte is the patriarch of the South Bay punk scene."
6. "Redd Kross,"
(the first E.P.) Redd Kross (Posh Boy, 1980): "Songs like
'Annette's Got the Hits,' 'I Hate My School' and 'Standing in
Front of Poseur' were 2 1/2 minutes of flawless, prepubescent
psycho beach music."
7. "98 Mute," 98
Mute (Theologian Records, 1996): "Great hard-core band."
8. "My Life," The
Deviates (Theologian Records, 1998): "The beach crowd favorite."
9. "Yuppie Getto,"
War Called Peace (Theologian Records, 1995): "A paean to
the yuppification of a former hippie surf town."
10. "Ism," Smut Peddlers
(Ransom Records, 2001): "A perfect State of the South Bay
address."
*
For hard-core shoppers
A few independent record stores
are tapped into the punk scene, stocking hard-to-find recordings
by new bands as well as a good selection of music from the '70s.
They're also where to pick up the most up-to-the minute news
about shows and clubs.
Scooters, 200 Pier Ave., Suite
1, Hermosa Beach; (310) 372-1666
Go Boy, 1310 S. Pacific Coast
Highway, Redondo Beach; (310) 316-1957
Rocketship Records, 1012 Aviation
Blvd., Hermosa Beach; (310) 937-6885
Steve Hochman contributed to
this report.
—Heidi Siegmund
Cuda
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