Plenty of space has been given in books and online to the early punk scene of Orange County, California. While names like TSOL, Social Distortion and the Adolescents tend to get the most attention, Fullerton’s Agent Orange often swims beneath the radar. Not only does the group continue to play shows, they’ve never broken up.
Fronted by Mike Palm, the group channeled youthful suburban anxiety and the outlaw skate culture into punk that was always set apart from their contemporaries by the elements of surf rock present throughout. 1981’s Living In Darkness album mixes covers of surf songs with the group’s most well known song, “Bloodstains”. Years after making a splash on the Southern California scene with airplay on Rodney Bingenheimer’s radio show, the band had a bit of a resurgence when soundtracks for films like “Freddy Got Fingered” and in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video games included the song.
Agent Orange, going on 45 years of playing, will be heading to the Cellar Stage at Alturas Bar in Reno on Wednesday, May 8th. Joining them will be Russian surf rock band Messer Chups, as well as Reno noisemakers Vampirates and One Ton Dually.
More info available at Alturas Bar’s page.
