I’ve lived in or close to Orange County, CA most of my life, not counting my Kerouac summer. I was introduced to punk rock in junior high when a kid passed me a tape with a few songs off a compilation called, Old School Punk (side note: I would later find out the songs were selected by Warren Fitzgerald of the Vandals). While the tape had songs from bands like X and the Suicidal Tendencies, what stuck out to me were the bands I would later find out were formed literally down the street from me.
Bands like the Adolescents, Agent Orange, Middle Class, and DI. While my friendship with the person who gave me the tape would sour, my love for punk rock grew immensely. Sometimes blending some of its sound with music of the surf cities within its county lines, its sound stuck with me when I tried to venture into my own songwriting. While I was taught a healthy respect for the classic punk rock bands of the region, I was also discovering bands like The Offspring and Sublime who, while not from Orange County, are covered in this book. This is a long-winded way of saying how important Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn’s book, Tearing Down the Orange Curtain: How Punk Rock Brought Orange County to the World, is to me.
Starting with a foreword by Mike Ness, the book starts at the Cuckoo’s Nest in Costa Mesa. Made famous in the Vandals’ songs “Pat Brown” and “Urban Struggle”, the book tells the story of the club’s rise and fall, along with some of the pillars of the scene. Cuckoo’s Nest owner Jerry Roach tells stories along with people like photographer Ed Colver and members of bands such as T.S.O.L.’s Jack Grisham. The narrative jumps around a bit, but it’s the only way to tell the story, as there were lots of things happening at the same time. It really shows the evolution of the scene from its roots.
From there, North Orange County is put into the spotlight. We learn about the formation of the bands around Fullerton, including the Adolescents, Social Distortion, and even some of the smaller bands, like the Detours, Naughty Women, and the Gears. A lot of time is spent on the Agnew brothers, who seemed to have a hand in most aspects of the scene. With a sprawling scene in such a small area, it was sometimes hard to figure out where they were going with a topic, but once they got there, it was super satisfying.
We get some stories from some of the newer bands that emerged, like the Offspring, No Doubt, Save Ferris, and Sublime. While it may seem weird to include Sublime, their story is tangled up in Orange County more than one would think. We also get histories on some of the promoters that emerged and helped push the genre, specifically Gary Tovar of Goldenvoice and Kevin Lyman’s Warped Tour. Unsurprisingly, the one lynchpin, whose story very much mirrors the ups and downs of the scene, is Mike Ness.
This book isn’t just a special thing for people in the Southern California area. It’s a great document of a scene that made its voice heard with its unique approach to punk rock. Other books have been written about other scenes throughout the years, but this one felt special. This is the book teenage me would have loved to have, but these histories were playing out. Jackson and Kohn definitely did the legwork to give the scene its due. Pick up Tearing Down the Orange Curtain: How Punk Rock Brought Orange County to the World, here.
