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- Black Flag. Damaged. “We. Are. Tired. Of. Your. Abuse!” The chorus of Damaged's opening song “Rise Above” immediately declares a vicious contempt for America's social and political environment, circa 1981.
- X. Los Angeles. Released in 1980, and produced by Ray Manzarek, X's Los Angeles is a searing critique of a city under economic siege and engaged in changing racial demographics.
- Germs. GI. In the classic documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, Germs frontman Darby Crash has an infamous scene where he makes a hot mess of the stage, demanding beer from the audience while stumbling violently.
- Descendents. Milo Goes to College. You're in high school. You're angsty because girls don't like you. Your parents don't get it. You're really smart but your teachers don't realize it; they are dickheads.
With its natural inclination toward more aggressive punk, L.A. became the center for the music's shift into hardcore, with Black Flag (and, later, its seminal SST label) leading the new direction by the beginning of the '80s.
Nardcore music now includes various musical sub-genres that all fall within the umbrella of punk: thrash metal, skate punk, surf punk (due to Ventura being a beach community), powerviolence, youth crew punk, hardcore and others.
- Tim Stegall
- X. X could have only happened in Los Angeles. Billy Zoom’s loud/fast rockabilly guitar work and DJ Bonebreak’s orchestral drumming drove Doe and then-wife Exene Cervenka’s Charles Bukowski-on-biker-crank lyrics.
- Black Flag. If inchoate anger and unfocussed rebellion have a soundtrack, it’s Black Flag. Primarily the brainchild of songwriter/guitarist Greg Ginn and bassist/theoretician Chuck Dukowski, these Hermosa Beach intellectual bruisers welded the heaviest metal to avant-jazz’s noisy atonality.
- The Go-Go’s. If darker impulses drove L.A. punk, at least on the surface the five-woman Go-Go’s were the musical embodiment of the year-long sunshine that made their hometown famous.
- FEAR. Blue-collar avant-punk ruffians FEAR might have the oddest story of any of these bands. Shades of blues and jazz wove into a high-energy metal assault, alongside a gonzo stage act that elevated audience baiting into a frenzied wrestling match.
- Los Illegals – “El Lay” The Chicano punks from East L.A. are often left out of L.A. 's late ‘70s punk canon, but their contributions are worthy of recognition.
- NOFX – “El Lay” NOFX’s music is always brutally honest and satirical, and this hit from their classic 1991 album “Ribbed” is no exception. The tune shares a name with Los Illegals’ song, but that’s where the similarities end.
- Circle Jerks – “Beverly Hills” Punks hate capitalism and rich snobs, so a song talking smack on one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the area is a given.
- Adolescents – “L.A. Girl” While Adolescents are from Orange County, they were signed to L.A.’ s iconic Frontier Records, which featured notable local bands like T.S.O.L., Christian Death, Circle Jerks, and Suicidal Tendencies.
Feb 15, 2021 · “If New York punk was about art, and London punk about politics, L.A. punk was about pop culture, TV and absurdity,” Greg Shaw, the pioneering rock critic behind the Bomp!
Jul 1, 2016 · We're going to take a look back at the LA punk scene with three people who helped define it - John Doe and Exene Cervenka, co-founders of the band X and Dave Alvin, who co-founded The Blasters...
