It's A Futuristic Modern World--Living In Darkness with Agent Orange

What would Halloween be without a little Orange?

You Will All Have Exquisite Taste

Agent Orange is a punk band from California that combines the loud fast music of bands like Social Distortion with the surf guitar sound of Duane Eddy, Link Wray and the Ventures. California Punk songs with surf guitar segues. And it all works so unbelievably well. These punked out surf riffs are exhilarating to hear.

The band was formed in 1979 in Orange County, California. Mike Palm is on vocals and guitar, James Levesque on bass, and Scott Miller on drums. The first song on the Cd is the classic punk anthem Bloodstains.

Blood Stains

Speed Kills

Fast Cars

Cheap Thrills

Rich Girls

Fine Wine

I've Lost Sense

I've Lost Control

I've Lost My Mind!

This is a short album--many of the songs are under two minutes long. This is not the greatest or most profound punk rock you will find, but it sounds fantastic, in the same way that The Jam's In The City is a great album. According to the liner notes the songs were a reaction to the imploding punk scene in California, when the doctrinaire hardcore groups were taking over and leading bands were falling apart. So though there was plenty of surf guitar, there aren't songs about hanging ten and bikinis here. There are three excellent punked up surf instrumentals here, Dick Dale's Miserlou, The Chantay's Pipeline, and Mr. Moto by the Bel-Airs.

The music is all high tempo punk rock with highlights like Too Young To Die, A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad, and No Such Thing. The band takes a little bit of a poppy turn on the terrific Everything Turns Grey. Aside from the 9 minute review, the album seems to end before it even starts. Aside from Bloodstains, The Last Goodbye is my personal favorite, in all its cynical disillusionment. Agent Orange certainly was not the only punk band to incorporate surf guitar. Some punk bands brought actual surfing and beach elements into the mix. Even the legendary Dead Kennedys sound employed the use of surf guitar in their stridently satirical black humored punk. But Agent Orange did something special, as they did also on their We're Outta Here e.p. Even Bloodstains and Misirlou alone make this a worthwhile addition to a punk library. You be the judge.