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Pits and pipelines
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There’s a handful of classic songs that sprang from the dawn of the L.A. punk scene at the turn of the ’80s—Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown,” the Nerves’ “Hangin’ on the Telephone” and the Weirdos “We Got the Neutron Bomb” are particularly good examples. “Bloodstains” by Agent Orange, who formed in 1979, fits easily into this illustrious category, perfectly representing the period in which it was created but also possessing the rare magic that transcends time. It has driving drums, vocals with one army boot in the gutter squealing out the killer chorus “bloodstains, speed kills, fast cars, cheap thrills” and a lurching modal chord sequence that became the band’s calling card. “I guess that song has become our punk rock ‘Freebird’,” says Agent Orange’s guitarist/singer Mike Palm. “I had been really into buying rare import records from the U.K. at the time that were becoming instant collectors’ items and when we wrote ‘Bloodstains,’ I think we knew we had the same substance of the singles we were buying at the time. I think there’s never been a show where we didn’t play that song because the reason a lot of people still come to see us is just to hear that song.” “Bloodstains” was so good in fact that it would provide the gateway for a young Orange County punker by the name of Dexter Holland into the sordid world of punk. Holland’s band the Offspring would later nick the chromatic chord Before we start wagging any fingers here, though, “Bloodstains’” Middle Eastern feel is almost directly lifted from surf legend Dick Dale’s “Miserlou,” the one from Pulp Fiction, which Agent Orange also covers. Dale’s influence is not too much of a stretch, really, as Agent Orange have always been just as comfortable playing instrumental surf music as blazing punk rock. “Surf music was really born from youth culture, where friends would get together and form a band because almost anybody could play it, and my two older brothers had all of these great surf records when I was growing up, so I always had this great access to surf music. When punk rock came along, that was really music I could claim as my own and, to me, the similarities were really obvious. That kind of stripped-down approach and energy forms an exact parallel with punk rock. Punk was really about rejecting the ’70s excess and the hippies, and especially when it was starting to happen, punks always embraced earlier forms of rock ’n’ roll music because it was honest and primal, and I think those qualities are definitely in surf music.” WITH MATCHLESS, HOLD A GRUDGE |
sequence from “Bloodstains” in their song “Come Out and Play (Keep ’em Separated)” and drag punk rock willingly into the malls.
