Danger Zone | ||||
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EP by | ||||
Released | 1981 | |||
Studio | Redondo Pacific | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 19:31 | |||
Language | English | |||
Label | Frontier | |||
Producer |
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China White chronology | ||||
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Danger Zone is the debut EP by the American hardcore punk band China White.
An extended play record, often referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single, but is usually unqualified as an album or LP. Contemporary EPs generally contain a minimum of three tracks and maximum of six tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album. An EP originally referred to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and LP, but it is now applied to mid-length CDs and downloads as well.
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by New York punk rock and early proto-punk. New York punk had a harder-edged sound than its San Francisco counterpart, featuring anti-art expressions of masculine anger, energy, and subversive humor. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics."
China White was an influential hardcore punk band from Huntington Beach, California, famous for their EP Danger Zone and their violent gigs. They were, along with the Crowd, Adolescents, Social Distortion, T.S.O.L. and Shattered Faith, the most preeminent figures of the early Orange County punk scene.
A longer early version of the title track, "Dangerzone", recorded in June 1980, [1] would be later released as "Danger Zone" on the 1983 New Underground Records compilation album Life Is Beautiful So Why Not Eat Health Foods? [nb 1] [2] [3]
New Underground Records was an American independent record label founded by Danny Phillips and Gary Kail. Phillips and Kail were influenced by D. Boon and Mike Watt's New Alliance Records label and decided to create their own to promote bands they knew. Alongside New Alliance, New Underground was one of the first DIY labels in the South Bay punk scene of the 1980s.
A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If from several performers, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.
Produced by Mike Patton [nb 2] and Thom Wilson, [4] Danger Zone was recorded at Redondo Pacific Studios in Redondo Beach, California.
A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performer's music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many, varying roles during the recording process. They may gather musical ideas for the project, collaborate with the artists to select cover tunes or original songs by the artist/group, work with artists and help them to improve their songs, lyrics or arrangements.
Thom Wilson was an American punk rock record producer and engineer.
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.
The EP was released by Frontier Records in 1981 on 12-inch vinyl disc. [nb 3] .
Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Sun Valley, Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways.
The photo on the front cover, portraying a murder scene, [5] was taken by Southern Californian punk photographer Edward Colver.
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10 in (25 cm) and 12 in (30 cm) 78-rpm records, single and sets of 12 in (30 cm) LPs, sets of 45 rpm records, or the front-facing panel of a CD package, and, increasingly, the primary image accompanying a digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks.
A crime scene is any location that may be associated with a committed crime. Crime scenes contain physical evidence that is pertinent to a criminal investigation. This evidence is collected by crime scene investigators (CSIs) and Law enforcement. The location of a crime scene can be the place where the crime took place, or can be any area that contains evidence from the crime itself. Scenes are not only limited to a location, but can be any person, place, or object associated with the criminal behaviors that occurred.
Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises California's southernmost counties, and is the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region contains ten counties: Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Kern counties.
The most interesting attribute of 1981's Dangerzone 12" ... was its Edward Colver cover shot of a murder scene he came across after a Fear show, using the available light of a police car.
Fear is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1977. The band is credited for helping to shape the sound and style of Californian hardcore punk. The group gained national prominence after an infamous 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live.
The band members photographs on the back cover were taken by Glen E. Friedman, another American photographer.
Charles P. Lamey of Trouser Press was of the view that:
"China White ... was an early force on the California beach-punk scene. These six songs show them to be a solid hardcore unit, playing loud, fast and spirited, lacking only distinctiveness." [7]
In 1996, Danger Zone was re-released on a split CD [nb 4] shared with the Flyboys' self-titled EP from 1980. [nb 5] [4]
In 2013, Frontier, in collaboration with Burger Records, reissued the original EP as a 300-copy limited edition, hand-numbered cassette. [nb 6] [4]
All tracks are written by Frank Ruffino and Marc Martin, except where noted.
Side A | ||
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No. | Title | Length |
1. | "Dangerzone" | 2:30 |
2. | "Live in Your Eyes" | 3:43 |
3. | "Addiction" | 4:06 |
Side B | |||
---|---|---|---|
No. | Title | Lyrics/Music | Length |
1. | "Daddy's Little Queen" (The Outsiders [nb 7] cover) | The Outsiders | 2:35 |
2. | "Anthem" | 2:29 | |
3. | "Nightlife" | 4:08 | |
Total length: | 19:31 |
China White
Production
Washington, D.C. hardcore, commonly referred to as DC hardcore, sometimes referred to in writing as harDCore, is the hardcore punk scene of Washington, D.C. Emerging in late 1979, it is considered one of the first and most influential punk scenes in the United States.
Skewbald/Grand Union, also known as 2 Songs, is the eponymous archival EP featuring the only studio recordings by American hardcore punk band Skewbald/Grand Union.
"Nazi Punks Fuck Off" was the fifth single by the Dead Kennedys. It was released in 1981 on Alternative Tentacles with "Moral Majority" as the B-side. Both are from the In God We Trust, Inc. EP, although the EP version is a different recording from the single version. The single included a free armband with a crossed-out swastika. The design was later adopted as a symbol for the anti-racist punk movement Anti-Racist Action.
Wasted Youth was a hardcore punk band in the early 1980s from Los Angeles, California. The band followed in the footsteps of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks. It was a prominent and popular act among the Los Angeles punk underground. Other bands active in the early 1980s Los Angeles punk scene were The Adolescents, T.S.O.L., Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Agent Orange, and The Stains.
(GI) is the debut and only studio album by American punk rock band the Germs. Often considered the first hardcore punk album, it was released in the United States in October 1979 on Slash Records with catalog number SR 103. The album was later released in Italy in 1982 by Expanded Music with the catalog EX 11. The album's title is an acronym for "Germs Incognito", an alternate name the band used to obtain bookings when their early reputation kept them out of Los Angeles-area clubs. After (GI)'s release, the band would only undertake one more recording session, for the soundtrack album to the Al Pacino's 1980 film Cruising. A year after the release of (GI), on December 7, 1980, vocalist Darby Crash committed suicide.
This Is Boston, Not L.A. is a hardcore punk compilation released in 1982. It is considered the definitive album from the Boston hardcore scene, as several of its most prominent bands appear on the record, namely, Jerry's Kids, the Proletariat, the Groinoids, the F.U.'s, Gang Green, Decadence, and the Freeze. For them, with the exception of the later, This Is Boston, Not L.A. was also their debut release. Al Barile's band, SSD, were asked to contribute, but they refused to participate.
Flex Your Head is a sampler album featuring early hardcore punk bands from the Washington, D.C. area. It was originally released in January 1982 on Dischord Records, with a pressing of 4,000 copies on vinyl record that sold out within one week; an additional 3,000 copies were released shortly after. In 1982, a third pressing of 2,000 copies was released under license in the United Kingdom by Alternative Tentacles. Each of the first three pressings featured a different front cover.
Dance with Me is the first full-length album by the American hardcore punk band T.S.O.L., released in 1981 though Frontier Records. While the band's eponymously titled debut EP, released earlier that year, had been filled with radical leftist lyrics, Dance with Me moved away from politics in favor of horror film- and gothic-inspired subject matter. The album includes T.S.O.L.'s most well-known song, the necrophilia-themed "Code Blue". Following the punk rock revival of the 1990s, Dance with Me was re-released by Epitaph Records in 1996 and by Nitro Records in 2007.
American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980–1986 is a documentary directed by Paul Rachman and written by Steven Blush. It is based on the book American Hardcore: A Tribal History also written by Blush. It was released on September 22, 2006 on a limited basis. The film features some early pioneers of the hardcore punk music scene including Bad Brains, Black Flag, D.O.A., Minor Threat, Minutemen, SSD, and others. It was released on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on February 20, 2007.
Beneath the Shadows is the second studio album by the American hardcore punk band T.S.O.L., released in 1983 through Alternative Tentacles. With the addition of keyboardist Greg Kuehn to the lineup, the band moved away from punk rock in favor of a gothic rock sound in the vein of The Damned and Siouxsie and the Banshees, alienating much of their hardcore audience in the process. Though the album was critically well received and led to the band being featured in director Penelope Spheeris' film Suburbia, it was largely rejected by their fanbase within the punk scene.
Written by Steven Blush, American Hardcore: A Tribal History is a journalistic book that relates the history of the hardcore punk movement that took place in Northern America between 1980 and 1986. It was first published by Feral House in October 2001.
For the poem of the same name see George Eliot and for the late 19th century novel by James Lane Allen see The Choir Invisible
Beach Blvd is a seminal compilation album featuring early Californian punk rock bands.
T.S.O.L. is the eponymously titled debut EP by the American hardcore punk band T.S.O.L., released in 1981 through Posh Boy Records. Its fast tempos and politically radical lyrics established the band as a major force in the southern California hardcore scene of the time. T.S.O.L. quickly moved away from leftist political subject matter, however, shifting in a gothic rock direction and changing labels to Frontier Records for their full-length album Dance with Me (1981). This led to a dispute with Posh Boy owner Robbie Fields, who claimed the band owed his label another EP. The two parties eventually reached a settlement in which Posh Boy gained the rights to T.S.O.L.'s 1982 EP Weathered Statues, combining it with the debut EP in the 1987 compilation album Thoughts of Yesterday: 1981–1982. Nitro Records purchased the master recordings from Posh Boy in 1997 and re-released the two EPs as the compilation T.S.O.L. / Weathered Statues.
Live '91 is a live album by the American hardcore punk band T.S.O.L., released in 1991 through Triple X Records. It marked a reunion of the band's original lineup of singer Jack Grisham, guitarist Ron Emory, bassist Mike Roche, and drummer Todd Barnes. At the time, the rights to the name "T.S.O.L." were held by Joe Wood and Mitch Dean, who had replaced Grisham and Barnes in 1984 and taken the band in a glam metal direction. Wood legally prevented the original members from using the name for their reunion, so they were billed by their four full names and Live '91 does not carry the name T.S.O.L. on its packaging.
Symbol Six is an American rock and roll band formed in Santa Monica, California in 1980 by Eric Leach, Phil George, Mark Conway, Donny Brook, Taz Rudd, and Steve Cooper. Originating in Los Angeles and Orange County, when the band started the average age of the band members was 15 years old. The band has played clubs such as the Cuckoo's Nest, Godzillas, and Bards Apollo. Symbol Six has played with Social Distortion, Bad Religion, T.S.O.L., 45 Grave, Youth Brigade, Descendents, RF7 and Agent Orange.
Red Cross, a six-song punk rock EP record, is the first stand-alone release by American rock band Red Cross.
Edward Curtiss Colver, also known as Ed Colver, is an American photographer, best known for his early punk photographs.
Steven Blush is an American author, journalist, record collector and film maker who is best known for his book American Hardcore and the movie of the same name. Blush has written five books, is the founder of Seconds magazine and has written articles for many magazines. Two of his books have been made into movies. Blush's work mainly specializes in hardcore punk music.