In the United States, California is commonly associated with the film, music, and arts industries; there are numerous world-famous Californian musicians. New genres of music, such as surf rock and third wave ska, have their origins in California.
In God We Trust, Inc. is an EP by hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys and the first of the group's releases with drummer D. H. Peligro. The record is a screed against topics ranging from organized religion and Neo-Nazis, to the pesticide Kepone and the government indifference that worsened the effects of the Minamata disaster. In God We Trust, Inc. is also the first Dead Kennedys album released after the presidential election of Ronald Reagan and features the band's first references to Reagan, for which they—and hardcore punk as a genre—would become notorious.
The Locust was an American hardcore punk band from San Diego, California, known for their mix of grindcore aggression and new wave experimentation.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period.
Some Girls was an American hardcore punk band consisting of a collective of musicians who came from different backgrounds and all who had established hardcore bands.
Man Is the Bastard was an American hardcore punk band based in Claremont, California. The band existed from 1990 to 1997, releasing mostly vinyl splits, extended plays, and albums on obscure labels from around the world. By 1997, the group ended and members all went on to do other projects, such as the noise group Bastard Noise, which originally started out as a Man Is the Bastard side project. They are typically seen as part of the 1990s powerviolence movement.
Justin Pearson is an American musician and record label owner, known for being the vocalist and bassist in a number of San Diego–based noise rock, punk and grindcore bands, as well as running his record label Three One G Records. Starting off in the punk outfit Struggle in 1994, ensuing projects such as Swing Kids, The Locust, Dead Cross and Retox. He has collaborated with Kool Keith, Gabe Serbian, Karen O, Nick Zinner, Adam Gnade, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Asia Argento, The Bloody Beetroots, Silent, among many others.
31G Records, or Three One G, is a San Diego, California-based independent record label, started by musician Justin Pearson in 1994 and focusing on punk and experimental music. The label has released a number of albums and compilations in what has been described as "freak punk" and "spaz-rock." Musicians on the label frequently collaborate, creating supergroups such as Holy Molar, Some Girls, and Head Wound City. Three One G's roster has featured many noise rock bands.
Gouge Away is an American hardcore punk band based in Florida that formed in 2012. The band is influenced by post-hardcore and noise rock bands such as Pixies, The Jesus Lizard, Fugazi, Unwound, the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and Nirvana. Gouge Away released its debut album , Dies in 2016 to underground acclaim, and released its second album Burnt Sugar through Deathwish Inc. in 2018.
Swing Kids was a post-hardcore band from San Diego, California, during the mid-1990s. They were closely involved with and influenced by the forerunners of the San Diego hardcore punk scene of the 1990s.
Best Revenge was a queercore punk band from Los Angeles. They were active as a studio and live act from the beginning of 1998 until December 2002.
No Knife was a band from San Diego, California. They played an innovative form of rock that combined aspects of post-punk, post-hardcore, indie rock, and many other genres, influenced by a wide variety of acts, including Pitchfork, Pixies, the Cure, Erik Satie, Steel Pulse, Édith Piaf, and aMiniature. No Knife once won the San Diego Music Award for "Best Punk Rock Band."
Dissertation, Honey is the debut studio album by San Diego band The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, released on the Happy Couples Never Last label on June 17, 2003. Note that the intro and outro songs, "Exhibitionism" and "Monotonous" are excerpts from one of poet Kailani Amerson's spoken verse sessions.
Love in the Fascist Brothel is the second and final studio album by San Diego post-hardcore band The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, released on Revelation Records and Three One G on February 15, 2005, on compact disc and vinyl formats respectively. The album showed a significant change in sound from the band's previous full-length, focusing much more on the styles of noise rock rather than just jazz punk. The album's title, artwork, and lyrical themes act as political and social commentary on both the presidency of George W. Bush and punk subculture, which the band felt was "dead" by the time they recorded the album.
Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
Noise Ratchet is an alternative rock band originating from Southern California.
Dum Dum Girls was an American rock band, formed in 2008. It began as the bedroom recording project of singer and songwriter Dee Dee. She is currently based in Los Angeles. The name is a double homage to the Vaselines' album Dum Dum and the Iggy Pop song "Dum Dum Boys".
Crocodiles is a noise pop/indie pop band from San Diego, California, US. The group was formed in 2008 by core members Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell after the break-up of their former punk bands Some Girls and The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower. Crocodiles' sound has typically been likened to The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Archies, and Tommy James & The Shondells.
The High Back Chairs was a band from Washington, DC. Initially consisting of guitarist/vocalist Peter Hayes, guitarist Jim Spellman, bassist/vocalist Charles Steck, and drummer/vocalist Jeff Nelson, the group released its music on the Washington, D.C. punk record label, Dischord Records. The band eschewed the post-hardcore and hardcore punk sounds that Dischord was known for. Instead, the High-Back Chairs' music was highly melodic indie rock, owing more to power pop and jangle pop than to the band's punk rock roots. This was all the more notable since Nelson was a co-founder of Dischord and had played in the influential hardcore punk band, Minor Threat from 1980 to 1983. "Coming out at a time when grunge held a lot of sway in Amerindie land," Trouser Press later said of the band, "this breezy, supremely melodic, gutsy rock seemed almost noble."
Landscapes was a British melodic hardcore band based in Somerset, England. Formed in 2009, the band released one EP and two albums. They played at Hevy Music Festival and toured throughout Europe several times.
