Here's another tidbit of news from Southern California. I just read that longtime local punkers, Pennwise, have left Epitaph Records after some 18 years.
Now, if you are over 11 years old, you understand the significance this has on the surfing world. Pennywise was part of the backbone of a Southern California punk revival in the early 90's. They were core enough to honor Hermosa Beach predecessors Black Flag, and melodic enough to reach a young, new audience.
Part of the way they reached the kids of the time was through surf and skate vids. Then young filmmaker,Taylor Steele, found that the short, three-chord masterpieces would make the perfect soundtrack for his indie-budget surf films. His first few releases, Momentum and Good Times, were chock full of Epitaph stalwarts like NOFX, Bad Religion, and Rancid. Pennywise was right there through Loose Change.
If we can remember life before Myspace, many of us would read the credits of our favorite surf and skate videos to learn who the bands were and what labels they were on.
That's how we'd found the Hoodoo Gurus, TSOL and Agent Orange even before Steele. It was a way to avoid the constant crap rotation on MTV. Then you would dig deeper into the underground. Pennywise and Steele helped build that label. From some time, the growth of Epitaph and Poor Specimen were intertwined.
"No one was really excited about doing the next Pennywise record at Epitaph," frontman, Jim Lindgerg told the OC Register, "You could almost sense it in the air there: 'We love you guys, but we gotta do something new.'"
Of course they weren't excited. They have more important music to publish like Matchbook Romance, The Higher, and other music that makes me want to gouge my eardrums (The Draft, Bouncing Souls, and BR not withstanding.)
I remember some vicious circle pits for P-Wise about 14 years ago, but the music never changed much from one record to the next. I'll admit that the last Pennywise album I bought was "Full Circle" in 1997, so I am ignorant to their last five releases (though Unknown Road will always have a place in my heart.) Plus, the shows started to feel more like high school gym class than a subcultural movement.
But no disrespect to the boys. They proved their mettle on an independent label and being road warriors of the Punk-O-Rama/Warped days.
The bigger story is that Pennywise will be releasing their new album "Reason to Believe" (coincidently the name of another Southern California band) for free online. But you can read about that in the music press. I don't think they're going to be on any surf soundtracks anytime soon.
But I wonder if my "Wilcard" 7-inch is worth anything now?