A Look Back at the California Psychedelic Punk Rock Scene

A look back at the psychedelic punk rock scene in California and how it influenced the music of the time.

The Psychedelic Punk Rock Scene in California

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Punk Rock scene in California was experimenting with new sounds and styles, incorporating elements of Psychedelia into their music. This new style of Punk Rock, often referred to as “Psychedelic Punk”, would go on to have a significant impact on the Punk Rock scene in California and beyond. In this article, we’ll take a look back at the origins of Psychedelic Punk in California, and how it continues to influence Punk Rock today.

The beginnings of the scene

The Psychedelic Punk Rock scene in California can be traced back to the early 1980s with bands such as Redd Kross and Saccharine Trust. These bands blended the sounds of punk rock with the more experimental elements of psychedelic music. The result was a unique and often mind-bending style of punk rock that would go on to influence many other bands in the years to come.

The California Psychedelic Punk Rock scene reached its height in the mid-1990s with bands such as The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Kopper Kings, and The Warlocks. These bands took the sound of Psychedelic Punk Rock to new levels with their use of feedback, distortion, and extended jams. The music they created was often dark and chaotic, but also had a strange beauty to it that was unlike anything else being made at the time.

While the California Psychedelic Punk Rock scene is no longer as active as it once was, the influence of these bands can still be heard in the music of today.

The influence of the scene

The California psychedelic punk rock scene was a music and cultural movement that developed in the state of California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The scene was marked by its DIY ethic, its focus on creating new and innovative music, and its embrace of non-mainstream lifestyles.

The scene’s most visible manifestation was in the form of punk rock bands who blended elements of punk rock, psychedelia, and Garage rock. This sound was then adopted by a number of other styles of Californian bands, including Surf Rock, Hardcore Punk, and Funk.

The California psychedelic punk rock scene had a significant influence on Music culture in the state, as well as on the development of American independent music scenes in general. A number of key bands and labels emerged from the scene, including the Avatars, Black Flag, SST Records, and Alternative Tentacles.

The Bands of the Psychedelic Punk Rock Scene

The California psychedelic punk rock scene of the 1990s was influential in the development of the punk rock subgenre known as “psychedelic punk”. The scene was created by a group of bands who blended elements of punk rock, garage rock, and psychedelic rock. The result was a sound that was raw, energetic, and often trippy. Some of the most well-known bands of the scene include The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks, and Thee Oh Sees.

The Grateful Dead

It is hard to overstate the Grateful Dead’s influence on the counterculture — and not just in their native Northern California, but all across America. The band’s free-form jams, longevity and devoted fanbase (the “Deadheads”) made them the enduring standard-bearers of the hippie ethos long after the Summer of Love had ended. The Dead also became one of rock’s most successful touring bands, regularly playing to large crowds throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s; in fact, they were still packing arenas when frontman Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995. In 2007, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Doors

The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. The group consisted of vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were one of the most controversial and influential rock acts of the 1960s and early 1970s.

The band united Beat poetry with psychedelic rock and are now widely considered one of the most important and influential bands of their era. They were one of the first American bands to score a major hit with a song that contained explicit references to illegal drugs (“Light My Fire”), and they popularized the use of Latin-tinged rhythms in rock (“The Crystal Ship”).

The Doors had a string of successful singles that provided commercial as well as critical acclaim. Their self-titled debut album was released in January 1967 and peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It contained their breakout hit single “Light My Fire”, which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1987 and has sold over three million copies in the United States.

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group’s original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. The Beach Boys are one of the best-selling bands of all time; Billboard magazine lists them as the second-most successful rock band in history after the Beatles. The group has had 36 US Billboard Top 40 hits (including four number-one singles), 56 UK hit singles (including four number-one singles), and a US cash box total of over 100 million records sold worldwide. They have sold in excess of 75 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

The Legacy of the Psychedelic Punk Rock Scene

The term “psychedelic punk rock” might seem like an oxymoron, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of SoCal bands blended the two genres to create a new, mind-bending sound. The Psychedelic Punk Rock scene in California was unlike anything that had come before, and it left a lasting legacy.

The influence on music

The Psychedelic Punk Rock scene of California in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a time and place where music, fashion, art, and drug use all came together to create a unique subculture. This subculture would go on to influence many aspects of punk rock music, fashion, and art in the years that followed.

In terms of music, thePsychedelic Punk Rock scene was responsible for the development of Californian punk rock as a whole. The bands that came out of this scene were influenced by the British punk rock scene but blended it with elements of garage rock and psychedelia to create a sound that was uniquely their own. Some of the most influential bands to come out of this scene include the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and the Minutemen.

The fashion of the Psychedelic Punk Rock scene was also highly influential. The DIY aesthetic that characterized punk rock fashion was taken to new levels by Californian punks who integrated elements of psychedelic clothing and drug-related paraphernalia into their look. This style would go on to inspire punk fashion in other parts of the world in the years that followed.

Finally, thePsychedelic Punk Rock scene was also responsible for introducing some new ideas about art into the punk rock world.Psychedelic art became popular among Californian punks and helped to visually define the look of punk rock . This style of art would go on to be adopted by other scenes in different parts of the world.

The influence on culture

Psychedelic punk rock was a subgenre of punk rock that developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The genre is generally associated with the California punk scene and was distinguished by its use of distorted and effects-laden guitars, pastoral lyrics, and hallucinogenic drug use.

Psychedelic punk rock bands often explored themes of personal freedom and transgression, experimenting with mind-altering drugs such as LSD. The music was frequently compared to that of the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground, two other influential bands of the time.

The psychedelic punk rock scene had a significant impact on popular culture, influencing fashion, art, and film. Many of the bands who played in this genre went on to achieve commercial success, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, and Sublime.