Season 2, Episode 13 - The Crowd - Hidden Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach has punk rock roots right here in Surf City. The band "The Crowd" started with guys from Edison High School who played at many house parties in the late 70's and early 80's. In this last episode of Season 2, host Chris Epting takes us down the punk rock road with musical memories from Safari Sam's to the Golden Bear.

[@DevinRyanVitek]

We need one of these for China White. They’re barely spoken about and Dangerzone is one of the best punk records EVER.

[@Shikta-poobah67]

Then you’d have to dig back even deeper to the Outsiders, who were another one of the earliest HB punk bands, and they spawned both China White and the Blades. They finally released that Outsiders demo. Some early versions of songs that wound up on the Dangerzone EP.

[@cct7495]

What ever happened to James White?

[@geeelks6902]

Cool stuff. The Crowd and Huntington Beach are synonymous.

[@Erniegrow]

Dude. This is so cool. The demo of the Golden Bear was a disgrace. Thanks for preserving this important history. So glad I was able to grow up in it.

[@Shikta-poobah67]

Yeah I still can’t believe they tore that down. What a crime.

[@AlisoBob]

Thank you Chris Epting and Jim Kaa !!!

[@Shikta-poobah67]

This was great! Love the Crowd. I grew up in Texas so I missed out on that early punk scene in HB, but I was getting all the records back then and going to see the bands that would tour through TX (unfortunately the Crowd never made it there back then). I finally got to see the Crowd in the late 80’s when I moved to L.A. They definitely didn’t disappoint. Nice to see that Jim Kaa is doing great and the Crowd is still at it. So many great HB bands from that era, too many to list. It’d be great to see a full length documentary on HB punk 1977-1982.

[@dashcamviewer]

I still have "Right Time" on my playlist. Wasn't it on the Rodney on the Rock album? Such a fun song. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

[@l.e.stewart989]

Some of my greatest memories were made at those backyard parties!

[@masterfudog]

I saw the Fly Boys there with The Crowd at one of the parties!

[@Shikta-poobah67]

Flyboys were great. Like a Southern California version of Buzzcocks almost. They only put out the one single and one EP, but it’s great stuff. After the EP on Frontier they changed their name to Choir Invisible and kind of went in an Echo & The Bunnymen/Joy Division direction. That stuff isn’t half bad either.

[@yecats953]

Love it! Love his passion for the music and HB culture. Always entertaining to hear the stories of our city, big and small.

[@MrBillagordon]

Those were wild times. Grew up off of Banning and Bushard St, right around the corner. Went to Eadar, Gisler, and Edison. Cops really cracked down on the house parties, 3 songs in, and the cops and helicopter were on it. Everyone scurrying away with whatever beer you had left. That was half the fun, running from the cops

[@fjhumphries]

very cool! love the history lesson

[@cftvdata]

Their first album - A World Apart - is genuinely one of the best albums ever made, and is criminally unknown and underrated. An extremely potent swirling of the then-burgeoning raw beach-punk sound with a highly attuned sense and appreciation of melody far beyond that of their peers. If they'd been born 15 years later, those guys would have been mega-stars. That early SoCal punk scene was such a unique and incredible time in music history, with so many classic albums coming out of it. The second Alleycats record, the Middle Class LP, both Plugz records, the Flesheaters' Minute to Pray LP, China White's Frontier LP, the Salvation Army record, Beach Boulevard, Hell Comes to Your House... too many to count, man. Lightning in a bottle. Thanks for taking the time to do such a fascinating deep dive into one of my favourite bands from this era.

[@markmorenousa]

nice!! very cool stuff. Be great to do a piece on the Blue Death Pads, where Chris Hawk had his shaping room and The Vandals had their rehearsal studio, which I live in on 5th st..

[@daphnemalinsky3596]

Great interview, Jim!

[@sarahjj4362]

Do an episode on surfside punk history!

[@Shikta-poobah67]

Outsiders, Slashers, Non-Fascist

[@gerbsvizsla]

Tracy Gardner lol...nectar! lol....Barry Miranda drums dillys...crazy times growing up at Edison HS in HB...most of us were Eader Beavers :P

[@GoldandAppel]

Has anyone ever heard of The Burglars?

[@ncwdane]

Remember the "No Fat Chicks" house ?

[@adonisvancampen3292]

RAD!

[@mediumrick7667]

Jim Kaa, Jimmy Trash, Jay Trash, Tracy and Barrycuda. The original items from South HB.

[@HumanInterested]

I sat next to Jim Kaa on a plane on the way to Vegas, great dude, THE CROWD rocks. Great work Chris.

[@Tucko1]

The Crowd rules! One of the few old punk bands that got BETTER in their old age....

[@steviedrt156]

True...have you heard their new track Wrong From Right? Instant Classic. As far I know it’s only available on the “Unusual Suspects” Hostage Comp. Maybe it’s a primer for a new release, hopefully a full length...

[@stevendphoto]

Very cool, just found this, glad to see Jim is doing well, I met him back in the early 80's, saw the Crowd a few times, their lead singer used to hangout at our apartment (in HB) and later married my roommate. I'll leave out names, but some people will know who I am talking about...

[@stephan1467]

You should do one for The Vandals original version. Just do all the HB rock bands for that matter

[@steviedrt156]

That’s The Minutemen at! Safari Sam’s. Ok, I’ll bite...

[@lesliehelmick7396]

Flyboys were the funnest 🎉🎉🎉

[@jodybanks5344]

You should do one for White Caps

[@bryanfuknc]

this is the stuff chris! yeeeww! 🤙🤙

[@outdoorfreedom9778]

In 1970 I came home from my time in the Army, I was 22. I moved out of HB in 76 and missed the punk era completely. It's fun to know it did happen in HB for a while.

[@WULFMA5TER]

🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@jeffclancy4811]

Toots ! Fame at last. Good for you.

[@chuckfan1]

The Crowd..... The who? Umm yeah. A never was, never were band

[@GoldandAppel]

They were local. LOCAL.

[@chuckfan1]

@@GoldandAppel yeah, thanks for the all caps... which doesnt make it more relevant. There are about 87,00000 local bands , everywhere...

[@stephan1467]

Yeah I love the music of that era so good. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2qqiomwrruIjg@@GoldandAppel

[@Andrew-kb4px]

They have records out. Also the Singer invented the Huntington Beach Shuffle, which evolved into slam dancing.