The Plugz - Live from the Kit Kat Club (recorded in Nov 7, 1982) (self released)(2025)(CD)

A fun release. The Plugz live at the Kit Kat Club from November 1982. This is a self release by Tony Marsico, bass player for The Plugz (and the Cruzados, and Bob Dylan, and Matthew Sweet). You can find him in Instagram.

While the band is described as a "Latino punk rock band", this release showcases the band moving beyond that classification. The energy is definitely there but the songs are more developed and maybe hint a little to what the The Cruzados became(?) In any event, this is quite good and worth getting. The Plugz were fairly well known in the Southern California. I think this release shows why. 

Rikk Agnew - All By Myself (1982) vinyl

This is for you Fullerton" is how this LP opens and we begin to hear the sounds of Orange County rock'n'roll with Rikk Agnew.

I am still finding used copies or, as in this case, reissued albums of records that my record store colleagues at Off The Record in San Diego played in the store.  While this is not the music that I was listening to or buying for myself, it is a record and a style of music that I must have absorbed during those days.  I know that Rikk played in another band out of Orange County (Fullerton) called The Adolescents.  I may need to pick up that album because I remember thinking it was good at the time. The funny thing is that many of those old "punk" Orange County bands were just good rock'n'roll bands. Here I am thinking of bands like Social Distortion and Agent Orange.  I am sure there are a lot more as well but I was not really into those bands at the time. Rikk plays all the instruments on this record hence the title. What does it sound like? It certainly is fast and it does have some of that surf element that I remember from the OC bands. This is good. It is just rock'n'roll!

OC Life

10

The Bags - Rock Starve (1987) vinyl

I use to work in a record store in San Diego, CA when I was in college. This would have been the early 80s. Like any good record store, the employees of the store had varied tastes. Some of the employees were into metal or punk, some into The Smiths, some into reggae, and some into other countless bands and types of music. When we worked, we all took turns playing records in the store. Funny thing, I do not remember a lot of conflict during this time. In any event, I would get exposed to a lot of records that I would normally not listen to or even know about. The Bags records was one of those records that our punk and metal guys use to play a lot. I do not remember if I ever bought this record back in the day but I distinctly remember listening to this record many times. I remembered thinking it was good.

Now, flash forward about 30 years (or so) and I am in Freakbeat records looking at their used bin and I stumble across this LP for 4.99! I had to buy it. I am playing it now and I am realizing just how great this album is. Memories.

For a taste of how good this is please listen to Love Sick Diane