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Agent
Orange is a relatively unknown punk band hailing from
Southern California. However, unlike many of the scene's
other regulars, AO strayed away from the heaviness of
hardcore. They were one of the first punk bands to embrace
surf guitar, and generally had more pop sensibility
than one would expect from an early SoCal band. Living
in Darkness is a testament to that; a rerelease of the
band's debut album with some bonus material that highlights
their influential and unique sound. Many of the tracks
contain dark and depressing lyrics, warranting the album's
title, but interestingly enough the album is far from
downtrodden. Tracks like "Everything Turns Grey"
and "No Such Thing" are prime examples of
AO's musical style, but it's hard to pick favorites
from this great CD. Other notables are a cover of Dick
Dale's "Miserlou", the hardcore-ish "El
Dorado", and an interview with the band from 1981.
The only thing that really detracts from many of the
songs is the thin bass sound. In the interview, the
band claims that they made many mistakes in the hasty
recording of the album, but that's the only one I've
been able to pick out so far. Nevertheless, Living in
Darkness is a classic punk album from a crucial yet
severely underrated band. Anyone looking for good surf
punk or even pop punk should check this out.
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