Slammin' to The Oldies: Agent Orange Plays Annual Surf Punk Soiree At Churchill's

32 years ago, Mike Palm's surf punk trio Agent Orange slipped their debut single, "Bloodstains," to Rodney Bingenheimer at KROQ. The rest is surf & skate punk history. Agent Orange's blend of surf rock guitar riffs and hardcore punk tempos became the soundtrack for both guerrilla pool skates and the companies that got rich by video taping them. 

While Palm hasn't bothered to make an Agent Orange album since 1996, he keeps the endless summer alive by touring every winter, making a nearly annual January stop in South Florida. He's so regular, that one of my old bands opened up for him - in January, 1993.

In 2008 he picked up Broward ex-pat Surf Punk guitarist Laramie Dean, who serves as his road manager/second guitarist on the 4-5 surf rock classics he plays a night. Dean once served as Dick Dale's road manager, which is only fitting seeing how Palm groomed Dale's most recent bassist.

So tonight, take a break from the seasonal Clockwork Orange-like barrage of televised football and hit Churchill's.  The interactions between the mixed bag of hot topic kids and old schoolers who hang 10 on Palm's guitar heroism should be way more entertaining than Rams vs Seahawks fighting to be the most mediocre NFL team to ever make the playoffs.