But I am. 

No really. After 15 hours of flying and spacing out on a nine-hour time flop, I’m feeling totally out of it, but always so stoked to come home to SF. Although, I can’t really consider myself a true west coaster after only moving to the bay just over a year ago, I have always felt an immediate kinship with the city of San Francisco, which can be exemplified through my relationship with west coast punk. Where it all started for most of us middle finger-raising teenage punks. 

Even though some of this music was a little before my generation, it resonated pretty strongly with me. It’s important to find ways to harness feelings of anger, frustration, transition, and the absurd. Unhappy with my deeply alienating surroundings growing up in South West Florida, punk was my outlet for all of these feelings, allowing me to be comfortable in these spaces. I get flashbacks to moments of my youth, blasting mixes of various FAT bands while discovering some of my favorite music, which was and still is the best feeling ever. 

I especially felt compelled to make this playlist with all the excitement over the Fat Wrecked for 25 Years tour and the two-day festival that will shut down the streets of sf NEXT WEEKEND. So many good shows, so many good people, SO MUCH to look forward to. Shoutout to my OGSF punx, Tony Tex in Western Addiction, for introducing me to a few of these bands and Chicken in Dead to Me, for helping me get through life on a daily basis. Through these people and their music, I’ve found an immediate sense of comfort that makes me happy to be here. 

Anyways, no California punk mix is complete without distilled angsty vocals and agro af chord switches that are still stirring up adolescent angst even decades afters their releases. Destroy your last brain cells with this set of classic sounds of west coast punk and hardcore. If it’s too loud, you’re too old. 

playlist by barbara

music is for sampling purposes only – please support local record shops and musicians at their shows!