Danger Zone

China White, “Danger Zone” (Frontier, 1981);
Flyboys, “Flyboys” (Frontier, 1980)
These were the first two releases from early L.A. HC/punk label Frontier. Named after the brand of designer heroin that would soon kill Darby Crash, China White were as malevolent, fast and snotty as you’d expect – lean and metallic HC with beach-punk hooks and a lyrical focus on classical L.A. wasted-teen/dark-side-of-paradise thematics. The Flyboys were quite different, filtering a mid-‘60s melodic, minor-key L.A. folk/garage sound through the stripped-down propulsion of Masque-era L.A. punk.
Picks: China White: 1, 2, 4; Flyboys: 7, 9 (“So Juvenile,” not-to-be-missed for devotees of catchy garage-punk)