SPILL BOOK REVIEW: NATE JACKSON AND DANIEL KOHN – TEARING DOWN THE ORANGE CURTAIN: HOW PUNK ROCK BROUGHT ORANGE COUNTY TO THE WORLD

NATE JACKSON AND DANIEL KOHN – TEARING DOWN THE ORANGE CURTAIN: HOW PUNK ROCK BROUGHT ORANGE COUNTY TO THE WORLD

DA CAPO

BOOK REVIEW BY GERROD HARRIS

Over the years, especially the last decade, many authors have dedicated their efforts through documenting regional music scenes of different eras. These have often manifested in their own analysis and oral histories. While many have been used to detail and explore various New York City and Los Angeles based punk communities, none have been solely dedicated to that of Orange County, that is until now. As such, Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn’s Tearing Down The Orange Curtain: How Punk Rock Brought Orange County To The World follows the development of the OC scene from its small, fringe origins, as it persisted through the ‘70s, made waves in the ‘80s, and began to shape the direction of modern and alternative rock throughout the ’90s.

Opening with a foreword from Social Distortion’s Mike Ness, Tearing Down The Orange Curtain is immediately gripping, pulling the reader in with a chronological walk through as the Orange County alternative community grew out of seemingly a single venue and a handful of bands in the ‘70s. Among them is Social Distortion, with Ness playing the first protagonist of Jackson and Kohn’s narrative. While the book does an excellent job of looking at the scene as a whole, through interviews, quotes, and commentary from a wide array of artists and industry figures alike, they have effectively hitched their story onto key bands to emerge from this era. In doing so, the reader sees the growth, and growing pains, of the OC community their the various ups and downs within these careers, as they use bands like Social Distortion, and later, The Offspring and No Doubt, as a reflection for the growing momentum of the scene.

Through this, Jackson and Kohn have crafted an expert look at these bands through a well-researched lens of primary and secondary sources, making for an immersive reading experience. While, as an outsider it may be easy to group all West Coast punk scenes together, Jackson and Kohn make an incredibly compelling case for the individuality of Orange County punk and the importance it had in steering the course that punk rock would take in the coming decades. As such, Jackson and Kohn have effectively paid homage to the artistry and legacy of an often overlooked and underrated community of musicians, songwriters, and bands.

Tearing Down The Orange Curtain is the definitive book on Orange County punk rock as authors Jackson and Kohn explore the regional scene, and the global impact it would have. By exploring the careers of the likes of Social Distortion, Sublime, No Doubt, and The Offspring, among many others, Jackson and Kohn expertly differentiate the musical, social, and cultural differences that operated Orange County from other punk scenes, particularly LA, and examine the impact through the rise of punk, ska, alternative rock, and pop punk as the region spawned some of the era’s defining voices. As such, Jackson and Kohn’s work is an essential narrative for understanding punk rock of the last four decades and is an incredibly nostalgic read that, to my knowledge, is the first of its kind to provide such a critical focus to Orange County and the wave of music it would spawn.

ISBN-10: 0306832968
ISBN-13:‎ 978-0306832963

PURCHASE TEARING DOWN THE ORANGE CURTAIN: HOW PUNK ROCK BROUGHT ORANGE COUNTY TO THE WORLD VIA