Agent Orange

Agent Orange is an American punk rock band formed in Orange County, California in 1979. The band is one of the first to mix punk rock with surf music. They first gained attention for their song "Bloodstains," released on their debut 7" EP in 1979.

A demo of the song "Bloodstains" was given to Rodney Bingenheimer, a DJ at Pasadena radio station KROQ-FM. The song soon became one of his show's biggest hits.

Agent Orange is also considered to be the originator of "skate rock" after their music was used in the Vision Skateboard video Skate Visions that crowned them "King of the Skater Bands." That video spawned many imitators and is the best-selling skateboard music video of all time.

By way of an email from James Levesque, a founding member of Agent Orange, comes this origin story.

A number of punk bands on the West Coast such as Black Flag, Redd Kross, and China White used colors in their band names. In 1979, the horrors of the defoliant known as Agent Orange used in the war in Vietnam was still in the back pages of the newspaper. Levesque claims the bands interest in spying and being that they were one of the first punk bands in Orange County, CA was the catalyst for the name, though they were also aware of the political nature of the name.

The power trio's original lineup was Mike Palm on guitar and vocals, Steve Soto on bass, and Scott Miller on drums. Soto played on the original "Bl

Soto left the band to form The Adolescents and James Levesque was added on bass. The group recorded the Living in Darkness LP on Posh Boy Records in November 1981. "Bloodstains" was rerecorded and that version of the song later appeared in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

The band has had a number of lineup changes over the years and is still playing shows. They had a Brazilian tour in 2012.

As of this writing, the current lineup is Mike Palm: Vocals/Guitar; Bruce Taylor: Bass Guitar; Dusty Watson: Drums.

Sample some tracks: http://www.myspace.com/agentorange
Official site: http://www.agentorange.net