Rockin' at Ground Zero

The dirty, motored-up sound of Hollywood rock ’n’ roll is greasy and grinding on The Gears’ 1980 low-culture classic Rocking at Ground Zero. In fact, there’s enough punk, beach, and garage throwback to easily understand how future chart-toppers, such as The Go-Go's and Green Day, were fans of this band. Three-chord chestnuts abound, from punk-a-billy sing-alongs (“Baby Runaround,” “Darlin’ Baby,” “Elks Lodge Blues”), requisite surf punk (“Let’s Go to the Beach”), and suburban-sloth-turned-age-fear (“Teenage Brain,” “High School Girls”) to a time-honored be-yourself anthem (“Don’t Be Afraid to Pogo”). Between bountiful riffs, simple melodies, and a tongue-in-cheek Southern California ethos (the title track rocks its way through an old-fashioned nuclear attack), guitarist Kidd Spike (ex of overlooked L.A. punk legends The Controllers) and singer Axxel G. Grease had something great going on here. But in those days, you really didn’t have a chance unless you had the backing of a major record label, and landing a major label deal in the L.A. punk scene was unheard of.