Love Canal is an amazing punk band from So Cal. They have been together for over 30 years. They have an amazing album out and have appeared on some great comps back in the day. The amazing thing is the fact they were a one point considered a Mystic Records band, although they just did the comps. The band has been spending more time the last decade or so with family and jobs, but they are coming back... I got Arab to tell their story...
Introduce yourself
Arab, Guitar player of Love Canal, Father, Husband and all around average joe.....
How did the band start?
Love Canal started out of the remains of two bands from Huntington Beach that had broken up, I was in The Rebellions with Louie Garcia (bass)and Bobby Bop (drums) and another guy named Greg Hill, it was Gregs band and he was leaning towards more of a Rockabilly thing which was getting pretty popular in 1980-81, the rest of us wanted to play straight up Punk Rock so we ventured out on our own, our first singer was Mike Ball the OG guitar player of Suicidal Tendencies, he was living in Huntington Beach with Tony Alva, they had a band called The Skoundrelz Mike played guitar in, Mike came to our first few practices and sang, we also had this girl Kristi McCracken whos sister was the original guitar player in Secret Hate that sat in with us a few times. Not long after The singer of The Skoundrelz (Mr. Kerry) who was also one of my oldest friends since 1970 left The Skoundrelz, so we asked him to play with us.
How did you come up with the name?
After Kerry joined we didnt have a name yet, we were just writing new tunes, once we realized this was going to be a band we needed a name, Kerry threw Love Canal out there with a handful of other names and I thought Love Canal sounded punk so that was it...... Some people think we got it from the Flipper song 'Love Canal", not the case....
Who would you say are your influences?
When the band first started the 70's had just passed, we all had grown up in the 60's and 70's and grew up listening to Rock and Roll, as a guitar player I liked Hendrix, Pete Townsend and Leslie West of Mountain, Punk was fresh and new and just a stripped down Rock and Roll without the makeup and long hair, I seen the Ramones in 1976 on their first tour of the U.S. at a local fair in Huntington Beach, they had played the infamous Golden Bear the night before, at first I just thought they were some biker band, the next year they came back and I seen them at The Goldenwest Ballroom in Norwalk with The Dogs and Vanhalen opening, it was all over from there on out, the next day I went out and got a leather jacket....... So, I guess the Ramones were the first real punk influence, The Pistols, Clash, Talking Heads, Pretenders, Damned, Buzzcocks, Devo followed and within the next year local bands were popping up every where that would influence us, The Crowd in Huntington, Weirdos in L.A. were two of my early favorites that we would go see.
What is the punk scene like in So Cal?
When it first started it was kinda odd, you had a mix of all kinds of freaks and geeks, jocks and what not, I was a pro skateboarder in the late 70's and the skaters were really the first ones to take punk and make it their own, pogoing and worming were followed by slam dancing that Jim Trash of The Crowd is credited with starting. bands were starting everywhere, O.C. had several of its own scenes happening, The Beach Punks in HB with The Crowd, TSOL, China White and The Vandals, then inland a little ways in Fullerton you had The Detours, Agent Orange, Social Distortion and The Adolescents. The bands brought with them a pretty bad element, in LA it was more of the art crowd doing the punk thing, in OC it was skateboarders, surfers and every other malcontent that was looking for an outlet or excuse to Fuck Shit Up......
Describe the song writing process...
I usually come up with a guitar part and Kerry would come up with the lyrics, then we all jam and arrange stuff till it seems it works, its punk, so theres not alot of thought that goes into it, 3 chords and its a song..... Now days everybody is contributing so we have a pretty good mix of styles and songs.
What have you released?
We did a bunch of Compilations in the early 80's, a few MYSTIC comps, one with M.I.A. and Decry on Insane Indistries, we put a full length L.P. out on National Trust Records that was home of The Vandals and M.I.A., We took a hiatus and everybody got married and had kids then Kerry and I got the band back together, Louie and Bobby coudnt do it so we recruited a few other people over the last 5 years, been writing new material and just recorded 18 songs, we have a 6 song sampler CD we been tossing around, and have a 7" coming out in a couple weeks with Hostage records that has a song called the Rotten Ones thats kinda of about growing up in H.B. and then we did a cover of The Big Boys "Not In It To Lose", we plan on releasing a full length album or CD this year if we can come up with the funds or get somebody to put it out for us.....
Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?
I been keeping a list of bands we have played with since we started, there is hundreds of bands, some of the more popular bands.....
X, Adolescents, TSOL, Black Flag, The Cult, FEAR, Circle Jerks, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, The Dickies, The Cramps, D.O.A., GBH, The Exploited, Vandals, Descendents, Youth Brigade, Kraut, Corrosion of Conformity, DRI, D.I. The Gears, Angry Samoans, The Crowd, Wasted Youth to name a couple handfuls......
Do you prefer to do shows at large venues or small clubs?
I like both, we have been pretty fortunate to play some pretty big shows over the years, we played the legendary Olympic Auditorium 3 times, headlining it once for an Anti Nukes benefit and most recently played the Goldenvoice 30 year anniversary show at The Santa Monica Civic. I really dont care where we play big or small, I prefer all ages shows but those are harder to come by now days cause all the all ages clubs are drying up, 21+ shows are kind of a drag but sometimes thats all there is to do......
Have you toured?
We have only done Western States stuff, nowadays is even harder as we all have families and jobs, hopefully we can get to AZ and NV this year at least.....
Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
TSOL is always fun, we are playing with them in a couple weeks with The Smut Peddlers and Shattered Faith which is gonna be a crazy show!!!!, I would love to play with The Damned or The Buzzcocks as they are 2 of my favorite bands.
Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?
San Diego has always been alot of fun, but my favorite would just be an all ages show, the kids appreciate the music and they come just for that, 21+ shows seems people are just there to get drunk and be an ass.....
What do you see is the future of Love Canal?
If you would have asked me this same question when we started, I never would have guessed that 30 years later we would still be doing it, I love playing my guitar and making music.
Right now we have a great lineup, Warren Renfrow (Final Conflict, Cadillac Tramps, Manic Hispanic) played bass with us for a year, he had other comittments so Bob Gnarly(The Veins, No Crisis, Plain Wrap, Youth Brigade) took his place, James Lugo (China White, The Skewz) played drums for a couple years and quite so Carter Blitch is splitting time between us and JFA on drums and Carey Howe (Leatherwolf, 420 Coma) is playing guitar with me. these 3 guys are all amazing and come to the band with some heavy credentials, the song writing and playing has really stepped up a few notches and we went from just being kind of a joke band to taking it a little more serious. Hopefully we can milk a few more years out of it, theres not a huge demand for 50 year old guys playing in a punk band, but I think our music is holding its own.
How can people contact the band?
We have a Facebook page that we just recently put together: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Love-Canal/200465053350440
I do most the booking and can be reached at lovecanal@live.com
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