Birthed in L.A.’s late-’70s underground music scene—back when punk rock was still in its infancy—The Dickies are one of the longest-running and most entertaining punk bands to ever take the stage.

Formed in the San Fernando Valley in in 1977, The Dickies hit upon a winning formula with songs like “Stukas over Disneyland,” and “We Aren’t The World”—all of which feature fast tempos, simple chord changes and catchy melodies paired with goofy and satirical lyrics. It is a sound that would influence SoCal pop punk bands for years to come.

As they approach the four-decade mark, the band’s founding members—guitarist Stan Lee and singer Leonard Graves Phillips—continue to draw excited crowds.

“It’s bigger than ever!” Lee says of the band’s recent stints on the road. “There are lots of kids showing up—that is the one plus to the internet blowing up the record industry. There are young people coming up that know the words, and that’s got to be through YouTube and things of that nature.”

One of the Dickies best-known tracks is the theme song to the 1988 cult horror classic, Killer Klowns From Outer Space—which was filmed in nearby Santa Cruz and Watsonville.

The campy track paired perfectly with scenes of evil clowns tossing flesh-melting pies and trapping hapless human victims in cotton candy cocoons—even though Lee says he and his bandmates knew very little about the film when writing the song.

“It was just the movie title, I went over to Leonard’s and he had that riff,” Lee says. “I brought it into (the filmmakers’) office and they said, ‘Sold!’” Another well-known Dickies song, “Banana Split,” was used in the superhero-action-dramady Kick-Ass.

As the Dickies look back on almost 40 years together, Lee points to the basic foundation of the band as reason for their legacy and longevity.

“I think it’s the songs,” he says. “They hold up, it just proves that we were right. There was lots of animosity toward us and punk rock back then. People were saying that it was terrible and we just stuck to our guns. I don’t know… You stick around long enough and you get respectability—just like hookers and old buildings.”

The Dickies
Wed, 8pm, $16-$18
The Ritz, San Jose

Local pop-punk band Stickup Kid made headlines when they were given a last-second gig opening up for Green Day at SXSW this year. But the reality is, these guys have been out in the Bay Area punk scene for years, DIY touring and self-releasing albums when they were just out of high school. They released their second LP, Future Fire, this year on Adeline Records and will no doubt be on the road again in no time. Lead singer Tony Geravesh shars his top eight albums of 2013.

A Wilhelm Scream – Partycrasher
Wilhelm Scream is a band I’ve loved since I was 15 years old. They’re the type of band that you have to see live before you really understand what they’re all about. The energy they bring to their live shows is unlike any other band I’ve seen. They have a way of one-upping themselves with every release and Partycrasher follows suit. This record is fun; It really gives you a vibe that makes you feel like you’re crashing a party. It goes through a variety of emotions and shreds your face off simultaneously.

According to Dave Parasite, his band the Parasites were one of about three pop-punk bands in all New Jersey in the late ’80s. “There wasn’t even enough to have a four band pop-punk show,” he says.

Things turned around in 1992, when Parasite moved to Berkeley to be part of the bubbling pop-punk scene that would eventually give birth to Green Day. He reformed the band with all new members and jumped right into the East Bay scene like it was his hometown.

“I saw which way the wind was blowing,” Parasite says. “I moved across the country and it was the best decision I ever made for the band.”

Parasite had a label friend in Berkeley that set this new band up for him. He even booked several shows before Parasite arrived in town. Right off the bat, they were playing with NOFX, the Mr. T Experience, Green Day and a bunch of other noteworthy bands. As the scene got bigger, so did the Parasites, but they also would suffer a backlash from the punk community when pop-punk went mainstream—even though they were never mainstream.

“When Green Day hit, we were a band that sounded like them, from the same town, it couldn’t have been better,” Parasite says. “When the punk people went against Green Day, they also went against us. That’s how it was.”

But they didn’t sound exactly like Green Day or the other East Bay pop-punk bands. Yes, they played fast, energetic pop songs, but they broke the Ramones’ three chord mold and added a lot of subtle, complex changes and structural oddities, taking elements from ’70s power-pop groups like Cheap Trick and the Beat.

“I don’t want to be a Ramones-core band,” Parasite says. “It’s like you got to move on from that. I never know what I’m playing and I actually make up weird chords I can’t find on the chord charts.”

If anything, Parasite attempted to model his band after the Descendants, even if it’s not immediately apparent. “I’ve always just been trying to write Descendants’ songs, but I’m not them so I don’t sound like them,” Parasite says.

While most of the other ’90s pop-punk bands have broken up, the Parasites have plodded along, touring and releasing material on a consistent basis. They have a total of 10 albums and 22 singles under their belt. Other than Parasite, who plays guitar and sings lead vocals, the members change frequently. Current members David Delarosa (guitar), Jason Duarte (bass) and John Perrin (drums) have all been in the band between two months and a year-and-a-half.

When the Parasites tour these days, the turnouts are hit and miss. But even at poorly attended shows, Parasite often meets at least one kid that is obsessed with the Parasites and has waited for years to see them play.

“That happens all the time. It shows that I didn’t waste my time that much,” Parasite says.

The Parasites play at Cafe Stritch in San Jose on Thursday September 5 at 11pm. Free admission.

Mixtapes are one of a few bands (like Joyce Manor and Lemuria) that have had near instant overwhelming success in the punk community via interest from punknews.org and online resources.

Punk kids immediately went crazy for their first EP, Maps in 2010, despite it not offering anything particularly innovative to punk rock—it just had the right blend of bouncy, catchy songwriting and sweaty, fast-paced energy.

By the end of 2011, they had over 30 songs released and in 2012, they released their debut full length, Even on the Worst Nights, which continued with their formula of infectious hooks, hyper-punk rock instrumentation and dueling male/female vocals—only a little more refined.

In a lot of ways, Mixtapes’s music comes off like fellow pop-punker, Lemuria, but not nearly as dark, nor do they discuss relationships and their emotional landscape with as much nuance. Instead they focus on the everyday details of their lives and mix it up with plenty of humor.

It’s almost like listening to a friend ramble on about their day. It’s packed with so much random information and unrelated jokes. This isn’t to say it’s not without heavier topics. There’s just simply so much humor—or in some cases optimism—used to offset the feelings of doom and gloom. (“We get scared, so we stay. We’re so comfortable in the saddest way. What’s the point? It’s missing. So let’s cut the bullshit and get to living.”)

Some of the best lines, though, are those random bits of obscure humor. (“You keep listening to that Bon Iver record/I don’t get it, but maybe that’s the point.”) It’s the kind of material that cheers you up for no good reason, when you’re feeling down for no good reason.

Mixtapes play Musik, inc on Monday October 8th at 5pm. Tickets are $10.