Oi!!! 999 and Considering 30+ Years of Hardcore

As the garage/trash rock part of punk rock began to gain a foothold among mainstream music fans, hardcore started poking its head out and beyond its subcult audience... in Los Angeles, the South Bay was nurturing this movement, as was Orange County, with LA's own Germs laying the foundation for that movement at the dawn of the LA punk era...

Over in the UK, the Oi and Skinhead subcults presented lads with much more dystopia to protest, resulting in a vibrant genre of music.

Thirty years ago this week, 999 brought the Oi to Los Angeles, playing the Whisky and Orange County's Cuckoo's Nest.

Ironically, my favorite image of them is this one, above, arriving at their Tower Records in-store in a town car. That's punk.