Agent Orange - When You Least Expect It . . . (1983)

"O.K. so Scott learned a new fancy drum fill and is determined to show us all that damn fill."

The whole band had to be thinking that during the recording of "Its Up To Me and You," because Scott plays the hell out of that one fill. It is a great song, and the fill is lovely the first time, but Neil Peart needed to have a chat with Scott about overkilling a fill. 

When I think of Agent Orange I think of skaters, Flipside magazine, and my continually goofing them up with The Effigies, for some reason. I think I had a comp. cassette back in the day that had both Agent Effigies on it, back to back, and I just always goofed them up. 

Their cover of "Somebody To Love" is pretty great, no doubt about that. I am betting most people who bought this were buying it for that cover. But, I did check out the live album they did, with the live cover of this. The live version is actually better, and a little more intense on the vocal. This is still a fantastic version, and a great example of what was so great about the punk scene of this era. When you saw that a band in the scene was doing a cover, you knew it was going to be pretty solid. The punks in the 80s knew how to stay true, but also how to totally make a song their own. 

In case you were wondering, Agent Orange does an admirable job of moving the music from their area (surf and psychedelic) and mixing it in with the 80s punk scene of the California area. There are also only four songs here, so there isn't a whole lot to say about it as far as depth. In fact, one song is a cover, two are instrumentals, and the first song is the lone original with vocals, but it has Scott and that damned drum fill. But, that is a good song, and the cover is killer.

They're from Placentia, California. Folks who are from California, is that in Orange County?

Thanks to Colleen for the tunes!