Hailing from the Cerritos neighbourhood of the sprawling LA hinterland, CHANNEL 3 never achieved the fame/ notoriety of California's trailblazing punk outfits like The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag or X.
In truth, their rather more formulaic Brit-infused punk can't quite match up to these aforementioned firebrands, but the re-issue of these two albums on one CD by Anagram is still welcome, as CHANNEL 3 are worthy of rediscovery, however spotty and imperfect they were.
CHANNEL 3 comprised guitarists/ vocalists Mike Magrann and Kim Gardener, plus bassist Larry Kelly and drummer Jack Debaun (replaced by Mike Burton on the later tunes). Musically, Debaun was the weakest link in my opinion. For all his thunderous intent, he's not in the same league as the likes of DH Peligro or George Hurley and his time-keeping sometimes drags the band down.
But shag it, this is punk rock, right? And certainly the spit, speed 'n'testosterone sometimes hits home like a Buick ramming head on into a telegraph pole. Certainly in the mad teenage rampage of "Fear Of Life", ("I'm not ready for the real world...wake me up when I'm 23"); "I've Got A Gun" - complete with handclaps of all things! - and the one-night stand dissing "You Make Me Feel Cheap" they wrote fast'n'furious tunes worthy of being classed as real anthems.
The "After The Lights Go Out" material is the more effective, though. Tighter, faster and informed by the US hardcore explosion and the resulting SST Records output, songs like "Seperate Peace", "Truth And Trust" and "I'll Take My Chances" are splenetic, adrenalised successes, while the heroically melodic guitars of "I Didn't Know" demonstrate that CHANNEL 3 could muster decent, impassioned Clash-style anthems if the put their minds to it.
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Helpfully, the booklet includes an extensive lyric sheet, which also proves that while CHANNEL 3 tackled the usual round of hardcore subjects (War, prostitution, religion, growing up, drugs and alcohol), they did so with insight, compassion and more raw emotion than many of theit contemporaries. Mike Magrann, especially, looked for a while like he had a future as a heartfelt punky songwriter of note.
As far as I'm aware, this collection gathers up pretty much all CHANNEL 3's output from 1981-83 (including the livid, John Peel-endorsed "Manzanar" single) and while much of this is too blotchy and flawed for CHANNEL 3 to be ranked with the heavyweight Californian hardcore heroes, it;s still a seething and (sometimes) relevant collection 20 years on.
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