Beach Blvd

An influential sampler LP, Beach Blvd helped to usher in the hardcore punk movement in suburban Southern California,^{[nb 1]} aided by DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, who gave the record its first airplay on his weekly radio show.^[1][4]

Conceived by the controversial Robbie "Posh Boy" Fields,^{[nb 2][1][4][5][2][6]} the album gathers three acts with quite different musical styles: the Crowd^[7][8] from Huntington Beach, Rik L Rik^[9][10][11] from West Covina, and the Simpletones from Rosemead.^[1][5][12]

The record title advertised the music's suburban origins: California State Route 39, named Beach Boulevard in the stretch that crosses Orange County, ran inland from the Crowd's hometown to Rik L Rik's.^[4]

Produced by Fields,^[1][4][5] all songs on Beach Blvd were recorded and mixed between November 1978 and July 1979 at Media Art Studio in Hermosa Beach, California.

The tracks credited to Rik L Rik, are remixes^{[nb 3]} of five demo songs recorded in November 1978^[13] by the third lineup of San Francisco punk rock band Negative Trend,^[10][14] where he was lead singer. These versions feature bass overdubs by Jay Lansford, who also added a new guitar track on "Atomic Lawn".^[13]

Beach Blvd was mastered by Lanky Linstrot at Wally Heider's Mobile Recording Truck, based in Hollywood, California.

Only three songs featured on Beach Blvd were previously released: Simpletones' "California" was the lead tune on their eponymous 7-inch single record^{[nb 4][15]} from early 1979; while "Meat House" and "I Got Power" were issued as a Rik L Rik 7-inch single^{[nb 5][13][16]} in mid-1979.

Accompanied by liner notes provided by Bingenheimer,^[4] Beach Blvd was originally released in the summer of 1979 on Posh Boy Records, in 12-inch LP format.^{[nb 6][5][17]} The album was also the Crowd's recorded debut.

In 1981, Posh Boy Records issued a rare edition of Beach Blvd on cassette tape,^{[nb 7][18]} which included, as bonus tracks, the entire Red Cross EP^{[nb 8]} by Redd Kross from Hawthorne, California.^[19]

The original release on 12-inch vinyl disc was repressed in 1986.

In 1990, Posh Boy issued a 29-track extended version on CD^{[nb 9][1][20]} featuring liner notes by Fields and Tony Cadena. Bonus tracks included almost half of Like It or Not Live!,^{[nb 10][21]} the only album by Rik L Rik's first band, the short-lived West Covina four-piece F-Word!,^[10][11] recorded live at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens in the spring of 1978 and released posthumously that same year. The 1990 CD edition also added six more Simpletones songs: "I Like Drugs", the B-side of the single "California"^{[nb 4]} from 1979; "TV Love" from Rodney on the ROQ,^{[nb 11][22]} the first of Bingenheimer's compilations,^[23] originally issued in 1980;^[24] "Disco Ape" (aka "You Drive Me (Disco) Ape"), an unreleased Lansford arrangement of the Dickies' "You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)" from 1978; and tracks 13, 15 and 17, all released for the first time. The 1990 edition closed with three additional cuts by the Crowd: "Right Time", also taken from Rodney on the ROQ,^{[nb 11]} "Desmond and Kathy", and an instrumental rendition of the Archies' "Melody Hill" from 1969, both taken from band's first studio album, A World Apart^{[nb 12][25]} from 1981.

In 1991, the original compilation was included in Richard Elerick's numbered 3-LP box set History of Rik L Rik,^{[nb 13][16][26]} in conjunction with F-Word!'s album Like It or Not Live!^{[nb 10]} and Rik L Rik's The Lost Album^{[nb 14][16][27]} from 1991.

In 2004, under license from Posh Boy, the Italian label Get Back re-released the 1979 12-inch LP.^{[nb 15][28]}

The following year, Get Back released a 24-song Digipak CD edition,^{[nb 15][29]} an abridged version of the 1990 edition.