Goleta, CA · skate punk · melodic hardcore

Lagwagon

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Fat Wreck royalty and skate-punk architects — Joey Cape's melodies over machine-gun drums. Three decades in, still one of the genre's tightest live acts.

Lagwagon formed in Goleta, California, in 1990, originally under the name Section 8. They changed it at Fat Mike's suggestion, borrowing the title of a song they had already written about their unreliable tour van, whose image later appeared on the back cover of Trashed.

They became one of the first bands signed to Fat Mike's Fat Wreck Chords, releasing their debut, Duh, in 1992. Fronted throughout by singer Joey Cape, the band recorded and mixed it in four days, a fast, low-budget process Cape has said forced them to have their sound worked out before they ever entered the studio.

Trashed followed in 1994 and found a wider audience just as California punk was breaking into the mainstream through bands like Green Day, the Offspring and Rancid; Lagwagon turned down major-label offers during this period. After 1995's Hoss, guitarist Shawn Dewey and drummer Derrick Plourde left, replaced briefly by Kenneth Stringfellow and then permanently by Dave Raun.

Across these records and later ones like Let's Talk About Feelings, the band paired rapid, precise drumming and intricate guitar work with hooks closer to power pop than hardcore, Cape's lyrics leaning toward self-examination and dark humor rather than slogans.

Lagwagon never pursued mainstream crossover, but built a devoted underground following across North America, Europe and Asia; their song "May 16" later appeared in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Cape has continued the band alongside solo acoustic work and other projects.

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skate punkmelodic hardcore