‘Letter’ Proves You’re Never Too Old to Go Postal

*** The Crowd

“Letter Bomb”

Flipside

These founding fathers of the surfside division of Orange County’s punk rock movement are old enough now to be the fathers of some of today’s rising punk bands.

But “Letter Bomb” proves that late 30s isn’t too late for veteran punkers to make the music go bang, even if their lot in life is probably to continue day jobs in construction work, mail delivery and finance, rather than leaping for the brass ring that was far out of reach in their early days.

First a bit of history: Inspired by the Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Clash, the Crowd began as novices who picked up instruments and microphones and began playing backyard parties in their hometown of Huntington Beach in 1978. The following year, they appeared on a punk compilation called “Beach Blvd,” the first album-length release to chronicle the suburban Southern California punk scene outside of L.A. proper.

Early Crowd tracks such as “Modern Machine” and “Right Time” could have been hits in a climate like today’s, with the mass audience sweet tooth for punk-pop. It’s also not completely off base to presume that without the Crowd there would have been no T.S.O.L., whose members Ron Emory and Mike Roche learned at the feet of Crowd guitarist Jim Kaa and bassist Jay Decker. And, had there been no T.S.O.L., there might have been no Offspring.

The Crowd gave up in 1983, got the itch again in 1987, and have been playing typically rousing shows for the fun of it ever since. The group produced an LP in 1989 and a vinyl EP in 1995.

“Letter Bomb” is the band’s first album-length CD; it’s an “enhanced” disc, with extra CD-ROM capability that yields a succinct band history and discography, 35 excellent still photos taken through the years, and four live-action videos.

Given its founding-father status, the Crowd can back up its boast on the CD’s opening track, “Run for the Money”: “We lit the fires that burn even brighter / In young hearts of desire / We were the igniters.” The bragging is balanced by poignancy, as singer Jim Decker (Jim Trash, back in the days of colorfully snide Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious-inspired punk nicknames) yowls, “I would give most anything for a moment in the sun.”

While most of the new songs here aren’t as catchy as the band’s strongest early numbers, or the two CD bonus tracks culled from the ’95 EP, the Crowd makes up for less memorable melodies with a go-for-it spirit that yields many a bracing, stripped-down barrage. With Kaa (pronounced kay) slashing his chords and zooming his leads, the rhythm section of Jay Decker and Dennis Walsh pummeling, and Jim Decker yowling spiritedly and in at least fair proximity to the notes he wants to hit, the Crowd proves it’s still an igniter.

The album takes a while to reach peak form, but by the fourth track, “Letter Bomb,” it’s all there. Given Walsh’s profession as a mail carrier, the song’s glimpse of a proverbial postman-gone-berserk takes on a twist of inside humor.

“Haven’t Seen You Around” is full of vitality, and a touch of anguish, as Decker sings about the disappearance of the Crowd’s long-lost original drummer, Barry Cuda; at one point he’s imagined going up in flames in mid-performance, a la Spinal Tap.

The home stretch is excellent, as these matured punks perform with youthful vigor on songs with a matured perspective. The Crowd surveys a ruined relationship on “Enemy,” crashes out a fight-song declaring hope amid social decay in “Last Stand,” and in “Liberty” evokes the inner conflicts of a loving dad who, deep down, wishes he could ditch the family and light out for the territories. A superb version of the vintage ‘70s punk song “Your Generation,” by Generation X, drives home the album’s overarching message--that spirit, attitude and having something to say are the crux of this punk stuff, never mind that the messengers are old enough to have fathered some of the bands they might end up sharing bills with.

(Available from Flipside, P.O. Box 60790, Pasadena, CA 91116. E-mail: flipside@ix.netcom)

* The Crowd opens for the Joykiller and Pulley tonight at the Lava Room, 1945 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $5. Taped information: (714) 631-0526 or (714) 991-2055.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with *** denoting a solid recommendation.