Good News and Old News

You know rock ‘n’ roll--even its youth-oriented punk rock branch--is getting on in years when “never trust anybody under 30” has evolved into “there’s no substitute for experience.”

Debut CDs by El Centro and Disappointment Incorporated both place a listener in experienced, mainly over-30 hands that haven’t lost their youthful passion.

The aptly named El Centro occupies a musical space right in the middle of the Orange County punk-pop fray that has been going on for 20 years. A husky, gravel-spitting voice, surging riff guitars (led by Denny McGahey, a part of the early ‘80s O.C. punk boom, when he played in Shattered Faith) and an unwavering melodic knack are the highlights.

El Centro borrows bits from the Adolescents (whose drummer, Casey Royer, is a guest percussionist here) and Social Distortion (singer Crabbie--just Crabbie--has a Mike Ness-like growl without being imitative); it also falls in line with more recent inheritors of the catchy-punk tradition such as the Offspring, Wank, Joyride and One Hit Wonder.

The plain-spoken lyrics depend more on the heart Crabbie can bring to them than on the narrative and character-painting gifts you get with Wank, Joyride, One Hit Wonder and Social D. But heart goes a long way in keeping the usual subjects fresh.

El Centro sings about romantic disaster and offers lots of cautionary looks at wild youth drifting toward drug-fueled self-destruction. The musical teamwork is cohesive enough to give all the punk-pop burners a propulsive zoom and authority, with massed, anthem-like backing vocals providing a lift.

El Centro adds grace notes, such as the acoustic rhythm guitar strums that lighten several songs, occasional keyboards and frequent Clash-inspired dips into reggae. The album’s only dull stretch is a cover of the Clash’s cover of the Junior Murvin-Lee “Scratch” Perry nugget “Police and Thieves.”

El Centro shows it can do reggae right on “Push,” a song of encouragement to a lost soul, and on “Pieces,” an anxious-lover’s rumination that echoes the verge-of-panic reggae-noir of Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” and carries a tinge of early Bruce Springsteen.

Rock’s age lines show in another third-generation remake--a version of the Circle Jerks’ punk rendition of Garland Jeffreys’ mid-’70s youth-aflame nugget “Wild in the Streets.” But if the song is twice-recycled, there’s nothing tired about El Centro’s reading of it.

The same goes for “Hurt by Love,” a cover of a Chris Spedding song that rides a clipped riff dating from the Kinks, circa 1966. It’s great fun, and Crabbie’s bluster and sputter over romantic slings and arrows makes it seem as if he lived it last month and wrote it last week.

For all the tread wear punk-pop has suffered, bands like El Centro keep the wheels spinning and make a listener want to take yet another ride down that familiar track.

* El Centro and P-Town Pubsters play tonight at Club 369, 1641 N. Placentia Ave., Fullerton. (714) 572-1816.

Albums are rated on a scale of * (poor) to **** (excellent), with *** denoting a solid recommendation.