Skateboarding, Punk Inspire a Hunn’s Salvation

Duane Peters simply must have a guardian angel perched on his shoulder.

It’s really the only plausible explanation. By all accounts, the hard-living, skate-punk icon should be another casualty of rock ‘n’ roll excess. After all, he has amassed quite a resume of reckless behavior over the years, including drug and alcohol abuse, property destruction and joining--if not instigating--countless rumbles.

Last month, the tattoo-covered, chain-smoking, dentally challenged Huntington Beach resident made the top 10 of the OC Weekly’s 31 scariest people in Orange County. But frightening or not, Peters--whose two front teeth were knocked out by a twirling microphone and someone’s fist, respectively--is nevertheless leading a charmed existence.

However unlikely, he’s neither burning out nor fading away as he approaches his 40th birthday.

In fact, the singer-songwriter is enjoying a modest professional renaissance. When he put his primary band--the U.S. Bombs--on hiatus last year, he formed Duane Peters & the Hunns, a punk-rock quintet whose debut recording, “Unite,” was released in June on Disaster Records, a new label Peters co-founded with Patrick Boissel, an executive of the L.A.-based Bomp family of indie labels.

Disaster has already amassed a roster of more than a dozen grass-roots-oriented punk bands, including the Crowd, Throw Rag, Smogtown and the Pushers. The new 31-track compilation, “Old Skars and Upstarts 2001,” offers a worthwhile sampling of the label’s preferred old-school punk style.

In addition, Peters is a one-time in-ground pool skater who now showcases a variety of his trademark tricks--such as lay-back roll-outs, sweepers and tail-slide reverts--in professional skating competitions. Though the demands of his skateboarding and punk-music careers spread Peters a bit thin, the former substance abuser said it’s exactly what he needs to stay out of trouble.

“As long as I stay busy, I’m not drinking or doing the dope thing,” said Peters, sitting alongside guitarist Rob Milucky, during an interview inside the band’s 1978 touring RV. “I’m hyperactive and I have to be constantly doing something. This is stuff I love, and it keeps me on the right track.

“I was a huge Pistols fan, and when Sid Vicious got hooked on heroin, I got seduced by the [perceived] romanticism of it all. But I used to wake up in the morning and wish I was dead. . . . Every way is a loser with that route. I know I’m not a saint, and I don’t know how long I can stay square, but I’ll tell you this: I love not having to hide a bag of weed--or worse. I’m aware of what I’m doing now, and it keeps me real. Now that’s being independent and free.”

Peters, who said he’s been substance-free for four years, is feeling good about himself. Still, in the true rebellious spirit of punk, his snarling, confrontational attitude hasn’t been tempered. In an intense yet melodic style that recalls the Clash and Public Image Ltd., the Hunns’ “Unite” vents plenty of frustration and rage in themes ranging from political and corporate corruption (“Unfair Games”) and lost idealism (“2010”) to personal isolation (“L.A. Doom”) and exposure of phony friends (“Ellen 45.”) Closest to home, though, is the scathing salvo “Nuke H.B.,” in which Peters sings:

Plenty of stripper mentality;

Surf City is a sewage tank.

“I don’t even recognize this place anymore,” said Peters, who cites the Crowd, the Dischords and the Zeros as key sources of inspiration. “H.B. used to have such character and a local flavor. . . . It wasn’t spoiled by greedy developers and outsiders. And the coastline, what a mess. Can it get any more [polluted]?”

Added Milucky, 39, “It was great back in the day when Safari Sam’s was the hub of the local punk scene.” Milucky, who’s also fighting chemical dependency, continued, “But you go downtown now and you see all these people who flock there just to shop. It’s trendy and sad. . . . It’s like South Coast Plaza on the beach.”

Though Huntington Beach has drawn the scowl of the Hunns--who also include guitarist Mark Lee, bassist Shane Haddock and drummer Matt Spizer--another Orange County city distanced itself from Peters’ other band, U.S. Bombs, in July 1999, when Costa Mesa’s Police Department aborted a scheduled gig at Kona Lanes. As reported in the OC Weekly, the police claimed proper permits were not in order, a charge not denied by promoter Scott Tucker.

However, he also claimed the show was canceled because one officer labeled the Bombs “a Nazi band with a following of violence-prone skinheads.”

“I was [angry]. . . . I felt like it was complete blasphemy to be judged on sheer looks alone, like in the ‘70s, when people labeled ‘long hairs’ as troublemakers,” Peters said. “It was a joke, just complete paranoia. But it’s history now and I’ve moved on. . . . Every day is a new day.”

Peters has confronted his self-destructive demons and credits his current stability to a desire to nurture a more positive outlook. In one of his new songs, “Passing Out,” he holds on to a thread of optimism with these lyrics:

I close my eyes;

I dream of a better place.

I hope heaven’s doors ain’t closed.

“Everything happens for a reason, and I have no regrets,” said Peters, a ninth-grade dropout. “Every choice you make is your own. It’s all about finding yourself. A lot of us were from broken homes. . . . We were freaks and misfits. That’s why we found punk rock, and it took us in. . . . We suddenly had somewhere to go.

“A lot of my friends already seem old and tired. I try to avoid mirrors, but I don’t look at myself that way. I don’t feel like I’m slowing down. If you contribute something, you’ll usually get something back in return. I’ve experienced that in all different ways, believe me.”

SHOW TIMES

Duane Peters & the Hunns, Damnation, Smogtown, Smiling Face Down and .001 Losers Club play Saturday at the Tiki Bar, 1700 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. 9:30 p.m. $10. (949) 548-3533. Duane Peters & the Hunns and Damnation also perform Jan. 26 at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15. (714) 957-0600.