Since the late 1970s, California has had a thriving regional punk rock movement. It primarily consists of (but is not limited to) bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, and Lake Tahoe areas.
Los Angeles had a very strong glam rock scene in the early 1970s, mostly centered on the club Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, run by Rodney Bingenheimer, who later, as a disc jockey for KROQ's Rodney on the ROQ, did much to promote LA punk bands. Many figures from this earlier scene would play notable roles in the later punk scene.
In the mid-1970s from 1974 to 1975 a wave of proto-punk bands emerged from Los Angeles, including, among others, the Quick, The Weirdos, Berlin Brats, the Flyboys, Christopher Milk, and Zolar X.
Starting in 1976, following recent releases of recordings by punk bands such as the Ramones, a number of punk bands formed in the Los Angeles and Orange County area. Among these bands were the Flesh Eaters, the Weirdos, the Germs, the Controllers, the Deadbeats, the Skulls, Sid Terror's Undead (the first horror punk band on the West Coast, then simply known as the Undead), the Outsiders, the Detours, the Slashers, the Crowd, the Angry Samoans, the Simpletones, the Chiefs, the Hated, Voyeurs, Idols, the Screws, the Shakers, Agent Orange, Fourth Reich, the Lubricators, the Dils, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, Catholic Discipline, the Go-Go's, the Alley Cats, Kommunity FK, the Screamers, the Dickies, X, the Zeros, the Bags, the Plugz, the Consumers, and their successors, 45 Grave.