Channel 3 originated in the suburban gateway community of Cerritos in South Los Angeles, an area traditionally associated with dairy produce, in 1980 Full Bio

Channel 3 originated in the suburban gateway community of Cerritos in
South Los Angeles, an area traditionally associated with dairy produce,
in 1980. They were formed as a consequence of Magrann and Gardener..s
friendship, which dated back to the second grade. As Magrann later
acknowledged: "Channel 3 was a band formed around friendships. If we
weren..t playing guitars together, we..d probably be bowling or robbing
Laundromats together." By the advent of high school, they were frequent
visitors to Hollywood, catching LA punk legends at the Whiskey and
Starwood. But they were equally influenced by traditional rock ..n..
roll (they regularly covered the Who..s ..My Generation..) and
Brit-punk (999, the Clash etc). Their songs too betrayed a less
..literal.. punk rock schematic, with lyrics penned by Magrann, an
English major, while both friends would attend Long Beach State
University (..We are influenced by Hemingway!.., Magrann once
spluttered to Flipside fanzine). With Kelley and Burton, the most
permanent of four early drummers, providing the rhythm section, their
first demo tape was passed to Robbie Fields of Posh Boy Records via
Cathy Conway, a mutual friend. It led to a contract before they..d
played their first gig proper at the Cuckoo..s Nest. "You gotta admit,
the man has an ear for new things!" Magrann later told Punk Fix. "Just
being on the label in those days would guarantee a certain amount sold,
and the ability to tour, which is what we loved." For Field..s part, he
saw Channel 3 as natural successors to the departed TSOL. "In those
heady days of early ..81," he wrote on the Posh Boy website, "it was as
if there was gold lying in the street just waiting to be picked up."
Channel 3..s first release was an eponymous 12-inch EP in 1981 that
comprised re-recordings of those demo tracks. Taken from it,
..Manzanar.., which raged at the treatment of American citizens of
Japanese origin in the Second World War (Magrann..s mother suffered at
the titular internment camp), was played heavily by premier UK
tastemaker John Peel. Released in the UK by esteemed second wave punk
label No Future as part of the ..I..ve Got A Gun.. EP, it is arguably
the finest recording to grace the imprint. The sheer coiled musicality
and tension of all three tracks was in stark contrast to a third wave
of punk that seemed listless and shambolic in comparison. "The European
popularity was a complete surprise to us," Magrann told me in 2002. "We
started receiving fan mail from the UK before we were even aware of the
No Future release. We were puzzled as to why we connected with the
British folk, but our sound was always closer to classic ..77 punk than
the hardcore SoCal (South California) skate sound of our peers." Fields
then asked them to record a full-length album, Fear Of Life. Tracks
like ..You Make Me Feel Cheap.., with its peppy female backing and
poppy arrangement, ostensibly betrayed inclinations towards securing a
more mainstream audience. But, as outlined in Mike..s piece elsewhere,
it..s Fields who has to take the credit. He co-wrote the female vocal
sung by DJ Rodney Bingenheimer..s girlfriend Maria Montoya which turned
the song from garage rock into Motown junk, the Vandellas meets the
Vandals. "Kimm and Mike were still willing to listen at this stage of
their relationship with Posh Boy," Fields, never knowingly undersold,
later reflected. After The Lights Go Out was a more ..mature.. effort,
though interest in the UK had by now dissipated, whilst other former
supporters were perturbed by the inclusion of the Rolling Stones..
..Stupid Girl.. and a shift away from the group..s . Jay Lansford
(ex-Stepmothers and Posh Boy production intern) joined on bass for the
1983 tour in support of After The Lights Go Out, and was present also
for Airborne, as Channel 3 were scooped up, alongside peers TSOL, by
Enigma. But they got lost in the shuffle after Capitol bought the label
out. Despite three of the four tracks being co-written with Lansford
and an accomplished attempt to renovate their sound, featuring folky
harmonica in parts, it alienated their traditional fanbase. They did,
however, get to play support sets to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and had
Jane..s Addiction open for them. Last Time I Drank moved in a more
trad-rock direction, signposted by their cover version of Aerosmith..s
..Lord Of The Thighs... This time, as the band..s arch online biography
noted, the record even had saxophones on. Ignore the appropriately
titled Rejected, almost immediately disowned by the group. The band
returned to action in the 90s, their first European show resulting in
the release of a live album by Germa Hide Bio