Tearing Down the Orange Curtain Audiobook By Nate Jackson, Daniel Kohn cover art

Tearing Down the Orange Curtain

How Punk Rock Brought Orange County to the World

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Tearing Down the Orange Curtain

By: Nate Jackson, Daniel Kohn
Narrated by: Marc Worden
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About this listen

The untold story of OC punk—the loud, rebellious force behind the ‘90s explosion of the Orange County music scene, featuring stories about legendary bands.

When it comes to punk communities across the world, the Orange County punk scene stands out as an undeniable trendsetter that helped define the sound and style of the rapidly evolving genre. From hard luck storytellers Social Distortion and multi-platinum sellers like The Offspring to cult heroes like The Adolescents and T.S.O.L., there’s much insight to gain from the story of this popular though often misunderstood music scene.

In Tearing Down the Orange Curtain, journalists Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn explore the trajectory of punk and ska from their humble beginnings to their peak popularity years, where their cultural impact could be felt in music around the world. Delving deep into the personal and professional lives of bands like Social Distortion, The Adolescents, The Offspring, and their ska counterparts No Doubt, Sublime, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, and more, this book gives listeners a deeper look into the very human stories of these musicians, many of whom struggled with acceptance, addiction, and brutal teenage years in suburbia.

Through exclusive first-hand interviews, Tearing Down the Orange Curtain brings the 20-year period of OC punk and third-wave ska (1978-2000) to life, focusing specifically on the historical and musical roots of this creative explosion. Thought-provoking, meticulously researched, and refreshingly candid, this book presents a compelling narrative of how a suburban wasteland turned into a hub for rock-n roll culture, just over 30 miles away from the bright lights of LA.

©2025 Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn (P)2025 Hachette Books
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Critic reviews

“A spirited portrait of an influential subculture.”—Publishers Weekly

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Tearing Down the Orange Curtain is a great audiobook, detailing the history of punk rock in Orange County, California. OC bands played a key role in the popularization of punk during the 1990s, & this book shows that bands like Social Distortion, the Offspring, Sublime, No Doubt, the Vandals, & the Adolescents are not flash in the pan, appendices to other 90s punk bands like NOFX, Bad Religion, & Green Day; that the story of punk in OC directly built the 90s punk explosion.

Fantastic History of OC Punk & its legacy

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Tearing Down the Orange Curtain: How Punk Rock Brought Orange County to the World by Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn is a treasure trove of old school goodness. I love the inside scoop of how the Orange County scene started and spread. This is an entertaining look back on the original bands of the OC and the clubs that changed the landscape of punk.

This is pure punk rock history that will excite all passionate people of the early days as well as a younger generation who are just starting to discover the bands and their music.

This book was extremely well-written, detailed, and documented. Extremely impressed.

Let’s hear it for the early days of OC punk and the folks that started it all!

Tearing Down the Orange Curtain! Bam!

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This time shaped my childhood in Orange County. I remember the skaters sweeping out water and playing punk.

Memories

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I tried. I really did. The narrator’s gritty, throaty voice made this book impossible to enjoy/ finish . He didn’t change his tone when he was quoting someone so you never knew when someone was being quoted till the credit was given. That’s level 1 stuff if you ask me. His voice belongs in a 3 minute movie preview starting with “In a world where nuclear fallout is the norm and zombies eat the living..”
Also, after 5 chapters I realized this story isn’t being told very well. It’s not that exciting. Someone got exposed to punk music, decided they really liked it and then they became part of the scene.
Maybe it gets better, but I couldn’t do 10 more hours of that narrator. Sorry.
As a 90’s kid from SoCal I was so ready to get into this book and just fell flat in every way.
Also, the chapter about the Coo Coo’s nest took all of its quotes from an old documentary. That’s a little lazy.

The Narrator made it impossible to enjoy

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