Wank

Huntington Beach outfit Wank operated for years as a lesser-known pillar of the Southern California punk scene. The group surfaced in the mid-1990s just as pop-punk reached its commercial height and soon carved out a following inside the Orange County punk and ska circuit. Their first full-length, Get a Grip on Yourself, appeared in 1996, after which several singles were cut under the guidance of Social Distortion’s Mike Ness. A lengthy break began in 2000, during which some members launched outside endeavors while others confronted medical setbacks. The original lineup reconvened in 2016 to issue the five-song EP On with the Show and then the album White Knuckle Ride four years later.

Bobby Amodeo, who handled vocals and bass, assembled the band in 1995 alongside guitarists Danny Walker and Billy Bivens plus drummer Spider. Their energetic blend of pop, rock, and punk—shaped in part by the Beatles and the Clash—quickly resonated with the rising Orange County pop-punk wave. The same year they pressed Get a Grip on Yourself themselves; the record drew the ear of Mike Ness, who produced the single “Larry Brown” for a Time Bomb Records split 7-inch and the band’s energetic take on “Auld Lang Syne” for the Christmas Gone Wrong compilation. Frequent airplay on Los Angeles station KROQ secured a contract with Maverick Records, which gave the debut wider release in 1998.

After exiting the label in 1999, Amodeo received a cancer diagnosis while Walker started Handsome Devil, a group that signed with RCA in 2001 and delivered the albums Love and Kisses (2001), Knock Yourself Out (2004), and Fully Automatic (2007). Walker later pursued a solo career, releasing the singer-songwriter sets Mumble and Strum (2011) and Salvation (2012). Spider, meanwhile, concentrated on artist management and session drumming.

Walker, Spider, and a recovered Amodeo revived Wank in 2016, adding former Offspring guitarist Higgins X-13 for the On with the Show EP. In 2018 the musicians entered the studio to track their second album, which surfaced as White Knuckle Ride in early 2020. ~ James Christopher Monger