Youth Brigade is an American hardcore punk band formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1980 by the brothers Mark, Adam, and Shawn Stern. The band subsequently founded BYO (Better Youth Organization).[2] Many later punk bands cite Youth Brigade as an influence, including The Nation of Ulysses[4] and The Briefs.[4]
Youth Brigade have released five studio albums, including one released as The Brigade. Four of their five albums feature the band’s original lineup brothers Mark, Adam, and Shawn Stern. Bassist Bob Gnarly replaced Adam for the recording of 1985’s The Dividing Line, released as The Brigade. Adam returned in 1991 when the band reunited) and contributed to the band's 1992 EP Come Again and their next two albums Happy Hour and To Sell the Truth before leaving once again in 2007. Youth Brigade continue to tour, although other than six tracks on the 1999 album BYO Split Series Volume II, they have not released a full-length studio album since To Sell the Truth in 1996.
The Stern family, consisting of older brothers Shawn (guitar and vocals) and Mark (drums) and younger brother Adam (who would later play bass), moved from Toronto, Canada to Los Angeles in 1970, because their father worked in the film industry.[5] As teenagers, Shawn and Mark were surfers who would skip school to smoke marijuana and attend rock concerts. At 16 and 17, they played in their first band, called Mess, which would play Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix covers at parties. A year later in 1978, they discovered punk rock, and formed a quirky prog rock/new wave band called The Extremes, releasing a four-song EP on which Shawn sang with a fake English accent.[5]
In the fall of 1979, following a visit by touring British Oi! band Sham 69, the oldest two Stern brothers moved into a large house in Hollywood, California, near Hollywood High School, and christened it "Skinhead Manor." The large punk house became a meeting place which drew participants from as far away as Huntington Beach and Oxnard.[6] The house was a nexus for creative energy around small recording studio onsite. Bands such as the Circle Jerks used Skinhead Manor as a practice space and residents planned to the launch a pirate radio station.[6]
Skinhead Manor was also a place where people interested in forming punk bands could meet, and where the Sterns briefly created a swing band called the Swinging Skins Brigade, the precursor to Youth Brigade.[7] The Manor also spawned No Crisis and other bands.[6] The use of drugs and alcohol were also prevalent in the house, with homemade wine made onsite, a Coke machine stocked with beer instead of soda, and drugs such as methamphetamine used by some visitors.[6]
Youth Brigade recalled in a 1982 interview:
... The manor kind of fell apart because we got too many assholes that didn't give a shit. And there wasn't any money to support the ideas. That's the most important thing — you need capital. So we split, the landlady wanted us out, too. Then the place was mysteriously burned down.[6]
A club called Godzilla's, located in a former bowling alley in the Sun Valley section of Los Angeles,[8] became the new hub of activity for the Stern brothers, and the venue grew into a mecca for punk rockers from around Southern California.[6] With everyone working at the club, soon a small nest egg of working capital was accumulated, and Better Youth Organization (BYO) was launched in 1982 as an umbrella for the promotion of punk rock shows and the production of music.[6] Shawn and Mark Stern also formed their own label, Better Youth Organization, as part of the project.[9]
Youth Brigade's first year of existence was as a six-piece but played their first gig as a trio on New Year's Eve 1981 at Godzilla's nightclub. They were part of the big BYO extravaganza "Youth Movement '82" at the Hollywood Palladium, where 3500 people showed up for an all Los Angeles bill in early February.[9]
In the summer of 1982, after recording three tracks for the first BYO record release Someone Got Their Head Kicked In, Youth Brigade set out in a big yellow school bus on an ambitious 30-city North American tour with fellow hardcore band Social Distortion. The 1984 film, Another State of Mind, chronicled the event.[10]
After about 30 shows and several breakdowns they returned home to record their debut LP Sound & Fury with record producer Thom Wilson. A premature version of the LP had rushed together before the tour but pressing was stopped at 800 copies, as the band was not satisfied with the quality of the material or production.[2] Upon returning home, Youth Brigade decided to record a second version under the same title that kept four tracks from the original version with the rest being newly recorded.[2] This was followed by a 50-date tour of North America during the summer.
After having secured a licensing deal for Sound & Fury in England, plans were made to tour Europe in the fall of 1984. Youth Brigade released the three-song EP What Price? in spring 1984 and then played around 50 dates throughout the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, and England as one of the first independent American bands to tour the underground of both Western Europe and Eastern Bloc countries.[citation needed] After this tour, younger brother and band bassist Adam decided to return to art school and finish his degree.[2] The band recorded the last show with Adam in June 1985 at Fenders Ballroom in Long Beach, California and these tracks have been released on Italian and French releases as well as the Sink With Kalifornija CD collection.[citation needed]
Brothers Shawn and Mark continued on as "The Brigade" for about two years after the departure of Adam, giving their first interview under the new moniker in April 1986.[11]
In 1989 Mark and Adam, along with younger brother Jamie Stern, founded the swing band Royal Crown Revue along with three other musicians.[12] These three Stern brothers left the band in 1991, shortly before the Youth Brigade reunion. Royal Crown Revue continued with new members replacing the departing Stern brothers.[citation needed]
В 1991 году Марк и Адам встретились в баре Гамбурга и выразили желание реформировать Youth Brigade для тура, на что Шон согласился. Вернувшись домой в январе 1992 года, они начали работу над новым материалом и дали концерт в Whisky a Go Go в Голливуде . [ нужна цитата ]
В июле группа записала шесть песен в студии Westbeach Studios для своего EP Come Again . В середине сентября «Молодежная бригада» вновь собрала чемоданы для гастролей по Европе. Тур охватил Германию, Швецию, Норвегию, Данию, Швейцарию, Францию, Испанию, Италию, Чехословакию и Польшу. [ нужна цитата ]
Спустя более чем десять лет после своего дебюта группа записала Happy Hour в Westbeach Studios и выпустила его в марте 1994 года. Вскоре после этого к ним присоединились бывший Cadillac Tramps, US Bombs и нынешний гитарист Social Distortion Джонни «2 Bags» Викершам и записали следующий полноформатный альбом. To Sell the Truth в апреле 1996 года. Продюсер Стив Кравак ( Less Than Jake , MXPX ), а сведение - давний друг Том Уилсон (Offspring, Bouncing Souls). В 1996 году группа также внесла свой вклад в благотворительный альбом по СПИДу Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin , выпущенный Red Hot Organization вместе с Cuca (группой) . [ нужна цитата ]
В 1998 году группа вернулась в студию, чтобы записать 30-секундную песню для сборника Fat Wreck Chords Short Music For Short People . Песня была записана в гостиной у друга. [ нужна цитация ] В середине 1999 года они приступили к записи шести новых треков для второго тома серии BYO Records Split. Обратная сторона альбома была записана северокалифорнийскими панками Swingin Utters .
В октябре 2013 года Брайан Ганновер (Hanover Saints, Union Hearts) заменил Майка Картера на гитаре. [ нужна цитата ]
It started as a swing band and was called Swinging Skins (SS) Brigade. We put an ad in the paper and all these horn players showed up.
