YOUTH BRIGADE - EARLY YEARS 1981. - 1985.

I have been listening to LA´s Youth Brigade from 1993. or 1994. when I bought their classic Sound And Fury LP. I bought the LP because I have already discovered 7 Seconds at the time and had their two LPs: The Crew and Walk Together, Rock Together and when I saw that both bands were on the same label, I had to hear what this band Youth Brigade is all about. Since then, Youth Brigade was often in my headphones or blasting from the speakers of my tape recorder, stereo or a computer. Their melodic but energetic hardcore punk grabbed me immediately and their positive message was just a bonus to already a great music that Youth Brigade delivered. 

I won´t bother you much with history of the band, you can easily find that somewhere else on the net, but I will say few details about the releases that I uploaded for this post. Lets start with that I uploaded here only YB records and few compilations with their apperance that are from the early bands period, hence the title of the post: 1981. - 1985. In that first period of the band, line up was consisted of three Stern brothers: Shawn Stern - vocals & guitar, Adam Stern - bass & back vocals and Mark Stern - drums & back vocals. 

Lets start with their original, first version of Sound And Fury LP that was recorded in May 1982. in Mystic Studios in Hollywood and was released the same year on bands label Youth Better Organization (that released such classic records by the bands like 7 Seconds and SNFU). The story goes that the band wasn´t satisfied with the LP that much and stopped the pressing so only 800 copies exist. I´m not sure what they didn´t like about that LP because this is my favorite Youth Brigade record. From start to finish, this LP is one hell of a hymnic, melodic, singalnong hc/punk classic. It is hard to pick the best songs from these 13 anthems, because it is one of those records without one bad song. I also like Thom Wilson´s production, it has that old LA kind of dark sound which I like very much. Here I uploaded rip from the original vinyl version. Next is Out Of Print which is a compilation CD released in 1998. on BYO and it has that original Sound And Fury version (minus Something´s Gonna Change song, for some reason that is unknown to me), one unreleased song from 1981., two unreleased songs from 1984. recorded during the same session as What Price Happines? EP and the last song is a  cover of The Rezzillos: Somebody Got Their Head Kicked In, recorded in 1993. I guess, over the years, the band changed their opinion about that original Sound & Fury version and luckily for the rest of us, they put out this fine compilation. Then, you have bootleg 7 ˝ EP released in 1993. with 6 songs from Sound & Fury LP, but I´m not sure if all of these are the same verions from the LP, so here you go. Then it is Sink With Kalifornija CD that was released in 1991. on BYO that include whole second version of Sound And Fury LP from 1983. This is the version that I was talking at the beginning of this post and probably the version most people are familiar with. This version has 14 great songs and only 4 were also on the original version. Also an LP with mostly great songs even thought these days I prefear more the original version of the LP (I hope you are not confused with all of this, original and second verions, haha). On Sink With Kalifornija, there is also a whole What Price Happines? EP from 1984. (which I also here included the original vinyl rip), one song from original S & F version and 9 live tracks from Fenders Ballroom, Long Beach, California, recorded in June 1985. Next are compilations: Someone Got Their Head Kicked In from 1982., Something to Believe In from 1984. and Underground Hits vol. 2 from 1983. All of these compilations have tracks from Youth Brigade, some are released on their other records and some are exclusive to these compilations. Also, all 3 of these compialtions presents more great hc/punk bands from the early 80´s, especially Someone Got Their Head Kicked In compilation. 

After Adam left the band in 1985. other two Stern brothers continued with new members as The Brigade and released one LP and one mini LP in second part of the 80´s. In 1991. Adam reunited with Shawn and Mark and they again started to play as Youth Brigade. Youth Brigade in the 90´s released one EP, two LPs and one split LP with Swingin Utters and I recommend you all of those releases, because they are pretty good melodic hc/punk. Even though YB didn´t released anything from 1999. I think that they still play and tour on occasion. Anyway, if you are Youth Brigade fan, this post is a real treat for you. If you are not familiar with the band, give them a chance, maybe you will find something here to enjoy.

The Snake Brigade

Sound And Fury LP original version

Out Of Print

Sound And Fury Demo Bootleg

Sink With Kalifornija

What Price Happines? 7 ˝ EP

Someone Got Their Head Kicked In

Something To Believe In

Underground Hits vol. 2