Adolescents, also known as The Blue Album due to its cover design, is the debut studio album by American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in April 1981 on Frontier Records. Recorded after guitarist Rikk Agnew and drummer Casey Royer joined the band, it features several songs written for their prior group, the Detours, including "Kids of the Black Hole" and "Amoeba", which became two of the Adolescents' most well-known songs. Adolescents was one of the first hardcore punk albums to be widely distributed throughout the United States, and became one of the best-selling California hardcore albums of its time.[1] The band never toured in support of it, and broke up four months after its release. The Blue Album lineup of Agnew, Royer, guitarist Frank Agnew, bassist Steve Soto and singer Tony Brandenburg reunited several times in subsequent years, but only for brief periods.
The Adolescents formed in Fullerton, California, in January 1980.[1][2] The original lineup consisted of singer Tony Brandenburg (who used the stage name Tony Cadena), bassist Steve Soto, guitarists Frank Agnew and John O'Donovan, and a drummer who went by the stage name Peter Pan.[1][2][3] They began performing locally and recorded their first demo tape that March.[2][3] A second demo tape, recorded that May, included the songs "I Hate Children", "No Friends", "Who Is Who" and "Wrecking Crew".[2] "I Hate Children" was inspired by a conversation Brandenburg overheard while riding a bus: "It was a snapshot of a man saying to his wife — with his children there crying — that he hated children, can't stand them", he said in 2011. "And this was the same message that my father had given me. When I expressed that, people didn't understand where that was coming from. I wasn't saying this was me. I'm mirroring something that I'm seeing right now. This is what is going on in my life."[4]
O'Donovan and Pan both left the band in June 1980.[2] Frank Agnew's older brother, Rikk Agnew, joined the group, initially on drums, but soon switched to guitar and brought in drummer Casey Royer.[1][2][3] Royer and Rikk Agnew brought with them several songs written for their previous band, the Detours, including "Amoeba", "No Way", "Creatures", "Rip It Up", and "Kids of the Black Hole".[2][3][5] "Kids of the Black Hole" describes Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness' Fullerton apartment, a graffiti-covered drug den that was a hangout for punks and a site for parties, sex, and violence.[5][6][7] "To me, it is one of the greatest punk rock songs of all time", said Soto in 2014, "and of course 'Amoeba' was catchy as fuck, and everybody wants to hear it, but to me, 'Kids of the Black Hole' was like Quadrophenia for us."[5] Said his brother Frank, "Rikk's songwriting was really adventurous for punk rock. He was writing stuff that was punk but had a Beatles-esque quality with the guitar harmonies."[5] He recalled, "With the addition of Rikk and Casey, we'd moved to the next level". They were older and more experienced, so we improved quickly."[2]
KROQ-FM disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer played the band's second demo tape on his "Rodney on the ROQ" program showcasing local punk acts, giving them the encouragement to record another.[2][8] They recorded a third demo that July with Chaz Ramirez and Eddie Joseph of local band Eddie and the Subtitles as audio engineers.[2] This demo included "Creatures", "Amoeba" and "Self Destruct".[2] Joseph became the band's manager and began shopping their demo to local record labels.[2] "He even got us an advance check that he promptly cashed and left town...Thanks Eddie", Soto later recalled.[2] The Adolescents continued performing locally and gained in popularity.[3] Bingenheimer approached the band to record a track for his Rodney on the ROQcompilation album (Posh Boy Records, November 1980), which featured other Los Angeles and Orange County bands including Agent Orange, Black Flag and the Circle Jerks.[2][3] The Adolescents provided a recording of "Amoeba", which became a hit on KROQ that December and drew the attention of Frontier Records founder Lisa Fancher, who signed the band in January 1981.[1][2][8][9]"'Amoeba' by the Adolescents is the song", she later said. "Definitely was a phenomenon. 'Amoeba' is a masterpiece of a single from any era of rock music."[8]
In March 1981, the Adolescents entered Perspective Sound studios in Sun Valley, Los Angeles to record their debut album.[2][10] Engineered and mixed by Thom Wilson and produced by Middle Class bassist Mike Patton (not to be confused for the Faith No Morevocalist), it was recorded, mixed and mastered in only four days and featured most of the band's oeuvre at the time, including songs from their demos and Royer and Rikk Agnew's Detours songs.[2][10][11] "L.A. Girl", a new song, was written by Brandenburg in response to being rejected by a new classmate who had come to Magnolia High School from Los Angeles after her parents divorced.[12] "She made it very clear that I didn't breathe the same atmosphere as her", he recalled 26 years later. "I was trying to tell her we were on the same page, that I was her only ally. But like pretty much all the girls then, she just thought I was a dork, an insect."[12] He wrote the song in response to the slight, later calling it an answer to the Doors' "L.A. Woman".[12] The song's music, written by Frank Agnew, incorporates jarring shifts in tempo between fast, brash punk rock and slower heavy metal, which influenced later California bands.[12] "No one was doing that," Brandenburg recalled, "and the only reason we did is that we were trying to be middle-class punk, but half the band also wanted to be Black Sabbath. Through the years, it seemed to really echo with people. People like NOFX, the Offspring, Rancid, the drummer in No Doubt (Adrian Young) — they have said how much it meant to them."[12]
Album cover
For the album cover, Brandenburg asked Fancher to have someone design a typeface logo similar to Cheap Trick's.[2] Diane Zincavage designed the cover, and its simple composition—a blue field with "Adolescents" in red type—led to it being referred to as The Blue Album.[2][7][10]
Adolescents was released in April 1981.[2] One of the first hardcore punk records to be widely distributed throughout the United States, it became one of the best-selling California hardcore albums behind the Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), selling over 10,000 copies.[1][11] In a retrospective review, Jack Rabid of AllMusic gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5 and remarked that "the debut from these five Orange County kids established the mid-tempo, punk-pop 'Southern Cal sound', led by the long, great, pummeling, Johnny Thunders-derived solos of the two Agnew brothers, Rikk and Frank.... they're super-catchy, heavy-riffing rock & roll, proving again that punk was the true heir to the likes of Chuck Berry, Larry Williams, Bo Diddley, and Eddie Cochran."[11]
Legacy
Though Rikk Agnew had contributed heavily to the album, tensions between him and the other band members led to him quitting the band just a few months after its release.[2][3][5] He was replaced by Pat Smear, formerly of the Germs, and the band planned their first tour to support the album, intending for it to begin in late summer 1981 and last into the fall:.[1][2][3] Smear did not want to tour, however, and left the band that June after only three months.[2][3] He was replaced by Royer's roommate, Steve Roberts, and the new lineup recorded the three-song Welcome to RealityEP in July, but broke up the following month, two months before the EP was released.[1][2][3][15] "Oddly enough, we'd never even made it out of California", Frank Agnew later said.[2]
Greg Graffin, whose band Bad Religion became friends with the Adolescents and played shows with them in 1980–81, became disillusioned with the violence surrounding the Los Angeles punk rock scene of the time and found reassurance in Brandenburg's lyrics to "Rip It Up", which spoke out against fans who used the aggressive music to justify fighting: "Have you had enough violence? / Just to kill boredom, makes no sense / We're not the background for your stupid fights / Get out of the darkness, it's time to unite / Do you think you're tough when you rip it up?"[16]
The Adolescents' Blue Album lineup reunited several times in subsequent years. The first was a reunion show in April 1986 at Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California, which led to the band re-forming.[1][2] They played more shows and began working on material for a new album, but Frank Agnew and Royer left after a few months.[1][2][3] With further lineup changes, the Adolescents released two more albums over the next two years, Brats in Battalions (1987) and Balboa Fun*Zone (1988), then broke up again in April 1989.[1][2][3] The Blue Album lineup reunited again for a show in December 1989 at the Reseda Country Club, which was recorded and released eight years later as the live album Return to the Black Hole (Amsterdamned Records, 1997).[17] They reunited again in 2001 for more live performances, but Royer soon left, and Rikk Agnew left as well in 2003.[5] Frank Agnew left after the band's reunion album, OC Confidential (2005), and Brandenburg and Soto later continued as the Adolescents with other lineups. Material from Adolescents dominates the band's live albums, accounting for 13 of 21 tracks on Live 1981 & 1986 (1989), 10 of 17 on Return to the Black Hole (1997), and 12 of 19 on Live at the House of Blues (2004).[17][18][19]
Writing for the Los Angeles Times in 1998, Mike Boehm included Adolescents first in a list of "Essential Albums, '78–'98" giving an overview of Orange County punk and alternative rock, calling it "an underground classic. The 13 songs defined the O.C. punk experience, back when punk was a beleaguered subculture. 'Amoeba', with lyrics by Royer, is a metaphoric account of a single-celled creature, read punk youth culture, growing in size and self-awareness under the scornful, dismissive eye of adult authority. 'Kids of the Black Hole' was Rikk Agnew's epic tribute to the hedonistic, comradely denizens of a Fullerton crash pad that cradled the fertile North County punk scene during 1979–80. The two songs introduced a massed, harmonized 'octave guitar' blitz—an Orange County rock signature."[20]
The Adolescents are an American punk rock band formed in Fullerton, California in 1979. Part of the hardcore punk movement in southern California in the early 1980s, they were one of the main punk acts to emerge from Orange County, along with their peers in Agent Orange and Social Distortion. Founding bassist Steve Soto was the sole constant member of the band since its inception until his 2018 death, with singer Tony Reflex being in the group for all but one album.
45 Grave is an American rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1979. The original group broke up in 1985, but vocalist Dinah Cancer subsequently revived the band.
Social Distortion is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California. The band currently consists of Mike Ness, Jonny Wickersham, Brent Harding, David Hidalgo Jr. (drums), and David Kalish (keyboards).
Brats in Battalions is the second studio album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in August 1987 on SOS Records, the band's independent record label. It followed a reunion of the band after a five-year breakup, and subsequent lineup changes which saw drummer Casey Royer and original guitarist Frank Agnew replaced, respectively, by Sandy Hanson of the Mechanics and by Agnew's younger brother, Alfie Agnew. Brats in Battalions explores several styles of punk rock and features new recordings of all three songs from 1981's Welcome to Reality EP, as well as cover versions of the traditional folk song "The House of the Rising Sun" and the Stooges' "I Got a Right". Singer Tony Brandenburg left the band after this album, and the Adolescents recorded one more album without him, 1988's Balboa Fun*Zone, before breaking up for another 12 years.
Return to the Black Hole is a live album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in September 1997 on Amsterdamned Records. It was recorded in December 1989 during a reunion performance by the band's 1980–81 lineup.
Richard Francis "Rikk" Agnew Jr. is an American musician with a career spanning more than 40 years. He has previously been a member of some of the most influential bands of the Orange County hardcore punk genre, as well as the influential deathrock band Christian Death. During his years with the Adolescents, Agnew became known as one of the best guitarists in the Southern California hardcore punk scene.
Anthony Brandenburg is an American musician best known as the lead singer for the punk rock band the Adolescents. He has used the pseudonyms Tony Cadena, Tony Montana, and Tony Adolescent, and since 1992 has most consistently credited himself as Tony Reflex. Active in music since 1980, he has fronted several bands in addition to the Adolescents—including the Abandoned, the Flower Leperds, ADZ, and Sister Goddamn—and has performed on over 20 studio albums.
Casey A. Royer, is an American musician and an early pioneer of the hardcore punk rock genre in Orange County. He named and formed the band Social Distortion as a teenager. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Royer is best known as the lead vocalist for Southern Californian punk rock band D.I. and as a drummer for the Adolescents.
Francis Thomas "Frank" Agnew is an American guitarist and songwriter, best known for being a member of punk rock band the Adolescents. Frank's brothers Rikk Agnew and Alfie Agnew, as well as his son Frank Agnew Jr., are also former Adolescents guitarists.
Steve Soto was an American musician. Soto was a multi-talented instrumentalist, a founding member of California punk rock band Agent Orange in 1979, and a founding member of Adolescents in 1980 performing on bass guitar in both bands. Soto was also a member of Legal Weapon, Joyride, Manic Hispanic, Punk Rock Karaoke, and the punk supergroup 22 Jacks. Soto also fronted his own band, Steve Soto and the Twisted Hearts, starting in 2008.
The Fastest Kid Alive is the fifth studio album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in June 2011 on Concrete Jungle Records. It was the band's first album not to include at least one of the Agnew brothers, and began a string of albums with singer Tony Reflex and bassist Steve Soto as the only constant members. The Fastest Kid Alive was the band's only album with guitarist Joe Harrison, and the first of two with guitarist Mike McKnight and drummer Armando Del Rio.
Balboa Fun*Zone is the third studio album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in 1988 on Triple X Records. Titled after the Balboa Fun Zone amusement area of Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, it is the band's only album recorded without singer Tony Brandenburg, who had left the group the prior year. Electing not to replace him, guitarist Rikk Agnew and bassist Steve Soto alternated lead vocals on Balboa Fun*Zone. The album also features the return of original Adolescents guitarist Frank Agnew, who had been absent from their prior album, 1987's Brats in Battalions. Balboa Fun*Zone is also the final Adolescents studio album to include Rikk Agnew and drummer Sandy Hanson. The band broke up in April 1989, reuniting in later years with different lineups.
OC Confidential is the fourth studio album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in July 2005 on Finger Records. It was their first studio album since 1988, and followed their reunion in 2001 after a twelve-year breakup. The album features founding band members Tony Reflex, Frank Agnew, and Steve Soto, joined by drummer Derek O'Brien. It was the final Adolescents album to include Agnew, and their only studio album with O'Brien.
Alfonso F. "Alfie" Agnew is an American mathematician, singer, musician and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Agnew is best known for being a member of the punk bands the Adolescents and D.I. as well as the group Professor and the Madman. Alfie's brothers Rikk Agnew and Frank Agnew are also former Adolescents guitarists.
The discography of the Adolescents, a Southern California-based punk rock band, consists of eleven studio albums, three live albums, one compilation album, six EPs, two singles, and one video album.
Welcome to Reality is an EP by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in October 1981 on Frontier Records. Recorded after guitarist Rikk Agnew left the group, it was their only release recorded with guitarist Steve Roberts. The band broke up in August 1981, and when the EP was released two months later it was not well received. When the Adolescents re-formed five years later, a new lineup re-recorded all three songs from Welcome to Reality for their reunion album, 1987's Brats in Battalions.
Live 1981 & 1986 is a live album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in 1989 on Triple X Records. It consists of live performances recorded during the band's original 1980–81 run and during their 1986 reunion.
Live at the House of Blues is a live album and concert film by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in February 2004 on Kung Fu Records as part of the label's The Show Must Go Off! series. It marked a reunion of the band after a twelve-year breakup, and features songs from their original 1980–81 run and from their then-upcoming reunion album OC Confidential (2005).
The Complete Demos 1980–1986 is a compilation album of demo recordings by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in March 2005 on Frontier Records. It includes the band's first three demo tapes, recorded between March and July 1980; one outtake from the recording sessions for their 1981 EP Welcome to Reality; and two songs recorded during their 1986 reunion as demos for their second album, Brats in Battalions (1987). The first eight tracks are the only material recorded by the Adolescents' original lineup, which included guitarist John O'Donovan and drummer Peter Pan. The remaining tracks include their replacements Rikk Agnew and Casey Royer.
"Amoeba" is a song by American punk rock band the Adolescents. It is the eighth track on their self-titled debut album Adolescents, released in April 1981 on Frontier Records. It is the band's signature song.
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