| Better Youth Organization Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Founder | Shawn Stern, Mark Stern |
| Genre | Punk rock, hardcore punk |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Los Angeles, California |
Better Youth Organization Records (BYO) is a defunct Los Angeles, California based independent punk rock record label created by Shawn and Mark Stern, two of the three brothers of the California punk rock band Youth Brigade (the third being Adam Stern who plays bass but does not run BYO). [1]
BYO aims to promote punk and other alternative youth cultures in a positive light. BYO released records by 7 Seconds, Agression, and SNFU in the 1980s, as well as Leatherface, Kosher, The Unseen, Throw Rag, Jon Cougar Concentration Camp, Automatic 7 and The Briefs. It also started the BYO Split Series of full-length records shared by bands from other labels, such as Leatherface/Hot Water Music, Swingin' Utters/Youth Brigade, NOFX/Rancid, The Bouncing Souls/Anti-Flag and Alkaline Trio/One Man Army.
Before BYO became a record label they started as a fanzine, in 1981, named after their namesake. The zine intended to tackle the issues of police brutality and the negative views towards punks and the punk scene. As of late-2013, the label is defunct.
Hardcore punk is a punk rock subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by Washington, D.C., and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically charged lyrics".
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.
A Global Threat (AGT) was an American punk rock band, formed in Bangor, Maine in 1997. They released four full-length albums as well as many 7-inch EPs and toured extensively throughout the United States.
7 Seconds is an American hardcore punk band from Reno, Nevada, that was formed in 1980 by two sets of brothers. The band has gone through numerous lineup changes over the subsequent years, with only Kevin Seconds, Steve Youth and Bobby Adams remaining constant members.
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. 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.
Pistol Grip is an American street punk band, formed in Walnut, California in 1997. Their sound has been described as a mixture of the UK and LA styles of punk fused with anti-religious and quasi-political lyrics. The band built up a strong local following through playing shows with The Adicts, Agnostic Front, The Generators, Youth Brigade and The Unseen. Their first release was a split album with fellow LA street punk band Fully Loaded. The album caught the attention of BYO Records, who signed the band in 2001.
...And No One Else Wanted to Play is the first full-length album from Canadian punk band SNFU. The album was engineered by David Ferguson, recorded at Track Record Studios in Hollywood, California, US in December 1984, and released by BYO Records in 1985.
Leatherface was a British punk rock band from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, fronted by Frankie Stubbs. Trouser Press called them "England's finest, most exciting punk band of the 90s" and The Guardian has called them "the greatest British punk band of the modern era."
The BYO Split Series is a series of albums put out by BYO Records. Each album is a split album which features two bands, with each band doing a cover of the other bands music on the album. The series started in 1999, and so far contains 5 releases.
Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
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. Many later punk bands cite Youth Brigade as an influence, including The Nation of Ulysses and The Briefs.
The discography of BYO Records, an independent record label based in Los Angeles, consists of 118 releases: 85 studio albums, one live album, 13 compilation albums, 2 EPs, 15 singles, one video album, and one box set.
Happy Hour is a studio album by the Los Angeles–based hardcore punk band Youth Brigade, released in 1994. It was the band's first full-length studio album since their second album Sound & Fury, released 11 years earlier. However, in the 11 years they had released two EPs, as well as one album under the name The Brigade, when bassist/vocalist Adam Stern was on hiatus from the band for six years, from 1985 to 1991. The band supported the album with the "10 Years of BYO in Yer Face" tour.
The Dividing Line is a studio album by the Los Angeles–based hardcore punk band Youth Brigade, released in 1986 under the moniker The Brigade. This would be the band's only release with bassist Bob Gnarly, who replaced Adam Stern in 1985.
Agression is an American hardcore punk band from Silver Strand Beach, Oxnard, California, United States.
Sink with Kalifornija is a compilation album by Los Angeles–based hardcore punk band Youth Brigade. It was released in 1994 by the band's own label, BYO Records. It contains recordings from two of the band's earlier works; Sound & Fury (1983) and the EP What Price Happiness? (1984), as well as live tracks recorded at Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California in 1985.
Sound & Fury is the first studio album released by American hardcore punk band Youth Brigade. It was released in 1982 and was followed in 1983 by an album of the same name that included re-recorded versions of some tracks. All of the album's tracks except for "Something's Gonna Change" were released on CD as part of the 1998 compilation album Out of Print. The track "Boys in the Brigade" was featured in the background of the crime drama film The Star Chamber (1983).
Sound & Fury is the second studio album released by Los Angeles-based hardcore punk band Youth Brigade. Released in 1983, it followed a 1982 album of the same name.
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.
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.
