Tony Reflex | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Anthony Brandenburg |
Also known as |
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Born | February 24, 1963 |
Origin | Oakland, California, United States |
Genres | Punk rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, poet |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 1979–present |
Anthony Brandenburg (born February 24, 1963 [1] ) 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.
At age 16, Brandenburg founded the Adolescents in Fullerton, California with fellow punk musicians Steve Soto and Frank Agnew. Under the name Tony Cadena, he sang on the band's debut album Adolescents and the Welcome to Reality EP (both 1981), but the group disbanded shortly thereafter. Changing his stage name to Tony Montana, he started a new group, the Abandoned, which released one studio album. The Adolescents reunited, but Brandenburg left the band after 1987's Brats in Battalions , and they recorded one album without him before breaking up again. Brandenburg joined the Flower Leperds, replacing original singer Marc Olson, and released three studio albums with them between 1988 and 1990, sometimes calling himself Tony Adolescent. His next group, Sister Goddamn, issued albums in 1992 and 1995. Meanwhile, a brief Adolescents reunion in 1989 reconnected him with former bandmates Rikk Agnew and Casey Royer, and the three started a new group, ADZ, with Brandenburg now using the name Tony Reflex. Agnew and Royer left following the group's 1992 debut album, but Brandenburg kept ADZ going for the next thirteen years with other members and issued three more studio albums. The Adolescents reunited again in 2001 and have remained active, touring and releasing five studio albums with lineups anchored by Brandenburg and founding bassist Steve Soto. Brandenburg has also collaborated with the bands White Flag and Sun & Sail Club for records on which he has served as their singer.
Outside of bands, Brandenburg has pursued a career in teaching and has been a vocal advocate for the rights of people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome, as well as for music and fine arts in education. He has also written and performed poetry, and has written for music magazines including Flipside and Maximumrocknroll .
Tony's musical career started with a band he formed in junior high school, in which he played Tupperware, pots and pans, an Optigan organ, and also wrote the lyrics. The band practiced at his home—specifically in the garage—but split up soon after forming. In 1979, then 16-year-old Tony formed The Adolescents with Steve Soto while they talked at the end of an Agent Orange concert in Santa Ana, California. The band released a track on Rodney Bigenheimer's "Rodney on the Roq" in 1980 which led to the release of their self-titled debut album The Adolescents and an EP in 1981, and disbanded later that year. Cadena then moved on to bands such as The Abandoned and God Riots 73.
In 1986, he found himself playing in The Adolescents again, assuming the stage name "Tony Montana" when the band reformed. After leaving The Adolescents in 1987, Tony joined the Flower Leperds. After a reunion in 1989, Tony went on to start another band in the Adolescents tradition called ADZ, in which he currently remains. Tony has also done occasional guest vocal spots with Los Angeles veterans White Flag and Fu Manchu, France's Burning Heads, as well as with desert rockers Half Astro.
In 2001, Tony regrouped with the other original members of The Adolescents for a reunion tour in honor of the 20th anniversary of their self-titled album. They continue to tour worldwide and released a studio album in 2005 titled OC Confidential . Since 2007, the Adolescents had been working on their next studio album, The Fastest Kid Alive which was eventually released in 2011, as well as contributions for upcoming tributes to the Runaways, and the Seeds. With the Adolescents, he has received Best Punk Band by the OC Music Awards in 2010 and 2012, In 2003 the Adolescents were chosen as the greatest all time band from Orange County by the OC Weekly. [2] In 2012 he began work on a four song EP with the Adolescents titled "American Dogs in Europe" for the German label Concrete Jungle.
Aside from his musical pursuits, Tony has a career in teaching, and for a period taught special education. He is a vocal advocate for the rights of people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome, as well as for music and fine arts in education. He has done numerous benefits to raise money for these interest groups, including benefit shows for the Silverlake Music Conservatory, and submitting a track for "Brats on the Beat" for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
In his spare time, Tony writes poetry that has been described as being "hilarious or heartbreaking"; a notable poetry reading was at the Parlour Club in Santa Monica on April 21, 2002. Tony was invited to read by poet Lydia Lunch and photographer/artist Steve Martinez. His poetry, most of which is unpublished, spans some 30+ years.
Tony has written for various magazines, most notably Flipside, "Maximum Rock and Roll", and Loud, Fast, Rules. His interviews with bands Manic Hispanic, Electric Frankenstein, and the Lee Harvey Oswald Band are among the earliest print interviews that exist for those bands. He has also written numerous liner notes for recorded and printed works, including liner notes for the Adolescents releases "Live 1981 and 1986" and "Naughty Women in Black Sweaters", Abandoned "LAMF", "Gabba Gabba Hey" (which he co-produced), "Blitzkrieg Over You", and "Beach Blvd.", as well written pieces in print releases by Bruce Duff, photographer Edward Colver, film maker Dave Markey, and photography in the poster/art book for New Jersey monster rockers Electric Frankenstein.
Year | Artist | Title | Type | Role | Credited as |
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1981 | Adolescents | Adolescents | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Cadena |
1981 | Adolescents | Welcome to Reality | EP | lead vocals | Tony Cadena |
1985 | Abandoned | Killed by Faith | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1987 | Adolescents | Brats in Battalions | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1988 | Flower Leperds | Dirges in the Dark | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Adolescent |
1989 | Flower Leperds | Heaven's Closed | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1989 | Adolescents | Live 1981 and 1986 | live album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1989 | Flower Leperds | One Miserable Bastard on a Pencil / The Starving Artist Sessions | EP | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1990 | Flower Leperds | Purple Reign | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Adolescent |
1990 | Adolescents | Return to the Black Hole | live album | lead vocals | Tony Adolescent |
1990 | White Flag | "Young Girls" | single | lead vocals | Tony Adolescent |
1991 | Flower Leperds | Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones | tribute album | lead vocals on "Commando" | Tony Montana |
1992 | Jeff Dahl | "Lisa's World" | single | lead vocals on "One Chord Wonders" | Tony Brandenburg |
1992 | Sister Goddamn | Portrait in Crayon | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1992 | Pinups | Pinups | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1992 | ADZ | Where Were You? | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1995 | Flower Leperds | More Songs About Dames, Dope, and Debauchery | compilation album | lead vocals | Tony Montana |
1995 | ADZ | "Tetsuo" | single | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1995 | ADZ | Piper at the Gates of Downey | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1995 | Sister Goddamn | Folksongs of the Spanish Inquisition | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1996 | Abandoned | Los Angeles, Motherfucker!!! | compilation album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1996 | ADZ | Hits for the Gutter | EP | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1998 | ADZ | Transmissions from Planet Speedball | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1999 | ADZ | Gigantor / ADZ | single | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
1999 | ADZ | Odz 'n' Sodz | compilation album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2000 | ADZ | ADZ / Electric Frankenstein | single | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2000 | ADZ | Five Fingers of Dr. X | compilation album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2002 | ADZ | American Steel | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2003 | Adolescents | Unwrap and Blow Me! | EP | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2004 | Adolescents | Live at the House of Blues | live album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2005 | Adolescents | The Complete Demos 1980–1986 | compilation album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2005 | Adolescents | OC Confidential | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2006 | ADZ | Live Plus Five | live album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2006 | various artists | Brats on the Beat: Ramones for Kids | tribute album | lead vocals on "Cretin Hop" | Tony Reflex |
2008 | Half Astro | Hybrid | studio album | vocals on "IB4E (XCPTFTRT)" | Tony Reflex |
2009 | Adolescents | Burning Heads / Adolescents | EP | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2010 | White Flag | Benefit for Cats | live album | lead vocals on "Amoeba" | Tony Reflex |
2011 | Adolescents | The Fastest Kid Alive | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2011 | White Flag | Live at Bohemian Grove / Coco Hayley Gordon Moore | EP | lead vocals | Tony Adolescent |
2012 | Adolescents | American Dogs in Europe | EP | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2012 | Adolescents | Adolescents / Muletrain | EP | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2013 | Adolescents | Presumed Insolent | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2014 | Burning Heads | Choose Your Trap | studio album | vocals on "Stick Our Heads Up High" | Tony Adolescent |
2014 | Adolescents | La Vendetta | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2015 | Adolescents | Gin | single | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2015 | Sun & Sail Club | The Great White Dope | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Adolescent |
2016 | Adolescents | Manifest Density | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
2018 | Adolescents | Cropduster | studio album | lead vocals | Tony Reflex |
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.
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.
D.I. is an American punk rock band formed in 1981 in Fullerton, California. It was founded by vocalist and primary songwriter Casey Royer, after previously playing drums in the bands Adolescents and Social Distortion.
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.
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.
Bulimia Banquet was an American punk band with members from Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Hermosa Beach, and El Segundo, California, United States. They formed in 1986. Fronted by guitarist Ingrid Baumgart and bassist Jula Bell, the band is regarded as one of the forerunners of the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s. The band released two albums and disbanded in 1991.
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.
Presumed Insolent is the sixth studio album by American hardcore punk band the Adolescents. The record was released on July 26, 2013 via Concrete Jungle label.
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.