Youth Brigade

In the self-descriptive sense, Youth Brigade is no longer a credible name for an iconic punk band that formed in 1980 and toured with Social Distortion during the early Reagan era. Then again, Middle Age Brigade seems a little neurotic, no? So what to do? Claim philosophical privilege, that's what...

By Craig Outhier

June 4, 2009

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In the self-descriptive sense, Youth Brigade is no longer a credible name for an iconic punk band that formed in 1980 and toured with Social Distortion during the early Reagan era. Then again, Middle Age Brigade seems a little neurotic, no? So what to do? Claim philosophical privilege, that's what. If you ask Mark, Adam, or Shawn Stern — the sibling trio from Beverly Hills who started the band right around, oh, the time Billie Joe Armstrong's nuts were dropping — the principle of "youthfulness" is, first and foremost, a state of mind. That's always been their policy, even when they were fresh-faced turks playing to capacity nightclub crowds during punk's Hollywood heyday. Fair enough. Certainly, the brothers Stern will make their local fans happy by tapping some of that positive-minded punkitude during their upcoming mini-tour of the Southwest (they're also playing Tucson and Las Vegas). Credit the band's mini-renaissance to their show at last spring's SxSW and myriad documentary film profiles, including Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and Punk's Not Dead The Movie. Maybe cell-decay-denial pays after all.

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