Adolescents O.C. Confidential

Adolescents O.C. Confidential
Finger Records
Orange County, Ca
http://www.fingerrecords.com

How can I put this, ah, um, it's the fucking Adolescents!!!!! Long before there was Epitaph Records, Offspring, Pennywise, countless other OC bands there was the Adolescents. Formed out of former members of Social Distortion, Agent Orange and other less known OC bands, the Adolescents came to represent the shinning hour of the OC punk that would lead the break into the mainstream.

Like many punk bands for the 80s, they crashed and burned in a short
time. In barely over 2 year, they recorded the punk classic self-titled 'Blue
Record' and the Welcome to Reality single. With no touring outside of west
coast and the limited distribution of Frontier Records, they left a mark on
the Hardcore Punk scene that very few bands did. In 86 the reunited with the
lineup from the Blue Record and after a few line up changes recorded 'Brats
to Battalion' in 1997. The band toured with a limited line up of the original
members and then Tony left to form the Flower Leopards but the band carried on
with countless lineup changes. With only two original members they
recorded 'Balboa Fun Zone' in 1988. At that point it's hard to call that album
an Adolescents record. It was good but it weren't no blue record. After that
the band became inactive until a reunion for the anversity of the Blue Record
in 2001 and began playing around LA to sell out crowds.

O.C. Confidential is the closest to the classic line-up as you are
going to get in this day and age. It often has the same feel that the early
stuff does and it does deliver a majority of the time. Often reunion records
are less then a favor for fans wanting a return to the past. This is not a
carbon copy of the Blue Record and just who would want that in the first
place. This is a more developed and adult version of the Adolescents of old.
All the key players are there, Frank Agnew with solid leads and riffs, Steve
Soto with his famous bass lines and the best backup vocals in punk and Tony
Reflex cracking voice and witty lyrics. Don't think you are getting short
change with out Rikk cause there is that classic Agnew guitar written through
out with guess spots by Johnny Two Bags. Casey isn't on the Drum stool but if
you had to replace him who could be better then Derek O'Brien. Most of the
writing seems split between Agnew brothers, Derek, Soto and Frank's son even
has a song.

If I had to pick songs off to highlight it would have to be the anti-
war 'Hawk and Doves', bitting 'California Son', the stab at the old
schoolers 'Pointless Teenage Anthem', the any town in America theme 'O.C,
Confidential' and the dark 'Find A Way'. I have to say though if you're at the
record store and you have this record in one hand and the Blue Record in the
other, get the blue. It is hard to repeat something that good in a life time.
But if you already have and love Blue pick this one up. 25 years have past and
these guys are still better then most of the bands out there.