Youth Brigade “Sound & Fury” 1983. BYO Records. 80′s era California hardcore punk, Sound & Fury was Youth Brigade’s second album; their first, also called Sound & Fury, came out in ‘82 but the band was unhappy with it so they re-recorded a few of the tracks and added in a bunch of others (many of those songs can be seen/heard in the excellent punk documentary featuring Youth Brigade and Social Distortion: Another State of Mind (1984) recorded while the bands toured together in ‘82.

I needed another dose of comfort music this week – this social isolation/quarantine thing is getting really old and I haven’t been motivated to write about anything, much less new or unexplored records. Sound & Fury recalls crazy, more carefree days – it was on HEAVY rotation at parties and all-ages gatherings that I attended in the mid-80′s, one of those records that I still know every song’s lyrics. Some great songs like the punk anthem “Sink with California” and “Fight to Unite” which both criticize nationalism while giving a  little geography lesson and promoting unity and understanding. “Modest Proposal,” “Sound & Fury” and “The Circle” all describe that awesome energy at punk shows and in mosh pits – as well as the circle of life and death. Man I miss going to see live music! There’s also the punk peacenik track “What Are You Fighting For” and suicide awareness is highlighted on “Did You Wanna Die.”  “What Will the Revolution Change?” is a bit more mellow (for hardcore) and clocks in at a-really-long-and-complex-for-punk 5+ minutes). And “Blown Away” feels particularly poignant at this moment: “It seems more and more the future’s filled with uncertainty we seem to find ourselves living in an age of anxiety I know, we go, on living fearfully the leaders of the world won’t realize their responsibility I say, I say will we get blown away can we go on existing hoping for another day one day, one day, we can get blown away or we can stop the madness before it’s too late and we get blown away you tell me that you’re scared well so am I.” There’s also a couple of stinkers (“Jump Back” and “Duke of Earl” both kinda suck). One of my favorite is the anti-cop “Men In Blue” which combines punk rant/chant with some rap that as teens we’d recite when seeing the local men in blue.

Well I was walking down the street just the other day and the cops picked me up for something I didn’t say. There was no reason, there was no rhyme, they just fucked with me to waste some time. The scariest thing? They could have wasted me, the cops have the power and the guns you see. Simple lines, stay in school. You’re just not cool if you don’t follow their rules. I would understand if I’d committed a crime, They coulda locked me up I woulda done my time. Well I didn’t do nothing to the man had said. So he jacked me up and he cracked my head. We could bitch about it and we could complain, but it ain’t gonna stop until we break our chains. The story and it ended had just begun, they were back real soon for some more of these fun. What are we gonna do about the men in blue?