• THE ADOLESCENTS • Adolescents are a punk band hailing from Fullerton, California, United States who formed in 1980. Since their debut they have become one of the most influential punk bands of their time, providing the blueprint for skate-punk and hardcore bands in their wake from Blink-182 to Pennywise. Formed by vocalist Tony Cadena and bass player Steve Soto in late 1979, the assorted line-ups of Adolescents have featured a veritable who’s who of players from the biggest names of the California punk scene. Soto himself cut his teeth performing in Agent Orange and in Adolescents’ very first line-up, their guitarist Frank Agnew was late of Social Distortion. Even though the band couldn’t quite keep a steady rhythm section throughout their first year, they still managed to sign to Posh Boy Records and release their debut single “Amoeba” later in 1980. Almost exactly a year after their debut, the band had recruited Agnew’s brother Rikk into the fold on Rhythm guitar, and fellow Social D veteran Casey Royer on the drums, and they were ready to go into the studio to record their first album. They signed with Frontier Records to release it, and the selftitled record was released was released in May after being recorded and mastered in four days flat. The album was hugely acclaimed and was for a time the biggest selling Californian punk album ever after “Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables” by The Dead Kennedys. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to keep the band together after more than a few months. Rikk Agnew was the first to go, and briefly the band replaced him with The Germs’ Pat Smear (who would later join the Foo Fighters), but he was unable to tour with the band. By August, the writing was on the wall and the Adolescents split up, each member either joining existing bands or starting new ones. While the story of the Adolescents was far from over, it wasn’t until the start of the 21st century that the band started finally getting their dues, even after reuniting for three years in 1986. Many bands who swore by their first two albums became enormous in the 1990’s, like Blink-182, The Offspring and Red Hot Chili Peppers to name but a few. This level of exposure meant that when the band reunited again in 2001, they did so to a far bigger audience than they’d ever had before, and they immediately began performing live at the biggest shows of their career. The band have released five acclaimed studio albums since reforming ◦ OC Confidential (2005) ◦ The Fastest Kid Alive (2011) ◦ Presumed Insolent (2013) ◦ La Vendetta… (2014) ◦ Manifest Density (2016) • and are a bigger live draw than ever before, as their heroic slot on the 2010 Vans Warped Tour show. Sadly in June of 2018 they lost one of their founding members: Steve Soto. Unsure how to move forward they play in his honor so the music he created, the friendships he built and the smile he always shared can be remembered and cherished forever.
Deviates
South bay punks Deviates have announced plans to release Holding Out, their first new batch of songs in 20 years, on September 17th. 500 limited edition translucent blood red vinyl copies of Holding Out are also available. Vinyl Ships 11/15
The release of the Cameron Webb produced, 7-song album coincides with a run of west coast shows with Pennywise Oct. 7-9 and Nov. 5th.
The first single and music video “Wasted” is now streaming everywhere.
“Wasted” Music Video: https://youtu.be/FnkGtflqzkg
Stream “Wasted” on DSPs: https://smarturl.it/DeviatesHoldingOut
Order Deviates merch and vinyl at: https://merch.deviatesband.com
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Twenty years ago, Deviates were considered “the future of punk rock.” The South Bay band encapsulated everything that was right about Southern California’s late ’90s/early 2000s punk scene, and they seemed poised to explode after consecutive summers on the Warped Tour and the success of Time is the Distance, their sophomore effort.
A year later, they weren’t even a band anymore.
“At the time, it seemed like being a part of the future of punk rock required devotion to being in a touring band for life, which wasn’t really what I think we had intended or what we thought it was gonna be,” says lead singer Brian Barbara. “When we started the band in 1994, we didn’t think that it would be anything. We were just kids playing the music we listened to, and punk rock was the soundtrack to our lives. By the time it evolved and grew to where we were putting out records, life had changed and we were ready to lay it down, and we didn’t know if that would be forever or when we’d pick it back up again.”
As it turns out, 2021 would be the year Deviates picked up their instruments again — and now they’re back with a renewed fire inside of them.
The band’s third album, Holding Out, is a seven-song blast of SoCal punk rock new and old. A combination of recently written tunes alongside tracks created in the early 2000s for Deviates’ ill-fated original attempt at a third album, the South Bay punks’ latest work fuses every bit of melodic aggression that put the band on the cusp of stardom their first go-around with the more intelligent and mature approach that only decades of life experience can provide.
But while Barbara and the band may look and sound a little different now than they did in their early 20s, they’re still fueled by the same rage that fired them up before their 2002 breakup. They’re jumping right back into the spotlight this fall with shows featuring the likes of Pennywise and Dead Kennedys, and they’re more appreciative than ever of the friends, fans, and overall scene that continued to support them through their multi-decade hiatus.
This time around, they’ve got the added blessings of no longer being dumb kids and not having stratospheric expectations or external pressures on the band. As full-grown adults with other careers and families, Deviates is only reuniting because they want to — both for themselves and for everyone who’s been waiting for this moment. It’s a level of freedom the band never knew in their first run, and it has them more excited to perform and create than ever before. Much like how punk rock has continued to persist and reach generation after generation of disgruntled youths regardless of what’s popular on the radio, the group carries a renewed passion for both the music and the people around them — regardless of if they’re old fans or ones that discovered them in the interim.
“Twenty years later, you think you’ll never do it again, but I honestly never stopped writing and never stopped documenting music — and it always ended up going back to punk rock,” Barbara says. “I was 16 when we started this and I’m 42 now, but there’s always been this common thread for Deviates, which is that we’ve always been representative of the crowd that we play in front of. Twenty years later the heart behind this hasn’t changed.”
Crazy and The Brains
New album ‘Where The Juice Drips’ out now. Recorded in Asbury Park, NJ with Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls.
C&TB has performed in the US, Canada & Europe. Highlights include Punk Rock Bowling as well as tours with Leftöver Crack, Negative Approach, Days N Daze and The Bouncing Souls.
Dumpster Fire
An eclectic collaboration of seasoned local musicians decided to come together and produce what we can only describe as “Punk Rock”. We are having a blast, and wanted to share.
