New Aryans / Reagan Youth / Happy? / I Hate Hate
Degenerated / U.S.A. / Go No Where
One of the shorter LP’s I own, clocking in at 11 minutes all in. The debut release from New York’s Peace Punk kings, Reagan Youth.
Before you get too worried, the name plus all the images on the poster cover are meant to be ironic, and this band were NOT involved in any K.K.K. politics. Most of the band including the vocalist were from Jewish families originally.
Reagan Youth played with all the big punk bands of the day, Dead Kennedy’s, Bad Brains and Black Flag as well as an early incarnation of the Beastie Boys (The Young And The Useless) but were always favoured at C.B.G.B’s in the band’s home town of New York. Absolutely massive at the time.
This record was released on the band’s own label which sold out in the limited quantity pressed up. The record was later repressed with different mix and extra tracks on New Red Archives selling in excess of 40,000 copies. The second LP was unveiled in 1990 on New Red Archives and by this time the band had lost it’s momentum and the vocalist Dave Insurgent was dealing brown, and had a major habit of his own.
He was considered as a slight annoyance, to a fair amount of the old colleagues he had built up over the years. Added to this the N.Y. Straight Edge movement was massive around the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, so Reagan Youth were considered ‘old hat’ in their own town.
The complete breakdown of the vocalist’s already shrinking ego was on it’s way, a fair amount was Dave’s fault, but two terrible occurrences in 1993, which no one could have foreseen, pushed him over the edge.
He got a proper toeing from some other druggie over a deal that went wrong, and spent several weeks in hospital. He went back to his parents to clean up, this never happened. He ended up again in a bad way in some hovel in the lower east side of New York. He dated a young street walker who also enjoyed a night on the brown.
Dave’s mother died suddenly in a freak car accident, which understandably shook the vocalist somewhat. A matter of weeks later Dave’s girlfriend disappeared with a driver whilst peddling for trade. She was actually with Dave at the time of getting the offer of the trade with the driver, stating she would be back soon. She never returned and some days later was found dead, still in the car. The last victim of New York’s worst serial killer of the decade Joel Rifkin.
Dave had lost his band, his friends, his mother and then girlfriend all in the space of a couple of years, he committed suicide a matter of weeks after the death of his girlfriend.
kaplan
April 28, 2008 at 9:43 amshit this is what you can call “hard luck” ! hope the man is in peace now
Nic
April 28, 2008 at 1:49 pmYes, sad story..R.I.P…
However, I used to absolutely love this album when it came out…
“Where you going tonight, boy? I ain’t going fuckin’ nowhere!”
I agree that the next record had lost a lot of the drive: it’s too drug-addled (in all the wrong ways, instead of the right ones)…
dirk
April 28, 2008 at 11:44 pmI had detention and had to see the head of year when this gem was found in my record bag along with the fartz first ep.took me ages to convince my teacher i was not a kkk member.this is the bands first last and always,degenerated still remains a punk classic.
Nic
April 29, 2008 at 8:23 amARGH!!! The Fartz! Fantastic! Seattle hardcore: ‘Because This Fuckin’ World Stinks’ – what a blistering record…
I only got the re-press when Alternative Tentacles put it out in 1982, though I’d had a tape of it before then…
The guitarist had previously played in Solger who released one of my all-time faviourite American lo-fi sludge hate punk records (the ‘Raping Dead Nuns’ ep)…
I loved The Accused as well (‘Martha Splatterhead’ – great LP), though I’m not keen on Guns and Roses…
😉
Brien
November 11, 2011 at 7:18 pmI still have my original run pressing of this in the fold out poster cover. I always loved ‘name songs’ and Reagan Youth (by Reagan Youth, of course) is still one of my favorites. I hadn’t heard the story about the singer, that’s really sad.