0 [FROM THE CRATES #15] The Adolescents - Adolescents

Review by Matt Abramson

The Adolescents - Adolescents
(Frontier Records 1981)

I picked this album up as part of my punk rock epiphany that lasted from when I was thirteen until... well... I'm not sure I'm fully epiphanized yet. However, this remains my single favorite punk or hardcore album of all time. I never get involved in the where or who started punk rock argument because the only thing that matters is who did it best, and that band was the Adolescents.

The Adolescents were a punk super group, but would never tolerate being called such a thing. They featured dudes who were in or went on to form bands like Social Distortion, Agent Orange, D.I. and Christian Death. Their music is a fast and ferocious blend of early punk, California surf, the emerging hardcore scene and busted skateboards. What the Adolescents couldn't hide, however, was how fucking well they could play. Casey Royer's precision ride cymbol 16th notes and Rikk Agnew's thoughtful guitar work (side note: Shit, the guy is playing modes. What other punks knew about modes? And if you send me a Dead Kennedys link I will find you and make you listen to 'American Idiot' at full blast for two days straight. Don't try me. Dead Kennedys had a frontman. The Adolescents had a band.) coupled with really clean production for the time was a far cry from "Blitzkrieg Bop".

"Kids of the Black Hole" is the undeniable centerpiece of this album. At over five minutes long, it is longer than most hardcore seven inches. What is really crazy about the track is it shows the Adolescents writing and playing well beyond the novelty standards of the time imparted by The Ramones and The Sex Pistols. The track even featured a guitar solo, hell, a good guitar solo! This kind of composition was the antithesis of what the die-hard punks would consider punk.

Early punks would likely have us believe this was utter blasphemy due largely to the fact that they were incapable of such a feat. Notably, the other tracks on the record are more in line with what is expected of hardcore music. Still, tracks like "Amoeba" and "Wrecking Crew" offer flourishes of really interesting playing that would later be mastered by bands like Fugazi. This was all matched by lyrics that any teen can relate to, under all the psuedo-politics and punk bravado are themes of isolation, uncertainty and mostly just having had an ass full of life's bullshit. It's stuff that the meanest punks were scared to talk about, and here were their own talking about it. Punk may be a mindset based on individuality, but we all feel like shit sometimes and it's important to know we're not alone.

There are three versions of this album floating around on CD. The first (and also the most recent vinyl pressing) features just the album. The second adds the 'Welcome to Reality' EP, which featured a nearly intact blue album line up. The third, which I believe is the 2000 pressing, features the album, EP and Rikk Agnew's solo album 'All By Myself' on the same disc. This is the one to get, it's more bang for your buck and the Rikk Agnew album is almost worth a column by itself. Hmm...