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Fountain of Youth
By Billy Schear
wschear@mscd.edu

Age is a state of mind. Shawn Stern, lead singer of Youth Brigade.

A musical renaissance was cultivated in the sterile suburbs of Southern California in the early ’80s, when a small contingent of angry young people began shaving their heads, kissing festive punk fashion goodbye and crafting a new tribal ritual called hardcore.

In the summer of 1980, a trio of brothers – Shawn, Mark and Adam Stern – formed what would be considered in later years a seminal band in the hardcore movement. Youth Brigade took as a mission statement that “youth is an attitude and every generation has a responsibility to change what they feel is wrong in the world,” which became a mantra of independence.

“I think there’s a lot of problems in the world, and if young people aren’t concerned about them, then they’re not going to have much of a future,” Shawn said about this philosophy.

First embracing the punk scene in 1978, the brothers Stern were among a small number of punks in Los Angeles at the time.

“That was the summer Generation X’s record came out, and they had a song called ‘100 Punks’ on it, and it really seemed that L.A. had just about 100 punks,” Shawn said.

Musically, Youth Brigade takes charge with explosive, up-tempo songs. Their grinding guitar licks and intricate harmonics show how easily a group can set themselves apart from the herd by paying attention to the subtleties of style. Lyrically, they maintain punk tradition with observations about power and control run amok. The firecracker drum beats and rubbery bass loops contribute in giving this serious band a fun-loving edge.

In 1982, the eldest brothers, Mark and Shawn, formed the Better Youth Organization and bought Godzillas, a Los Angeles nightclub where they put on several punk shows. BYO exists today as a record label dedicated to promoting alternative music, art and other creative endeavors completely independently.

“I prefer to avoid being involved with majors as much as possible,” Shawn said. “I mean, one of our main distributors is owned by a major, so it’s almost impossible to get away from it completely, but we still run the company ourselves and own everything ourselves, manufacture everything ourselves.”

As far as balancing his duties as a record-label owner and musician, Shawn is blunt about his preference.

“I’d much rather just play music, but since we run a label, and we’re helping other bands try to earn money while playing their music so they don’t have to work a regular job, we gotta deal with it. So it’s just a necessary evil,” he said.

Regarding business getting in the way of art, again Shawn sets the record straight.

“We probably don’t take the business side as seriously as other people do. Business to us is secondary,” he said.

As an observer on the frontlines of the underground scene, Shawn iterates the view that revolutionary changes in music have been halted.

“I hear a lot of rehashing, and unfortunately most kids are into stuff I just think is mindless drivel, whether it’s emo music or these boy bands that are put together by these major labels,” Shawn said.

And the hypocritical actions of these contemporary bands are what rile Shawn the most.

“I do find it difficult to understand a band that’s blatantly political and criticizes multi-national corporations to then go and sign to a multinational and major label and let them own all of their music,” he said.

Currently working on a new album that Shawn said will be released in the near future, Youth Brigade is sure to continue bashing those they perceive as dilettantes and parasites in a musical genre known for its frankness and ethical standards.

“It’s nothing personal,” Shawn said. “A lot of these bands whose music I don’t like, I don’t know them as people, and a lot of people have told me they’re cool. And maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. I don’t know. I just think their music sucks. I’ve been working my ass off in this music scene for about thirty years now, so I think that I’ve earned the right to speak my mind and say what I think.”