The Casualties, Adolescents, Swingin' Utters, Angry Samoans, et The Drowns

The band began in 1990, with the members brought together by their shared love of punk, whose popularity had begun to decline after hair metal, synth pop and new wave began to top the charts. The band’s lineup has seen constant changes throughout their career, with Jorge Herrera being the only long lasting member. It was not until 1991 that the band managed to stabilise enough to record their first EP, “40 Ounce Casualty.”

After this release, The Casualties toured heavily, building a loyal following in their hometown of NYC, US. Further lineup changes occurred and it was another three years, in 1994, that the band were to release another record, their second EP, “Drinking Is Our Way of Life.” This EP never saw a formal release but it was incorporated into their retrospective “Early Years: 1990-1995” which came out in 1999.

In 1996, they travelled to London, UK to perform at the Sun Festival. From here they started to build fans in the UK, expanding their fan base. In 1997, their debut full-length, “For The Punx” was released, followed by an extensive tour in support, opening for the band, The Varukers.

The Casualties constantly toured throughout the next decade, travelling all across the US and Europe. In 2000 and 2001, they released the albums, “Who’s In Control?” and “Stay Out of Order,” before moving to Side One Dummy Records to release “Die Hards.” These albums helped build the band’s popularity, eventually building to achieving a main stage slot on the Vans Warped Tour. Moving to the Season of Mist record label, they released their ninth album, “Resistance” in 2012.

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 self-titled 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 four acclaimed studio albums since reforming and are a bigger live draw than ever before, as their heroic slot on the 2010 Vans Warped Tour show. They’re going strong to this day, after two decades of uncertainty, and for that, they come highly recommended.

Originally formed under the moniker Johnny Peebucks and the Swingin’ Utters in 1987, the band remained with the name until 1994. Comprised of singer and frontman Johnny “Peebucks” Bonnel, guitarist/accordionist Darius Koski, bassist Kevin Wickersham, and drummer Greg McEntee, the group moved from Santa Cruz to San Francisco soon after their formation and began recording material for the labels Side One, IFA Records, and New Red Archives.

Johnny Peebucks and the Swingin’ Utters’ debut release surfaced in 1992 as the full-length “Scared”, however it was the record’s follow-up, “The Streets of San Francisco”, that propelled the California-natives to punk-rock notoriety. Released in 1995 under the Swingin’ Utters moniker and produced by Lars Frederiksen, the album won the Best Debut Album Award at the Bay Area Music Awards. In both promotion and support of “The Streets of San Francisco”, the band were invited to tour as a part of the first annual Vans Warped Tour, as well as alongside Rancid on a national tour.

Following a move to Fat Wreck Chords, Swingin’ Utters’ third full-length album “A Juvenile Product of the Working Class” was released in 1996. Taking the name from the Elton John song ”Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”, the record proved another popular release, and paved the way for their subsequent album “Fiver Lessons Learned” in 1998. Following the release of their self-titled, fifth studio album in 2000, the band embarked on a national tour with The Damned and Dropkick Murphys, before heading to Europe with Rancid. A sixth album arrived in 2003 entitled “Dead Flowers, Bottles, Bluegrass, and Bones” before Swingin’ Utters took a six year break from recording and touring.

In their absence, fellow punk rock band compiled the tribute album “Untitled 21: A Juvenile Tribute to the Swingin’ Utters”, released by Red Scare Industries. In 2010 the band returned to issued the EP “Brand New Lungs”, followed in 2011 with the full-length “Here, Under Protest”. Released in early 2013, the group’s eighth studio album “Poorly Formed”, marked the arrival of bassist Miles Peck, and was supported by an Australian tour alongside Dropkick Murphys and Frank Turner.