Reagan Youth

I happened to be flipping through the channels the other night when I caught the end of the brainless Adam Sandler film Airheads. In case anyone cares, the "hit" single played by the band at the end is actually a cover of "Degenerated" originally by New York City politicos Reagan Youth (uncredited, of course). Anyhow, this inspired me to give a listen to 1984's 12" EP Youth Anthems for the New Order.

Reagan Youth - Degenerated.mp3
Reagan Youth - Are You Happy.mp3
7 tracks of snotty, political punk highlighted by a raw and sleazy guitar sound. Despite kicking around for most of the Reagan years "Youth Anthems" was the lone release for the band and was way out of print by the end of the '80's. Some time in 1990 New Red Archives reissued the 12" with several additional tracks as Volume 1. As part of the reissue agreement the band reformed to record some of their old songs. The results were released as a new LP -Volume 2. If memory serves me, the record was a major disappointment. Gone were the agression and smarts of the first recordings. As would be expected, both records have been conveniently compiled onto 1 disc - A Collection of Pop Classics