Los Angeles Movie Premiere of – Let Them Know, The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records – Hollywood, CA

Thursday night marked the premiere of "Let Them Know," a documentary which tells the story of L.A.'s Youth Brigade, and the Better Youth Organization, a Punk rock cooperative turned record label. Along with the showing of the movie came live performances by Youth Brigade and two of B.Y.O.'s most iconic bands- Swingin' Utters and 7 Seconds. Prior to the showing, director, Jeff Alulius and his co-producer Ryan Harlin briefly spoke about the film and Alulius ultimately described it as "A film about Los Angeles and a story that wasn't being told that well."

Like many Southern California tales, "Let Them Know" starts with a story about surfers. B.Y.O. founder and Youth Brigade front man/guitarist, Shawn Stern talks about how surfing influenced his life perspective and introduced him to the world of subcultures. From there "Let Them Know" is about evolution and how surfing led to Shawn and his fellow Stern brothers (Mark and Adam) finding Punk rock and starting there first band, The Extremes, who are described in the movie as a "tame" New Wave band who committed the Punk rock cardinal sin of using keyboards.

Then Sterns then attempted to start a Punk rock/swing crossover outfit called the Swing Skins Brigade (doomed by the fact that they were unable to find enough band members who were able to play Swing Music and willing to shave their heads) and of course moved on to starting Youth Brigade, which led to diving into the hardcore Punk rock scene, establishing the Skinhead Manor Punk rock house, the Better Youth Organization as a theoretical group that passed out fliers and turned into a record label that also booked some of the most talked about Punk shows in L.A. in the early 1980's.

In many ways the movie is about failed attempts. The Swing Skins Brigade was ruined by band geeks who would not commit to the Punk rock lifestyle, the Skinhead Manor was ruined by Punk rockers who would not commit to living a more responsible lifestyle, Youth Brigade took a back seat to the B.Y.O. record label and played two ill fated tours of the United States and Europe respectively. However what is important in this story is not whether or not the Stern brothers succeeded in everything that they were trying to do, but rather that they attempted to do something positive in a scene that was being consumed by its own negativity.

Most of the interviews in "Let Them Know" are feature the same core group of people- Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat/Dischord Records, Matt Skiba of the Alkaline Trio, Fat Mike from NOFX/Fat Wreck Chords, Kevin Seconds and Steve Youth of 7 Seconds, the Adolescents' Steve Soto, and members of the Bouncing Souls and the Briefs. Locals to Southern California may also be happy to see appearances by Brendan Mullen who ran L.A.'s infamous Masque club, and Boz from Orange County's The Crowd and who incidentally was also a resident of the Skinhead Manor.

With the influx of Punk rock movies that have come out in the past few years, it was important that "Let Them Know" had its own voice to set it apart from its counterparts. The way that it does this is mostly by using humor. Much of this humor fits into the "It's funny because it's true" category, from Fat Mike's jabs at several records in the B.Y.O. catalog, to members of the Bouncing Souls doing impressions of Shawn Stern. The funniest part of the movie is when interviewees do impressions of their favorite lines from the "Another State Of Mind" documentary including Ian Mackaye delivering Marcell's "Life is not amusement" line, and Matt Skiba doing an impression of the French Canadian chick bragging about "beating up faggots for money." The grand finale is delivered by several people doing an impression of Youth Brigade roadie, Brian Swilley's instructions on how to slam dance before Swilley himself reenacts the scene.

The rest of the movie spares no details. Everything is covered here. The first few B.Y.O. Records released are raved about - the "Someone Got Their Head Kicked In" compilation, Youth Brigade's "Sound and Fury," Aggression's "Don't Be Mistaken," and the early records by 7 Seconds and S.N.F.U...There is also talk about shows that B.Y.O. put on at Godzilla's and the infamous "Youth Movement" shows (accompanied by vintage news footage), and the birth of The Royal Crown Revue, who finally gave Jamie Stern his moment in the sun and helped to spearhead the late 1990's Swing revival (either ironically or appropriately a throw back to the failed Swing Skins Brigade idea). Even B.Y.O.'s annual Punk Rock Bowling tournament in Las Vegas was covered.

About twenty minutes after the movie was over Youth Brigade started playing, opening with "Violence" which all too often is omitted from the band's set these days. Shawn Stern followed this song with a classic one liner - "We're Youth Brigade and there's no such thing as Christian Punk rock. It's all just bull shit." A few other vintage Youth Brigade tunes were mixed into their set, such as "Fight to Unite," "Did You Want to Die," and "What Are We Gonna Do About the Boys In Blue," which was started by a chant from the audience. The crowd gave big reactions for "I Hate My Life" and "Punk Rock Mom."

One of the coolest things that we saw was an enthusiastic Punk rocker stage diving several times with a 12" record in hand. For most of the set Shawn and Mark Stern were joined by the two new members of Youth Brigade, Joey Balls and Johnny from Blue Collar Special and Old Man Markley on bass and second guitar, but at the end of the set Adam Stern made an appearance to play "Where Are All the Old Men Bars," "Fight to Unite" and of course "Sink With California."

Swingin' Utters delivered a set of rowdy Punk rock songs with a great performance by vocalist, Johnny Peebucks who managed to make his own forehead bleed by hitting himself with a microphone. The highlight of their set was the Utters playing "Petty Wage" and "No Eager Men" back to back which sounded as fresh as they did in the 1990's.

7 Seconds finished the night's festivities and although they experienced some technical difficulties with the vocal mics not being as loud as they should have been, their performance was still great. They played tons of classic songs like "This Is Angry," "Walk Together, Rock Together," "Here's Your Warning," "We're Gonna Fight," "The Crew," "One Big Guessing Game," "Young Til I Die," and they ended their set with "Trust."

It was awesome to see 7 Seconds play their first L.A. show in years and their performance was an excellent way to cap off a great night of Punk rock history.
Let Them Know - Movie Website: letthemknowthemovie.com

This coffee table book with compilation CD and a DVD of the movie is something you will want to have in your collection. You can buy Let Them Know: Story of Youth Brigade & BYO Record HERE

 

 

 

 

-Ditch-
Big Wheel Asst. Editor

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
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