Adolescents (band)

Adolescents
Performing on the 2007 Warped Tour
Background information
Origin	Fullerton, California, United States
Genres	Punk rock
Years active	1980–1981, 1986–1989, 2001–present
Labels	Posh Boy, Frontier, SOS, Triple X, Finger, Concrete Jungle
Associated acts	The Detours, Social Distortion, D.I., Legal Weapon, Joyride, ADZ, Pinups
Members	Tony Reflex Steve Soto Dan Root Mike Cambra Ian Taylor
Past members	Frank Agnew John O'Donovan Peter Pan Rikk Agnew Casey Royer Pat Smear Steve Roberts Alfie Agnew Sandy Hansen Dan Colburn Paul Casey Derek O'Brien Frank Agnew, Jr. Joe Harrison Mike McKnight Armando Del Rio Leroy Merlin

The Adolescents are an American punk rock band formed in Fullerton, California in 1980. Part of the hardcore punk movement in southern California in the early 1980s, they were one of the main punk acts to emerge from Orange County, along with their peers in Agent Orange and Social Distortion. Founding bassist Steve Soto has been the sole constant member of the band since its inception, with singer Tony Reflex being in the group for all but one album.

During the 1980s the band went through several lineup changes, breakups, and reunions, most involving drummer Casey Royer and guitarist brothers Rikk, Frank, and Alfie Agnew. During that decade, they released three albums: Adolescents (1981), Brats in Battalions (1987), and Balboa Fun*Zone (1988, without Reflex), then broke up in April 1989. Most of the members remained active in other musical projects, and a reunion of most of the early members in 2001 resulted in the comeback album OC Confidential (2005). Soto and Reflex have been the band's only constant members and primary songwriters since then, anchoring lineups which have released four more studio albums: The Fastest Kid Alive (2011), Presumed Insolent (2013), La Vendetta... (2014), and Manifest Density (2016).

Prior to forming the Adolescents, the early band members were part of various formative punk rock groups in Fullerton, California during their teenage years in the late 1970s: Guitarist Rikk Agnew and drummer Casey Royer had played in the Detours and with Agnew's younger brother Frank in the early lineup of Social Distortion, while bassist Steve Soto was a founding member of Agent Orange. Soto met Tony Brandenburg at an Agent Orange show in November 1979, and the two, both aged 16, formed a bond, as Soto recalled: "I struck up a conversation with Tony. He was out of control and we became fast friends". "We would talk about music and the problems we were having in high school and about our weight problems", Brandenburg later recalled; "We found that we had a lot in common weight-wise—we were polar opposites [Soto was overweight while Brandenburg was tall and thin]—but neither of us could change it. All of our problems on the high school scene were caused by our musical taste and our weight. We were the object of constant ridicule, but what was worse was we couldn't get girls".