Ep480: 45 Years of Adolescents with Tony Reflex
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tony Reflex of The Adolescents discusses the band's 45-year journey, from the early days, the Blue Album, the legacy of "Amoeba", working with Frontier Records to current day releases, rarities and more.
Topics Include:
- Adolescents approaching 45 years as a band
- Band attracts three generations of fans to shows
- Beatles and Cheap Trick were major musical influences
- First records were children's Golden Records on yellow vinyl
- Cereal boxes used to come with cardboard records
- Tony couldn't play instruments, focused on vocals instead
- First vinyl appearance was "Amoeba" on Rodney on the Roq compilation
- Rodney Bingenheimer played their demo tape immediately after receiving it
- "Amoeba" originated from Rik and Casey's previous band Detours
- Lisa Fancher signed them to Frontier after shows turned into riots
- Blue Album recorded over single weekend with Tom Wilson
- Album cover inspired by Cheap Trick's logo design
- Band wasn't close friends, created internal tensions
- Pat Smear briefly joined band for three months
- "Welcome to Reality" single - Ed Colver gravestone cover photo
- Recently discovered Starwood live tapes from Rob Ritter
- Hollywood punks accepted Orange County bands despite distance
- Cuckoo's Nest venue paid bands very little money
- 1986 reunion show at Fender's Ballroom with Weirdos
- "Brats and Battalions" released on SOS Records
- Steve Soto and Tony called themselves "rock wives"
- Recent albums include Russian Spider Dump, Caesar Salad Days
- Tony collects CDs more than vinyl records
- Owns original Germs "Forming" single in true mono
VIDEO version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide
Photos by Alan Snodgrass, Glen E Friedman
Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2Y6ORU0
Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36qhlc8
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode of the Vinyl Guide is sponsored in part by Groove Washer. |
| 0:03.7 | Clean and protect your records with the best and safest cleaning fluid around, the groove washer. |
| 0:08.8 | Ask your record shop for the Groove washer or head over to groove washer.com |
| 0:13.4 | and get 10% off with discount code Vinyl Guide 10. |
| 0:17.6 | Protect your vinyl investment with Groove washer, cleaning fluid and supplies from groove washer.com. |
| 0:22.9 | And now on with the show. |
| 0:26.3 | Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:31.1 | Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer. |
| 0:34.4 | Hey, everyone. |
| 0:36.3 | Happy New Year. It's Nate. Episode 480 of the Vinyl Guide, podcast for vinyl collectors and record nerds. |
| 0:46.4 | And ladies and gentlemen, I hope you've all had a very restful break. Hope you had plenty of time with family and friends and spinning records. |
| 0:55.6 | Hope you had a great time. We're lurching back into the new year, into work, into a regular |
| 1:00.8 | schedule. So it may be a slow warm up for many, but today we're firing right outside the gate. |
| 1:07.0 | 45 years of adolescence with Tony Reflex. Well, he goes by many names, Tony Brandenberg, |
| 1:12.9 | Tony Godina. He's got a lot of different names, but today we talk to Tony of adolescence. |
| 1:18.9 | It's an in-depth interview, which covers the band's 45-year journey from the early days, |
| 1:24.7 | recording Amoeba through their current status as punk rock legends. |
| 1:29.5 | We talked to Tony about the influential debut Blue album, their long-lasting relationship with Frontier Records, personal dynamics within the band. |
| 1:39.4 | Of course, we can't talk adolescence without talking about the lasting impact of the late bassist Steve Soto. |
| 1:44.9 | And we also cover their most recent work, Caesar salad days, crop duster, and also what's next |
| 1:50.5 | for these legends of Orange County Punk. Now, this interview was conducted at the Punk Rock Museum |
| 1:57.6 | in Las Vegas in early December. Both Tony and I were giving guided tours on the same |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nate Goyer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nate Goyer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.