Suggestions
Suggestions
Youth crew grew out of the straight-edge revival in late-1980s New York hardcore and took its name from a Youth of Today song. Ray Cappo and John Porcelly built Youth of Today to bring back straight edge and first-wave hardcore’s sound, pairing the fury of Negative Approach and Agnostic Front with the positivity and hope of 7 Seconds and Youth Brigade. The style runs on a fast-paced hardcore drive and an upbeat message, and its plain look of shorts and sneakers was, in Porcelly’s words, easier to mosh in. Revelation Records, the Connecticut label that released Gorilla Biscuits and Bold, was started by Cappo and a high-school classmate.
Connecticut’s Fastbreak, formed in 1994, kept that style going in late-1990s New England hardcore alongside H2O, Bane and Ten Yard Fight, and Iodine Recordings brought back their 1998 album “Fast Cars, Fast Women” in 2025. Dutch quartet Urgent Kill pay tribute to Chain of Strength and Mouthpiece, and one member runs Positive and Focused Records, whose Youth Crew compilation series has featured 67 bands since 2008. South Pemalang kids were once locked into youth crew, and CLUE keep it underneath a looser hardcore sound, playing wherever they can, including a coffee shop. Time X Heist named the current bands they see carrying the torch after “The Unforgiving Minute”, a three-song EP of breakneck tempos and jagged riffs under gang vocals.