“Let Them Know: Story of Youth Brigade & BYO Records” DVD
BYO Records

“Let Them Know” is documentary covering the punk trio Youth Brigade and the legendary DIY record label/movement, The Better Youth Organization. You name a band in the early ’80s West Coast punk scene and they’ll probably cite Youth Brigade as an inspiration. Both the band and the label were the brain child of three brothers that had a love for punk rock and a true do it yourself ethos. The shredded in the studio and pumped out classic records that still hold strong today.

The film includes interviews from all the major punk players, including Fat Mike, Ian McKaye, and Kevin Seconds. It also really helps paint a picture of what the punk movement in California looked like after punk started dying out and just before New Wave became a buzz word.

The camera work is top notch, the editing is flawless, and the interviews are engaging, but the film can’t get out of the shadow of the “Another State of Mind”—The original punk tour documentary that spawned a million Social D and Youth Brigade clones—which is covered quite a bit in the new film. “Let Them Know” was directed by Jeff Alulis, the same guy that made “Do You Remember? 15 Years of the Bouncing Souls”—quite possibly one of the best punk docs of the past two decades.

The story of the Stern Brothers, Youth Brigade, and BYO Records doesn’t resonate the same way as The Bouncing Souls documentary did, but that could be because Youth Brigade never had the same internal drama that the Souls had or the same level of popularity on the East Coast that Social Distortion had. Sorry if I’m stepping on toes here, but “Let Them Know” is more of a feel good story that inspires, rather than a riveting documentary. The biggest problems Youth Brigade had was its stylistic shift in the mid-’80s and internal strife within another Stern-brother band, The Royal Crown Revue.

In the end, “Let Them Know” is a perfectly good movie that will hopefully bring more attention to BYO and Youth Brigade. What this world needs is more people like the Stern brothers willing to take nothing and make something great. Now let me get off my soapbox and go staple some fanzines.