The passing of REAGAN YOUTH guitarist Paul Cripple last September sent shockwaves through the long-running anarcho-punk band’s massive fan base. Not only because he was the last remaining member of the original band, but also because Reagan Youth had just completed work on a new album, a long planned remembrance of Paul’s fellow founder, and high school friend Dave Insurgent.

Partly-titled to complete the trilogy established by the original band’s two albums, Volume I and II, Reagan Youth’s final album, Life and Times Revisited, Volume III, is a conceptual work based on Insurgent’s short life, as Cripple’s widow and Reagan Youth vocalist Madame St. Beatrice explains.

“Paul was frustrated with the idea that the band had become well known for having a tragic ending connected to Dave. So his intent was to pay homage to Dave so that he could, perhaps, divert attention away from what he thought was a glamorization of tragedy. 

“It was important to Paul that he put out a body of work that could have more people, for once, look at other aspects of Reagan Youth and at the band as a whole and especially Dave’s short lived life, instead of just focusing on his ending. And I’m proud to be part of an album that Paul so desperately wanted to release and was so very passionate about.”

“Hapless Misfits,” the first single from the album, is an introduction to Dave’s so-called punk rock lifestyle. It’s a song about him rebelling against his upbringings, discovering who his chosen family is, and the starting point of his beliefs in anarchism.

Madame St. Beatrice continues, “The album chronicles Dave’s journey of self-actualization, the awakening of his anarchist sensibilities, and his attempt at redemption.”

Destined to be recognized as a punk rock classic – at the same time as withstanding comparisons to such classic concept albums as the Who’s Tommy, the Pretty Things’ SF Sorrow and Pink Floyd’s The Wall – Life and Times Revisited, Volume III is released in all formats on February 28.

“Hapless Misfits” is available now.

SINGLE: https://orcd.co/reaganyouth_haplessmisfits
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/reaganyouth_volumeiii
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=reagan+youth+volume+iii