Trust Records have announced the reissue of SSD's "The Kids Will Have Their Say".
This marks the album's first time on vinyl since its initial release in 1982 and the first time the album will be on streaming services.
Long heralded as the first straight-edge album, this collection of songs captures a time and an era in the nascent hardcore scene before formulas and posturing. In other words, it's an unfiltered artistic statement that's singular in scope and vision.
The Boston act's debut was extremely limited, never repressed, and has gone on to have a life of its own despite the fact the only affordable way to listen to it has been low-quality streams on YouTube. Now, after being out of print for 40 years, the album will be available on vinyl by Trust Records with updated remastered audio and a painstaking recreation of the iconic cover art courtesy of Bryan Ray Turcotte.
In many ways, SSD launched the hardcore scene in Boston as we know it and the band's kinship with Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye arose out of the fact that both acts refused to conform to society's still shifting standards at the time. From the unbridled aggression of SSD's "Boiling Point" to the stripped-down groove of "How Much Art," the album was as reactionary as it was revolutionary and is an artistic statement that remains to be remarkably complex for a group of guys barely into adulthood.
SSD guitarist Al Barile says, "For the past 39 years, I’ve been looking for the right time and situation to rerelease the first SS Decontrol album. SSD fans have been asking for The Kids Will Have Their Say since it went out of print 40 years ago. A few years ago, Keith Morris from Circle Jerks told me about Trust Records, and it sounded like it might be a good fit. I talked with [Trust co-founder] Joe Nelson about the record for almost two years, and with each text, phone call, and discussion, the fit came together. It feels like a perfect marriage."
Trust co-founder (and Judge bassist) Matt Pincus adds, "Great records change lives. You remember when a voice you never heard before reaches you for the first time and changes the course of your life. SSD did this for an entire generation of kids. Those that were lucky enough to see the band and get a copy of The Kids Will Have Their Say in its first run knew they had something special and told us all about it. Those of us who were younger and only heard it second or third hand on tape just knew that these were the guys that invented it all. This is one of those records that reverberates through generations. It is the essence of the mission of Trust Records - to honor and promote the finest music of the genre for fans past, present, and future."
"The master tapes themselves had been neglected and sustained water damage along with some mold. However Dan Johnson of Audio Achieving Services was able to restore them back to life in their entirety."
The re-release will also include the unreleased song "Typical America" and a 20-page booklet designed by Brian Ray Turcotte that features flyers, band memorabilia; and unpublished photos from Glen E. Friedman.
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