SIDE BY SIDE ‘YOU'RE ONLY YOUNG ONCE...’ LP (Limited Edition – Only 450 Made, Purple Marble Vinyl)

While their tenure didn’t last long, Side By Side were one of most important players in the youth crew hardcore scene that took over New York in the late Eighties. Released in 1988, their sole EP, You’re Only Young Once, is a staple in Revelation Records’s iconic catalog for its catchy, spirited anthems preaching straight-edge sobriety and youthful camaraderie. Many of the teenage-made recordings from this era don’t hold up, but “Backfire,” “Living a Lie” and their Side By Side’s eponymous salvo definitely do.

In its most basic form, hardcore is the focal point of the energy, recklessness and frustration of youth. No band from New York embodied this raw emotion so much as SIDE BY SIDE, vocalizing their disenfranchisement like none who came before them and none who have come since.

Though short lived, the desperation and immediate impact of SIDE BY SIDE was deeply felt. Coming across not as a preaching, we're-better-than-you band, and with the gruff realness that many felt was absent in some of their peers, SIDE BY SIDE tore through the boundaries that were growing in the punk and hardcore scene. They stand today as one of the lasting images of the birth of a new sound, a new scene - taking the sound of early NY punk and hardcore bands like URBAN WASTE and fusing it with a positive message not unlike 7 SECONDS, but with the anger and intensity of MINOR THREAT.


You're Only Young Once... is a documentation of nearly all the captured studio output of this infamous band, including the highly sought after 7” and their 3 compilation tracks. You’re Only Young Once… is packaged for the first time as a LP recreating the layout of the decades out-of-print 7” and including a full color fold out lyric sheet. Though they played a mere 12 shows, their legacy is as strong as their "youth crew" brethren like YOUTH OF TODAY, BOLD, and JUDGE. A moment in time preserved by these recordings, and the energy and aggression is almost as urgent as the day it was recorded.

This vinyl variant is on “purple marble” and limited to only 450 copies, so order yours today!

PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO MANUFACTURING PROCESSES, PRODUCTS MAY VARY FROM IMAGE MOCK-UP. STREET DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE. WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIMIT QUANTITIES ORDERED OF THIS TITLE.