This article is about the original Agent 86, an American punk rock band. Fo… Read Full Bio ↴This article is about the original Agent 86, an American punk rock band. For the Australian DJ and Producer please see DJ Agent 86.
Formed in Arcata, California in 1982, Agent 86 has been a part of the hardcore punk and political ska-punk scenes in Eugene, Oregon, Washington DC and most recently Seattle, Washington with time spent extensively touring the U.S. as well as two European tours in the early nineties.
Agent 86, fronted and founded by Mike Briggs, guitar and lead vocals, is one of the oldest consistently gigging punk bands to still write and record new, original material. While so many of punk's pioneers lost faith in the movement or moved on to supposedly bigger and better things, Mike has stood firm, and his socially and politically charged lyrics are today still as pertinent as the lyrics he wrote twenty years ago, while still maintaining a fun and youthful attitude. The term "rastacore" (also the name of Mike's record label), used today to describe many different bands and musical styles that borrow from reggae and ska, was coined by Mike at a Circle Jerks/Agent 86 show, and was later adopted by the legendary Bad Brains as a moniker.
Agent 86's sound, often described in reviews as a melding of Billy Bragg and The Dead Kennedys, has grown into a style uniquely their own over its twenty-plus year history. Agent 86 has been cited as an influence by many bands that today are themselves considered influential (Green Day and Calamity Jane to name just two) as well as earning recognition as being a backbone in forming the early framework of the pop-punk sound. Artists such as The Melvins, Horace Pinker and D.O.A. have thanked Agent 86 for their involvement in the punk scene; D.O.A.'s Joey Shithead even produced the bands third record "Apartheid American Style".
Accept no substitutes or impostors. This is the original Agent 86.
>Please note that the 2 live songs are from a fairly crappy soundboard recording...This is the only representation of our current sound until we can get something recorded
Formed in Arcata, California in 1982, Agent 86 has been a part of the hardcore punk and political ska-punk scenes in Eugene, Oregon, Washington DC and most recently Seattle, Washington with time spent extensively touring the U.S. as well as two European tours in the early nineties.
Agent 86, fronted and founded by Mike Briggs, guitar and lead vocals, is one of the oldest consistently gigging punk bands to still write and record new, original material. While so many of punk's pioneers lost faith in the movement or moved on to supposedly bigger and better things, Mike has stood firm, and his socially and politically charged lyrics are today still as pertinent as the lyrics he wrote twenty years ago, while still maintaining a fun and youthful attitude. The term "rastacore" (also the name of Mike's record label), used today to describe many different bands and musical styles that borrow from reggae and ska, was coined by Mike at a Circle Jerks/Agent 86 show, and was later adopted by the legendary Bad Brains as a moniker.
Agent 86's sound, often described in reviews as a melding of Billy Bragg and The Dead Kennedys, has grown into a style uniquely their own over its twenty-plus year history. Agent 86 has been cited as an influence by many bands that today are themselves considered influential (Green Day and Calamity Jane to name just two) as well as earning recognition as being a backbone in forming the early framework of the pop-punk sound. Artists such as The Melvins, Horace Pinker and D.O.A. have thanked Agent 86 for their involvement in the punk scene; D.O.A.'s Joey Shithead even produced the bands third record "Apartheid American Style".
Accept no substitutes or impostors. This is the original Agent 86.
>Please note that the 2 live songs are from a fairly crappy soundboard recording...This is the only representation of our current sound until we can get something recorded
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Pacific Air Race
Agent 86 Lyrics
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The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
RL Batch
In May 1994 I was flying a 747 cargo aircraft for American International Airlines, “Kallita” . Our normal trip was Los Angeles to Honolulu and back.
On the 27th of May we were at KHNL and got instructions from our operations in Ypsilanti, MI to wait for a shipment of 80.000 pounds of fire bricks and 30,000 pounds of cement to go to Johnston Island. Neither of our crew had ever heard of Johnston Island, let alone where it was. Ops said “it’s about 2 hours west of KNHL! I told the Captain I didn’t think there was anything but water 2 hours west of Honolulu .
We waited for the cargo that arrived soon, however no cement. Ops said not to wait, so off we went with the bricks.
Upon arrival at KJON, there was a large (75) crowd on the ramp as we parked. The flight was 2.2 hours. The base commander was there to greet us.
The Commander said we were the first 747 to land at KJON! They had C-5’s, C-141’s, C-130’s but we were the first 747.
We stayed right with the plane as he described what they did there.... burned chemical weapons! The bricks were to re-line the furnaces of the facility.
The base had about 1200 personnel stationed there at that time.
If you search “Johnston Atoll” on Google earth you will see there is nothing there now.
Not sure if we were the last 747 to land there but we were the first. By the way our 747 registered as “CK702 is still flying and brought passengers back from China in this virus debacle.
Jim Choate
I really hope you read this. A personal story from a person that has been there. A bit long winded it kinda had to be. There is much more I didnt tell as well.
A little late to the party. However you may find this interesting about Johnston Atoll.
In 1972 I was in a band(music) and we had a booking agent out of Hawaii and he would book us on these USO tours all over the pacific, including Midway.
We were way too young to send to were the fighting was(Vietnam) so we would entertain soldiers, civilians on these islands and Atolls.
Johnston was one of those places.
The second we landed every person on that flight was whisked into small room and a solder proceeded to instruct us about running upwind to the tower if sirens sounded. At the same time we needed to inject ourselves with these impact hypos.
Of course he showed us how on a grapefruit. We were also issued a bag of sorts with a gas mask and the hylpos. A different solder walked around to make sure the gas mask was fitting tightly and was checked.
We had to carry that bag everywhere we went and it stayed with us the while time we were there. The bag was more like a very small backpack just big enough for the mask and hypos
We had about 10 seconds to inject ourselves with 3-4 hypos as we ran. to the tower LOL yea, right.
I wittnessed, as I walked around, vehicles and people coming and going from this something that was underground. We were told that was were they stored and destroyed chemical weapons. I never saw the inside of that thing nor was I allowed to get to close to the entrance. I had a chaperone there so he told me stuff about the atoll and made sure I didn't get into any shit. LOL
There is absolutely nothing, nothing to do on that atol if you are a teeaager.
Some background on the Atol.
Is made of seashells and those seashell reflect the sun's' energy right back at ya. and it was very hot and extremely bright.
Highest point on the island and this was told to me was six feet above sea level and there was a palm tree there. That was the only shade on the atoll.
There was a small bar and next to the bar was the stage.
Oh yea, this is the best part there was a coke machine outside the bar and was filled with beer. I think it was free just hit the button for the beer you wanted. Or Maybe it was a quarter, not sure now. For a teenanger of 16 that heaven.
I would like to know if any of your readers were there during that time, most likely they saw the band (Hi Jack) perform.
We went there two times.
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered
I muddled the acreage at the end. The military increased the acreage of Johnston island from 46 to 596 acres and the size of Sand island from 10 - 22 acres. Two smaller artificial islands were also created of 25 and 18 acres.
Rocky3075
I would love to see a video of the DC-8 the broke the sound barrier intentionally.
Søren .Matthiesen
How about mentioning all measurements in metric as well?
Cathy Vanasse
My brother lived on Johnston Island in the 80's for a few months, he was likely part of the JCAT's team. I forwarded this to him for some comment. Pretty cool. Thanks for your hard work. It was another fascinating episode.
Hauptmann Spieler
You also, erred in that you said 596 acres equals 1.06 square miles, when in fact, that would convert to 0.931 square miles.
Loved the video, btw.
mtnvalley
I love and appreciate your content! Have you ever thought of covering Robert Goddard? I went to a middle school named in his honor (Littleton, Co.) and always thought his story was pretty interesting historically. The school had a Nike- Hercules missile in front that was recently removed after 50 years. Thanks for your efforts!
Li Li
My grandpa was stationed on Johnston Island during WWll— he was a Sea Bee. I have a large hand-drawn map of the island showing and naming all of the military stuff ( buildings, runway, etc.). His buddy made it for him during their time there. It's done in that somewhat irreverent comic style that was popular during the war. Definitely one of the coolest things I own!
Mitzvos Golem
SeaBee 🐝 awesome 👍
Axgoodofdunemaul
I hope you will see that map go into a US Govt museum before you pass away, sir.
lookronjon
@Axgoodofdunemaul a WW2 museum would take it. I’m sure.