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.