[1][2][6] Bassist Steve Soto and guitarist Frank Agnew joined Los Angeles punk band Legal Weapon, playing on their 1982 album Death of Innocence; Agnew remained with them for Your Weapon, released later that year, then moved on to Hvy Drt, playing on their 1985 Hvy Drt EP.

[1] The Adolescents lineup of Brandenburg (now using the stage name Tony Montana), Soto, Royer, and Rikk and Frank Agnew played a reunion show in April 1986 at Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California which led to the band re-forming.

[7] Royer's replacement was Sandy Hanson, formerly of the Mechanics, a fellow Fullerton, California band that had been a key influence on the Adolescents.

[8] The new Adolescents lineup entered Advanced Media Systems in Orange, California in the summer of 1986 to record their new album, co-produced by the band members and Gordon R.

[9][10] Brandenburg came up with the concept for Brats in Battalions' cover art, a photograph of young boys holding various firearms.

[1][2] The band toured for most of 1987, and Brats in Battalions was released that August in LP and cassette formats on the group's own label, SOS Records.

[1][2] In a retrospective review, Stewart Mason of AllMusic gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting that "much had changed on the hardcore scene since the band's [1981] split, and Brats in Battalions finds the group foundering a bit as they try to decide which of the several available fragmentary mini-genres they slot into best: Queers/Descendents-style pop/punk, Redd Kross-style sarcastic power pop, Social Distortion-like Americana, Suicidal Tendencies-like punk metal?

Interestingly, the best tracks are the Flamin' Groovies-inspired raucous covers of the proto-punk classic 'I Got a Right' and a 'House of the Rising Sun' that turns the Animals' version of the song into a grinding howl of post-hardcore energy.

[1][2] Brandenburg stated in 1989, "I was interested in other things (I had joined another band, the Flower Leperds), and the Adolescents touring cut into my school work".