In the beginning, original members (guitarist Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, drummer Joey Bustos, bassist Adam Pereira and singer Jeff Acree) played around the Easy Bay as Drano and The Rag-Tags before settling on Link 80.

The band's lyrics, audio samples and album artwork are notable for their diverse use of film and television references including The Twilight Zone, The Usual Suspects, American Me, Happy Gilmore, Stand by Me, Pretty In Pink and I Walked with a Zombie.

[2] Before recording their first album, the band released three 7"'s, The Link 80 & Wet Nap Split, Remember How It Used To Be, and Rumble at the Tracks.

The album consisted of 17 fast and energetic punk rock and skacore songs (and one hidden track, a cover of "Who Killed Marilyn?"

Though he was not present on the recording of 17 Reasons, Jason Lechner (saxophone) joined the band in time to support it at shows and on tour.

Shortly thereafter, on September 20, 1997, Nick, who suffered from bipolar disorder, overdosed on his fourth suicide attempt, and was found dead by his caretaker at his home.

After recruiting a man named Stoney Moak to fill in for vocals temporarily for their shows, Ryan Noble from the Blast Bandits was chosen to pick up permanently where Nick had left off.

With Ryan, Link 80 recorded the album The Struggle Continues as well as some b-sides that appeared on various compilations in 1999 and toured numerous times with such bands as Capdown and MU330.

The newly recorded Link 80 song includes members Adam Davis, Barry Krippene, Joey Bustos, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Steve Borth and Ryan Noble.

[7] On October 17, 2023, Mike Park announced that Asian Man Records would reissue 17 Reasons and The Struggle Continues on vinyl, as well as reprinting the band's first official shirt.

[8] In 2002, the band consisting of Seth Blankenship, Adam Davis, Aaron Nagel, Steve Borth, Joey Bustos, Barry Krippene, and singer Ryan Noble went on hiatus.

Matt formed a band called Dolores (with Nick's brother Todd Traina) that released on 7" on Johann's Face Records, founded the filmmaking collectives Chad, Matt & Rob and Radio Silence and directed the films V/H/S, Southbound, and Ready or Not (all of which feature Link 80 and other Asian Man Records artists including Alkaline Trio, MU330, Laura Stevenson and the Cans and The Atom Age).

Aaron is now a successful artist who runs Two Twenty Two Design Studio and whose work has been feature in galleries around the world and can be seen on the covers of The Resignation and ...And the Battle Begun.

As of 2019, Steve Borth and Adam Davis are a part of a new ska/punk project, Omnigone which released an album on Bad Time Records in 2019.