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Wondering the best way to tell me happy Valentines day? Buy this and send it to me. Also in a seperate box send a couple of those Resses peanut butter hearts. I think there’s a between a 6 and 24 tests of all the first year of Dischord 7″s. Quad digits on this one or I’ll eat my hat. My favorite HC 7″ ever pretty much.

Here’s another bumout - No Trend’s “Teen Love” 7″.

These guys were the DC answer to Flipper, dirging, repetitive, annoying, obnoxious, and at odds with most of the DC in-crowd. The guitar often just made horrible ear splitting noise, while the bass and drums rattled along, and the vocals spat each line, snarling against a hopelessly lost consumer culture.

The title track is an endless 6 minute track that’s a little dated now, but still gets the job done. Most of it focuses on a banal relationship between a young teen boyfriend and girlfriend, the punchline being their violent death in a car accident. The music plays like busted British post punk (early cure/joy div) as the guitar breaks up from time to time. It’s a shock tactic and not very subtle to kill the song’s characters in the end, but considering it was the 80’s (when a few things were still shocking) I can be a little more forgiving.

On the other side, Cancer pulses along with a happy-go-lucky bass line but forced up against buzzing screeching guitar, and snarled vocals that actually remind me a lot of Antidote. Of course, unlike Antidote, there’s no pay-off with bands like this, you just get dragged down into the muck, or if you’re already down there, you slosh about in it, and lament your first world problems. I think it’s an okay song, but again this shit tends to be on the dated side. When Flipper is good, they’re really good, but when they’re bad they’re the worst (I mean bad bad, not good bad). As such any band descended from their sound has to answer for its short comings, and the aspects that date it, and while Cancer and Teen Love aren’t too bad, they’re really of the time and nothing great.

The real gem here is the 3rd track, Mass Sterilization Caused By Venereal Disease. I guess you could say this is the hardcore song on the record, but it plays like a No Wave-ish answer to that sound. The guitar lays down a tv-static chainsaw crush of fuzz, while the bass plucks away and the drums bash and crash cave man style, everything on an endless loop essentially. The vocals only growl the song title over and over, and then punctuate it with a bizarre cackle again and again (though I’m quite sure it’s not a loop). It’s sort of the ultimate post ironic reduction of the original Discharge template. One indecipherable guitar note buzzing against the bass, one simple drum smash, one line of lyrics. No really, I think this song exceeds the brilliance of most other No Trend material, and it’s a personal favorite of the time and era.

btw - this copy is rather overpriced

I can’t say I love the Faith anymore, but I still have a soft spot for their split tracks, and the slightly more melodic, Subject To Change lp. I guess really this is one of the links between where things went with Dischord after ‘83, and where they were before. There’s more full chords, more sheen to  the production, a bit less raw anger. When this record dropped, the Faith were already basically done, and so it’s one of of many Dischord releases that’s more like an epitaph. The sound kind of prefigures where groups like Dag Nasty were going to go, mixing up fast Minor Threat type progressions and questionable early U2 style guitar FX and flourishes. This in turn begat stuff like Gorilla Biscuits and American Standard, kind of… poppy pseudo hardcore.

But all that aside there are some good DCHC standards here. Aware sets the tone right off the bat with open ringing guitars, a rising bass-line, and a tight propulsive drum beat. Except for the growl of Alec Mackaye that comes in a few seconds later it bears little resemblance to the recordings Faith had made only a year before, and even that is somewhat subdued. Actually what Subject To Change really sounds like is the starting point for Mackaye’s next band Ignition, which was more of a post hardcore thing, formed with one of the other ex-Faith members Chris Bald. I guess it’s just hard for me to sit down and listen to something like this at this point in time. The band sounds torn in what they really want to do and I can’t say I’m surprised they didn’t even survive to see it released. They’re trying not to abandon everything they came from, but they’re obviously over straight up hardcore and trying to find some way to add a new element. I don’t really think they do it as well as some others did. For a more sophisticated (although more pompous) execution of the same ideas, the go to band for me is Articles of Faith particularly the Wait 7″, but really anything they did. It is a lot more preachy, but sonically, they bring a bit more to the table, and really make use of multiple guitars (using 3 on some songs).

Anyway - blue is first press. I’m sure a lot of people are interested in this regardless of my apprehensiveness to it at this point.

More DCHC in the form of the oft neglected: 1-sided Deadline lp. AKA: Deadline - “8/2/82″. Released on Guy Picciotto’s Peterbilt label in the early 90’s in a 12×12 hand screened manila envelope, I doubt most people even knew what they were buying when they got it, and with a pressing number I’ve heard as 300 or 500, it’s really scarce now.

Deadline is the definition of “also-ran”, but I hereby declare this to be one of the 10 best 81-83 DCHC recordings that I know of (and I’m pretty sure I know most of them). The only previous release by Deadline are 3 fairly lackluster tracks on the Flex Your Head comp, and if not for the fact that their drummer was Brandon Cantry, later of Rites of Spring and Fugazi (among others), there wouldn’t be much at all to say about those tracks. They’re sort of a less skinhead oriented Iron Cross vibe. Kinda slow, sort of heavy for ‘82 hardcore, but not that great. This 1-sided lp though, which was originally a demo bears little resemblance to those tracks. It’s much faster, buzzing with energy and speed, and may induce spontaneous slamming.

There’s nothing really ground breaking that happens on the Deadline 12″, but it’s really well played, and catchy. Most of the songs are a more tuneful take on the Youth Brigade demo, or maybe like if the Faith wasn’t as preoccupied with melody and just kinda… “went for it”. Maybe that’s a little contradictory, but let’s just say, it’s somewhere in between the two. An important piece of it are the super energetic vocals of Ray Hare, who delivers in a higher register than Youth Brigade’s Nathan Strejeck, and with more omph than The Faith’s Alec Mackaye. When he gets to the last verse of the song Closed Door and shouts “sick of people who don’t know what they’re doing” it’s like having someone grab and shake you while yelling in your face. It has a sense of urgency and importance despite being a pretty pedestrian line in the song.  The next song, Outside The Law has an equally cathartic delivery in the chorus of “Anything to get by/Anything to survive” as it rises with maximum intensity over the mid-paced riff. Most of the lyrics deal with these typical kind of teenage anger releases, with some basic political stuff mixed in, but it’s that sense of urgency that makes it count. It’s the intangibility that comes from a great delivery.

There’s sometimes not a lot you can put into words about a good genre record. Deadline weren’t originators, or really important for anything. The reason they’re worth mention is because they played meat and potatoes USHC really well, better than a lot of their influences and peers, and definitely better than half the bands better known than they were/are. Their songwriting is surprisingly developed, albeit simple, their vocals and call response backups are electric with energy, and the songs last just as long as they need to. If you don’t know this record it was finally issued on CD via Dischord/Peterbilt last year. If you were ever into early DCHC I highly recomend it.

PS - you’d be well advised to check the seller’s other auctions

VOID LIVE @ THE 930 CLUB BOOT
So anyways, if you’ve hung around hardcore for even a minute you’ve probably heard someone expound on the virtues of Void. Void are on of the first true originals of the hardcore era. Unlike say, Black Flag or the Bad Brains, they didn’t originate via the aftershocks of 70’s punk/wave/whatever. They were influenced by the bands that came from those aftershocks, and as much by the aforementioned punk bands, as by more rock/metal acts like the ever popular Motorhead and Venom (how often do I ref these 2 on here…). They began sometime in 1981, as this is when their first demo (basically a 20+ song live in studio slop-fest), is dated, but they didn’t rise to prominence until arguably the height of the HC era, 1982/83. This prominence came via a handful of appearances on comps like Flex Your Head and Charred Remains, and of course their split LP with fellow DC area band The Faith. But part of their infamy back in their day was the result of their now legendary live performances, which are sadly in this day and age, very under represented on tape and video trade lists.

I wouldn’t argue that Void’s studio material is irrelevant. On the contrary their split with The Faith is one of the most important documents of its time. With so many bands in DC and surrounding areas content to mimic the Minor Threat formula, and mining the same few records for inspiration, Void were obviously one of the few to find their own way. Singer John Weifenbach growls, screams, and grunts his way through esoteric adolescent gore fantasies and LSD-magnified rage-outs. The rhythm section of Chris Stover and Sean Finnigan (R.I.P.) wobbles and swerves its way in and out of the tempos that anyone else would play with pedestrian indifference. Guitar player Bubba Dupree mangles his chorus tinged metal influenced playing with violent abandon. His amp bleeds high squealing feedback, strings bend disgustingly out of tune, and the sounds bash and crash together in and out of time to produce a sound that never had an equal then or now. Everyone knows this though. All that’s been written of Void has said as much, and now more than ever they get their due from people outside the punk scene as well as in it. But what frequently is hard to account for is the live shows discussed in various hardcore oral histories, which are said to be the very same qualities amplified a hundred times over. More chaos. More feedback. More hard-core.

There’s only one live Void live bootleg that I know of: this is it. I have a tape and video of 2 other late period live sets, but this one seems to be from their peak. After the 12″ had come out, but when they had just started testing out new songs for their misunderstood “Potion For Bad Dreams” lp. While there are no Potion songs on this bootleg, I happen to own a tape of the complete show that night, and they did play a couple. That aside though, if you’ve ever read about Void shows and wondered if it’s really as good as everyone says it was, well this answers the question. It’s obviously, a resounding yes.

Opening with the classic Who Are You it becomes obvious what the audience was in store for that night. Dupree’s guitar sounds cavernous and gigantic. Thick, saturated… like there’s an actual physical weight to the sound waves. The opening crashes of cymbal and bass accents against the guitar hit recklessly before the group hurtles into the verse. Already they’re dogging in and out of time, frantic and out of control. Feedback from the mics and instruments washes in and out, the vocals fight against any natural rhythm, and the guitar still bears down on everything fighting for total supremacy. There’s something about the live performances of some bands that just can’t be caught in the studio. It’s a different frame of mind, a different experience,  a completely different kind of energy, and for a band like Void, it’s a world of difference. When they play Ask Them Why in this set the beginning collapses into an almost formless mix of sounds before emerging back into focus at the start of the verse. Part of the mess is the sound of the music’s sound, being displaced by the movement of the band members and the audience (no doubt they’re crowding the stage). Strums and hits and squeaks move out of phase for a quarter of a second and it conveys to the listener a sense of movement and kinetic energy that I don’t think could be accurately duplicated in a recording studio, outside of essentially filling the room with a rabid audience.

Everything that makes Void a special band is amplified in these songs. I think it could actually be the definitive Void document in its unabridged form. I understand the gravity of that statement, and it’s not meant to diminish their other work in any way, but rather to emphasize how insane and out of control this performance actually sounds.

Today reader I give you an original 1983 pressing of the long forgot Malefice “Overboard” E.P. You’d be forgiven for not knowing who Malefice are, though if you ask the right people, you’re sure to hear about their wild live performances and formidable stage presence when they had occasion to play the DC area in the early 80’s.

I first discovered them a few thanksgivings back, perusing the used 7″s at a store near my parent’s house in Northern Virginia. The cover had a skeleton in the DRI-guy pose, the back, had the same skeleton (who wears a leather jacket), playing from an evil looking organ (note: there is no organ on the actual record), while a few dozen other punk rock skeletons mosh and stage dive together below him. The label, DSI, I knew for releasing both United Mutation 7″s, and the pentagrams drawn various places on the release had me pretty sure this record could not suck. I must say I have wonderful instincts.

Malefice came from the ashes of another Northern Virgina band, Media Disease, who were a straight forward thrash group that often gigged with United Mutation in their formative days. Malefice took their place as partners in gigging and they played house parties and clubs together for a couple years,  at one point even sharing a drummer.  If you’ve ever heard the unreleased Void lp this is not too far from it. If you’ve ever disparaged said lp: fuck you.

Malefice isn’t quite as metallic as Void’s lost Potion of Bad Dreams, but they’re drinking from the same well. They’re a bit speedier, and the vocals are a little more unhinged, but the guitar work is also a little less flashy and more tame. You won’t find the lost Void record by picking up the Malefice 7″, but if you’re a fan of the 80’s pscyho-core style, you should dig this. If I had to pinpoint this I’d say take some Void, some UM, and a bit of Venom or maybe 7″ era Obsessed and you’re pretty close to what this sounds like.

Side A features the track Carrion which opens up with one of those chorus-drenched feedback messes that devil-punk bands like so much (see Void, Die Kreuzen, The Scam). Eventually things congeal for a slow crawling intro and then launch into the main riff, a buzzy speed metal type part with dive bombs and scrappy solos added as seasoning. The lyrics concern some vaguely occultish stuff, but the vocals are delivered total hardcore style which sounds cool and raw.  You get a pretty gratuitous solo about 3/4ths of the way through that sounds a little more wild because there’s no second guitar to back it, just the bass.

Side B has 2 tracks the first of which is Lost Sheep. Lost Sheep opens up with another tremolo style metal riff and then breaks out with a little more rockin’ type lick as the main riff, comparable to something you might hear on the first Bathory album like Necromancy or Sacrifice, again the vocals are what keeps it footed in the hardcore realm. The last song “Overboard” is the best I think. It has a pretty good descending metal-punk riff and probably the best vocal performance of the 3. The singer just does his best to totally let loose, especially in the choruses “I’m at the edge/and outta breath”. Some pretty smoking solos get laid down in this one too.

There’s 2 pressings of this 7″. This is the original 1983 edition in a folded sleeve that has lyrics on the inside. It should also have an Amoeba Man 1 page comic that advertises other releases on DSI including the ELUSIVE “Mutopia” tape comp — IF ANYONE HAS THIS TO DUB OR AN ORIGINAL TO TRADE PLEASE CONTACT ME I WILL MAKE YOU A GOOD DEAL. The second pressing comes in a glued sleeve and all copies are on blue vinyl. It’s also got an extra song from this session added to it and is much easier to find. In fact it’s not uncommon for unplayed-stock copies to turn up here and there.

After this Malefice never had another record but they did record several sessions which were comped onto an lp called Lotus Blossom in 1990 by the infamous Lost and Found. It’s packaged to look like a singular album, but it actually spans ‘82-’85  (as I recall) and is pretty similar to this E.P. Stock copies of this are findable on ebay from time to time, and are recommended. Interest in Malefice is growing so now is the time to track this  record down as it still can be had for under $30.

Malefice “Overboard” E.P.

As noted in the past I don’t really spend much time listening to Government Issue these days, but Legless Bullis still a cult classic, although not quite as earth shaking as many of the records that came out from the same time and place. The songs aren’t quite as thrashing as S.O.A., not as hard as Youth Brigade, and just not as all around great as Minor Threat. To flip a popular turn of phrase, if Legless Bull weren’t on Dischord in 1981, I suspect it would be a $30-40 record at best. This isn’t really to say it’s not good, but just that it’s not great. For proof of this check out the Dischord boxset which has Ian Mackaye singing a version of Asshole, a song found on here. He’s just able to make a lot more of an otherwise unremarkable song.

I saw a band cover Rock ‘n Roll Bullshit recently and I couldn’t help but wonder why? Are they aspiring to be a footnote? I guess I’m coming down a bit hard on the G.I.’s here. They were DC’s band for a chunk of the 80’s and turned out plenty of non-embarrassing tunes in their career. The test pressings of early Dischord singles seem to be a little rarer than most of the lps. probably 8 or 12 pressed, so if you’re a DCHC completist, or Dischord for that matter, this is going to be a choice pick-up for you. I know there are some G.I. fans out there so feel free to bust on me for not giving Stabb his due.

Btw - the seller here has a bunch of other big ticket items that you’re gonna want to have a look at.

Note - if you’re a little uptight about your hardcore, and don’t wanna get kinda touchy feely, DO NOT READ THIS POST. Instead, look at this: CLICK 

Some of the most intense and difficult conversations I’ve had about punk and hardcore and other signifiers like “post” and “emo” have stemmed from Moss Icon. They were a great band in their day. I know because they have one of the telling marks of great bands: that all of their imitators horribly SUCK. It’s not that you can never imitate great bands. The number of wonderful Discharge or Minor Threat imitations that the years have given us aer numerous, and plentiful. But sometimes there are bands that no matter how many people attempt to liberally borrow from them, are always done no justice by the gesture.

 Case In Point = Moss Icon. This is probably one of the first bands that you could classify as “emo-core”, they have a lot of sonic similarities to groups like Rites Of Spring & Ignition, later Articles Of Faith even. They grew up and entered the scene in Annapolis Maryland, near Washington DC, but removed far enough that at best you could call it a satellite. Annapolis is a weird town I visited a few times growing up. It’s home to the Naval Academy, and by my personal recollection, numerous antique shops. There’s something positively isolated about the approach to their music and delivery, and I think it coresponds in some way to the fact that they were an Annapolis band. I can’t explain it but I sense it there. Maybe I only feel this way because I know more about the band and their location. In interviews members talk about their lack of interest in many of the DC bands. They liked Void, and Beefeater, but felt indifferent towards Embrace and Marginal Man.

One reason Moss Icon has proven so inimitable for this might be that vocalist John Vance was a perma-stoned literature/poetry freak, and while his stream of consciousness yell/talk/shout style was earnest, and has been imitated by boatloads of horrible “emo” and “screamo” bands, he seemed to have some place in an actual literary and philosophical tradition. I feel kind of stupid bringing this up because:

1. Even though I write on this blog 5 days a week, I rarely read anything, and when I do, I prefer escapism.
2. This is a Blog about hardcore, punk, trading records, stage dives, leather jackets… not college term papers.

However, I think that this is important to understanding why Moss Icon worked, and above all they were a good hardcore band on this record. Whereas your average band imitating this style of vocal basically delivered a high school/coffee house level poetry reading riddled with disjointed imagery about ex girlfriends and distant parents, Vance was able to evoke imagery of solitude and nature. He is probably one of the only singers I’ve ever heard that could effectively empathize with, ahem, The Plight of the Native American. He could also relate, brilliantly, feelings of suburban anomie, and anxiety like no other. He quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a distinguished philosopher and poet whom I know nothing about.

In some ways Vance is an American/Americanized answer to Ian Curtis. It’s filtering the same kind of sentiments of disconnection and melancholy through a different but similar cultural starting point. As a band Moss Icon has similarities to Joy Division too. While they don’t particularly sound alike, and are coming from different moments in history there’s a connection, especially as Moss Icon developed an approach of dirging, echoy repetition in their career. The first real example of that comes on this record, with the song “I’m Back Sleeping Or Fucking Or Something”. As the bass drones on one riff and the drums skitter and bang behind it, Vance rants a semi abstract tale of childhood, painful and agonizing in his delivery. Guitarist Tonie Joy squalls feedback between massive power chords and has a pretty good sense of when to play and when to hang back. You know that pretentious ol’ “he knows what NOT to play”. It’s a panic attack with a drum beat maybe.

Elsewhere the record finds the band less chaotic, but just as effective. The other 3 songs, all have a more typically hardcore tempos and composition, but with more intricate guitar playing, which is why they often get compared to the Rites Of Spring lp, although Joy is adamant that he had not really listened to them at the time. Some of the influence then, can at least be pinned on their peers The Hated, who in turn were sort of what would happen if Husker Du weren’t popular nationally, and got really into Simon and Garfunkel. Back to Moss Icon though, what sets this apart and makes it superior from Rites Of Spring to me, is that there’s still the anger and frustration of Hardcore’s past noticeable in the music (at least at this stage of the Moss Icon catalog). Rites Of Spring spent so much of themselves trying to escape the machismo that they felt was “ruining the scene”, that I believe they lost a lot of the anger too.

Moss Icon eventually took a more reserved approach, but never lost any of their emotional complexity. This 7″ though, often referred to as “Gretta Garbo” for the photo on the cover of the early movie star, or as Hate In Me for the first song on it, is still my favorite. It’s a clash of sloppy hardcore anger, and subtle melody, hoarse screaming, and thoughtful poetry…or something. Look I just think if you ever feel like listening to “emo-core”, this record beats them all. A scant few have been able to tread the line like Moss Icon did. There’s only 500 copies of this record pressed on the band’s own Vermin Scum label, and I suspect it may go for a lower price (under $40) because it has a high starting bid. Usually these top out at $60.

 Also I have to give some credit to Zac and Bobby Busch, as the observations in this post are at least partially inspired by a long Moss Icon thread we participated in on a message board.

I’ll try and post about something pertaining to skinheads tomorrow to make up for this.

“Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack”, is a really cool, lesser known DCHC compilation dating from 82/83 on Outside records. I think that label was run by people from Nuclear Crayons who are on this compilation, and have 2 other records on Outside. I guess a lot of the bands on here went to one High School, Bethesda Chevy Chase High (or so say those who were around at the time).

The most important thing on this comp in my view, are the United Mutation tracks culled from an ‘82 demo session.  All 4 are just thrashing guttural insanity, maybe their most out of control offerings ever in terms of speed and rage. The vocals deliver totally unintelligible nihilism and anger, the music shreds along, occasionally falling apart into an echo’d mess. These tracks are as essential as the deconstructed genius of Void’s Flex Your Head tracks.

Following United Mutation (who are actually on side 2), are Nuclear Crayons, who are at their noisiest on this release, giving a decent approximation of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. I’m not sure how necessary this stuff is really, but it’s kind of cool someone was at least trying it in DC in the early 80’s, I’d imagine they pissed off a lot of punks.

Hate From Ignorance unremarkable closes out this half of the record. Sort of melodic and angular, honestly it’s hard to remember I skip their tracks most of the time. Also-ran status.

Side 1 takes off with the little known Media Disease who played competent, though not particularly distinguished thrashing hardcore. These guys were tight with United Mutation and some of them went on to play with Malefice. They totally should have had a single on DSI although they’re not as psychotic sounding as any of the other bands, they were a Fairfax band. “Redneck Asshole” is a classic 20 second blast of hate. Media Disease knock out 6 songs in probably 4 or 5 minutes on here. These songs and a demo tape were comped on a bootleg double 7″ on Lost and Found in the early 90’s that’s semi cool if you can pick it up for $10>.

Chalk Circle comes next. I’m pretty sure this was an all female band, they play sort of mellow post punk/wave tracks.  It’s not particularly interesting and I think my ears are less forgiving because it can’t even make up for that with out and out abrasiveness. What can you do?

Finishing out Side 1 is a cool band basically no one knows about: Social Suicide. I’m pretty sure the drummer from Youth Brigade DC (Danny Ingram) was in this band. I’ve been trying to find out if they have any recordings besides these songs, because they’re totally great, sounding like a junior Scream. The last song is kinda ska-vibed which is definitely a Scream move to pull, but the first 3 songs are just raging tuneful hardcore punk. First tier kind of stuff, not throw away junk. Really interested in hearing more by this band if anyone knows of anything.

The jacket on this record is extra nice, with a cool tip-on style (like old rock lps), and a black on silver color scheme. There’s 2 inserts, 1 is a lyric book, the other is collages/photos for each band, and contact info. If you ever see a sealed copy, it doesn’t have the inserts in it, the people at outside had to unseal them and put that stuff in.

Everyone knows Flex Your Head is theDCHC comp with a a yearbook type compilation of the Dischord crew circa ‘81.  There were a couple other compilations from DC that came out around the same time that are also worth taking note of though, one of which is the Bouncing Babies compilation.

Bouncing Babies was issued on Fountain Of Youth records which was for a while kind of the other Dischord as they issued a number of key documents in DC by bands like Government Issue, Black Market Baby, and Artificial Peace. Unfortunately some bad creative decisions and a presumably bad distribution deal with Dutch East India sealed their eventual demise.

When Bouncing Babies was released it was over a year in the works and originally planned as half DCHC bands and half Midwest bands (supplied by Version Sound). The finished product was quite a bit different with all DC area bands, and a number of them having tentative at best connections to punk. Some of the high school kids from a couple years earlier had already outgrown their punk roots and were making “art” musics, others were laying out the foundation of what would be the “Revolution Summer” sound, still others were sticking to their guns with meat and potatoes hc/punk. I haven’t owned a copy of this comp in a while, but I’ll try and run through a breakdown of what’s on it here…

1. DOVE “Ambivalence” — Dove was the band that Double O eventually morphed into and this song is absolutely incredible. I’ve never heard other songs from this session but if they exist I’d really like to. This kind of predicts the super melodic but still fast and aggressive territory Swiz would tread a few years later. Sadly I think they went pop-rock shortly after this. One of the best tracks on the comp.

2. CRIPPLED PILGRAMS “Black & White” — Crippled Pilgrims were sorta easy listening post punk if I remember right. Fountain of Youth did one or two records for them too. Uninteresting.

3. BODY COUNT “Bull in a China Shop” — No joking, this is kind of like early Ska-Core. As you can see this compilation is all over the place from the outset. Seriously this is like Against All Authority or something.

4. LUCKY PIERRE “Looking Back” — Don’t remember anything about this track except how funny the band’s name is. Next.

5. UNDERGROUND SOLDIER “Sunday Slaughter” — Underground Soldier had an lp on some no-name DC label, this song is slower and moody i think. Might have female vocals. I remember being disappointed by this when I heard it because I heard they were hardcore.

6. ARTIFICIAL PEACE “Frustration” — An average offering by a 2nd tier band. Artificial Peace were big in their day in DC, but only had one actual record (a split), and haven’t aged terribly well. Fairly tuneful Minor Threat/Scream style but not quite as good. Eventually became Marginal Man.

7. EXILED “Guilt Trip” — Generic tier 3 DCHC. Right up there with Media Disease and Assault and Battery.

8. SCREAM “Ultra Violence/Screaming” — Hey here’s a jam! I think this is taken from a demo tape. Scream rules hard. I need a copy of their demo actually, I heard it once and it was maybe better than the lp.

9. GLEE CLUB “Disguise (A Lie)” — No idea.

10. BLACK MARKET BABY “Suzie Dear” — Here’s a pretty great Black Market Baby track. I’m not like some people who love every song they ever wrote, but they have some definite hits. Just don’t buy that piece of shit anthology on Dr. Strange. Great power-pop/punk hybrid.

11. REPTILE HOUSE “Talons & Claws” — Reptile House are known for being pre-Samhain. As such they’re kinda goth, and I’m pretty sure they’re on a Sisters Of Mercy vibe, but nowhere near as good. Then again I should revisit this.

12. 9353 “Ten Witches” — Known more for their excessive drug use than their music. Psychedelic-ish post HC noise stuff… I wish they were better though.

13. THE LAST MINUTE “Infinite Regression” — This is actually United Mutation, I forget why they’re under the name The Last Minute on here. Infinite Regression is a classic freak-out track by them, and this version is only available on here. NECESSARY.

14. BEAVER “Punch Him in the Head” — Beaver get filed in the same bin as Exiled, but this song aint bad.

15. ASSAULT & BATTERY “Evidence” — See Beaver description.

16. BRAILLE PARTY “Terrorist” — I seem to remember this song getting kinda ska unfortunately. Braille Party were from Maryland and also released an Lp on Fountain of Youth, which for the most part is pretty good Husker Du style melodic hardcore. Unfortunately there are a few tracks where they experiment with ska on the album, and I think that carries over to this track (at least from memory). Buy the lp if you see it though, it’s pretty cool.

17. VOID “Get Out of My Way” — Arguably the best Void song, this is from what was eventually issued in the 90’s as the “Condensed Flesh” demo. Originally that session was used as the source for a number of comp tracks including this song which just rips, with awesome feedback breaks and classic Weifenbach vocals. This version is a different mix with some added echo effects than the 90’s issuing.

18. GOVERNMENT ISSUE “Dead Dog” — Who the fuck left this song off the GI complete history discs? This is easily one of the best on the comp. GI composed it as a tribute to the Obsessed, and as such, it’s a 4+ minute doomed out dirge in the vein of their classic Sheer Terror. Seriously it’s a lost classic, and I don’t even like GI that much. Maybe I would if they did more tracks like this. If you’ve ever heard the first Upside Down Cross lp w/ J Mascis on drums, that’s what this song is like.

So okay, I admit this isn’t the greatest comp ever, but there’s a few tracks that I think are legitimately essential, and of course if you’re a DCHC completest, you’ve gotta have this.