We play a lot of 1980s and 90s punk/hardcore and post-hardcore music on The Way Out, and so it's probably not surprising that the Washington, DC-based Dischord Records is one of our all-time favorite record labels. Not only have Ian MacKaye, Jeff Nelson, and company consistently put out good, innovative music over the decades, they've also been consistently eclectic and unconventional in their release choices and their overall approach to the music business. And if you listen to The Way Out regularly, surely you know that eclecticism and nonconformity are traits that we appreciate greatly.
A couple months ago when we were putting together our Destroy All Music series dedicated to more obscure 1970s and 1980s U.S. punk and hardcore, it occurred to us that we could do an entire hour on Dischord bands alone. (Heads up: we'll finally air the long-promised Part 2 of that Destroy All Music series tonight, April 3rd at 10:00 PM CST). It took us a little while, but here's that show: a full hour of lesser-known Dischord bands, which we've called Also on Dischord. Not that these bands are lesser in terms of quality or any other measure - they're all terrific. They just don't have the fame and notoriety of, say, Minor Threat or Fugazi. Indeed, a lot of people only identify Dischord with Ian MacKaye and his Minor Threat and Fugazi bandmates (Brian Baker, Jeff Nelson, Joe Lally, Guy Picciotto, Brendan Canty - all of whom have played in multiple other Dischord bands over the years). And their music is phenomenal, no doubt. But the point we want to make here is that there's so much more to Dischord than just those few bands and musicians. So, let's dig a little deeper and celebrate the rest of the catalog for an hour.
These were the ground rules we set for ourselves while developing the playlist. First, Minor Threat, Fugazi, and pretty much anything featuring MacKaye or other members of those bands was off limits (meaning no Rites of Spring, no Embrace, no Evens, no Teen Idles, no Happy Go Licky, no Joe Lally solo, no Deathfix, et al). Second, we'd also skip the rest of Dischord's more widely popular bands, such as Jawbox, Shudder to Think, S.O.A., Nation of Ulysses, and Q and Not U. And third, we'd bypass some of the other Dischord bands that we keep on fairly regular rotation here on The Way Out, such as Make-Up, Faith, and Void. Obviously, for listeners who are very familiar with Dischord or the hardcore/post-hardcore genres, bands like Dag Nasty, Lungfish, or Circus Lupus are hardly "obscure." Nevertheless, the result is a playlist that we hope represents a range of Dischord's roster both from different eras and different genres/styles.
Here's the playlist for our Thursday, March 27, 2014, broadcast:
The Warmers - "Walking Solves It"
Dag Nasty - "Circles (Dag With Shawn version)"
Marginal Man - "Identity"
Soulside - "Punch the Geek"
Gray Matter - "Burn No Bridges"
Beefeater - "Just Things"
Lungfish - "Descender"
The Capitol City Dusters - "Not Me Now"
Black Eyes - "Speaking in Tongues"
Bluetip - "Castanet"
Hoover - "Shut"
Smart Went Crazy - "Con Art"
Slant 6 - "What Kind of Monster Are You?"
Circus Lupus - "Pop Man"
Snakes - "Snake Rap"
Archived streaming audio of this show can be heard here now (playable in Chrome, Firefox, Explorer, Opera, and Safari browsers):
