touch and go 13:

Teen Idles - Minor Disturbance 7":
Teen Idles / Sneakers / Get Up and Go / Deadhead // Fleeting Fury / Fiorucci Nightmare / Getting in my Way / Too Young to Rock (Minor Disturbance)
1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert and shiny sleeve
1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert, matte sleeve, second pressing note on back
Dischord 1, 1981

Lineup: Nathan Strejcek - vocals / Geordie Grindle - guitar / Ian MacKaye - bass / Jeff Nelson - drums

Notes: Both pressings' sleeves are pictured (the brown stuff on the back of the second press is the rubber cement they glued the sleeves with). Labels are identical. 100 copies were destroyed by Geordie or Nathan (it says in Dance of Days...), probably from the first press. Insert only with some copies (I've now seen inserts with both pressings)? Minor Disturbance recorded live at the Idles last show and it sounds like crap.

Reviews: I should probably have more to say about this record, but I don't. Prototypical DC thrash, and while it's got an edge to it that the Limp Records axis was lacking, it doesn't have much else. Song writing is rudimentary, vocalist isn't terribly engaging, and the band is often lost behind the guitarist. The real standout tracks are Sneakers, which sounds like a lost Minor Threat song, Get Up And Go, which is easily one of the ten best songs to come out of DC, and Too Young To Rock, which is absolutely unlistenable due to the poor live sound. Are there any good sounding versions out there?

I've scanned in two contemporary reviews, from Smegma Journal 9 (below), and Touch and Go 13 (right).

SOA - No Policy 7":
Lost in Space / Draw Blank / Girl Problems / Blackout / Gate Crashers // War Zone / Riot / Gang Fight / Public Defender / Gonna Have to Fight
1000 copies on green vinyl w/insert
1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert
1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert (Black Flag bars on Henry's arm, band name on labels)
Dischord 2, 1981

Lineup: Henry Garfield - vocals / Simon Jacobsen - drums / Wendel Blow - bass / Michael Hampton - guitar

Notes: First pressing cover and vinyl pictured. Second green record has black marbling.. There was a different insert for the third pressing, I think. I have a copy of the first pressing with a black streak in the vinyl and a foldover sleeve (they just trimmed the glue tabs off it--it was NEVER glued). Anyone have another copy like this?

Reviews: I'm not terribly fond of this record. It doesn't seem right to call it "generic" since hardcore was still in its infancy, but even next to the Teen Idles, Necros, and GI this record seems inadequate. The music is rudimentary at best and Henry's limited vocal range, while fitting with the boneheaded lyrics (Public Defender: when you see a cop coming you better move quick / because he's gonna hit you with his stick / it doesn't matter what you've done / you're gonna suffer for his fun / etc.), is a real liability. I'm curious about why this stuff was released when their demo tape (excerpted on the 20 Years of Dischord box and Flex Your Head, and bootlegged on a 7" some years back) is smokin'.

Have copies of any of the pressings I don't have shown? Email me if you'd be interested in scanning them in.

Minor Threat - S/T ("Filler") 7":
Filler / I Don't Wanna Hear It / Seeing Red / Straight Edge // Small Man, Big Mouth / Screaming at a Wall / Bottled Violence / Minor Threat
1000 copies on black vinyl (yellow labels) w/insert (two different ones) and red sleeve
1000 copies on black vinyl (blue labels) w/insert and yellow sleeve
1000 copies on black vinyl (silver labels w/slogan) w/insert and green sleeve
2000 copies on black vinyl (silver labels w/o slogan) w/insert and blue sleeve
Dischord 3, 1981

Lineup: Ian MacKaye - vocals / Lyle Preslar - guitar / Brian Baker - bass / Jeff Nelson - drums

Notes: First pressing cover and labels pictured. There was an alternate insert included with early copies of the first pressing. Flex mentions an alternate (unused?) blue sleeve w/"thanks to DD" (or JJ) on it. Collectorscum.com has an oddball clear plastic sleeve, unknown if this was official or not.

Reviews:

Have copies of any of the pressings I don't have shown? Email me if you'd be interested in scanning them in.

GI - Legless Bull 7":
Religious Ripoff / Fashionite / Rock and Roll Bullshit / Anarchy is Dead / Sheer Terror // Asshole / Bored to Death / No Rights / I'm James Dean / Cowboy Fashion
1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert
Dischord 4, 1981

Lineup:

Notes: There are two different sleeve variations. What I'm guessing is the first has the Dischord address as c/o Yesterday and Today Records on Rockville Pike, and the second has the Dischord address on Beecher Street in DC and the GI information address has been removed. Additionally I've seen a copy with a sticky label with an address written on it slapped over the address on the sleeve (unfortunately I wasn't taking notes, so I don't remember what the new address was). The c/o YAT sleeve probably came first, since all the prior Dischord releases used that address, while everything after this used the Beecher Street addy. It also looks, at least from the picture I'm seeing on ebay, like there's been some obvious cut 'n paste work on the layouts for the Beecher Street version.

Reviews: This record is so bad...I mean, it's...it's...it's just awful. GI aren't a band, they're a mess. Every instrument is off doing something else: the guitar wobbles along, the bass player is running around in circles, and John's just yelling over the racket, trying to call the song to order.

This is completely inept punk rock thrash, but it's got charm, originality and a unique spark that makes it stick in your head--joie de vivre, that's what this record's got. This is easily the most engaging thing the band ever recorded. They did turn into a tight, competent thrash (and later more melodic) band, making records that could smoke this one musically, but they lost that spark that grabbed my attention in the first place.

A question: why the hell didn't GI include their masterful version of Stepping Stone? I know the whole Stepping Stone=scene anthem thing was played out, even in '81, but the band did a great version (see the recently released First Demo 7" for proof. [Dischord needs to do legit SOA and Youth Brigade demo 7"s, or a "1980-1 in Demo Tapes" CD or something. Too much great stuff is still unreleased...]).

Necros - S/T ("IQ32") 7":
IQ32 / Youth Camp / Peer Pressure / Race Riot / Wargame // I Hate My School / Past Comes Back to Haunt Me / Reject / Public High School
1000 copies on black vinyl w/green labels and insert (100 in #'ed skatepark sleeve)
1000 copies on black vinyl w/tan labels and insert
1000 copies on black vinyl w/white labels insert
Dischord 4½ / Touch and Go 3, 1981

Lineup: Barry Henssler - vocals / Brian Pollack - guitar / Corey Rusk - bass / Todd Swalla - drums

Notes: Skatepark sleeve, regular sleeve, and first pressing label shown. All four versions have different inserts, and some (all?) came with stickers. Not a DC band, from Maumee, OH.

Reviews: I've said so elsewhere, but I think most of the attention people give to the Necros is due to the scarcity of their records rather than their actual musical quality. Even when they were at their absolute best they were strictly a second-rate punk band.

Yeah, I've got the skatepark sleeve. You want? Let's trade.

Have copies of any of the pressings I don't have shown? Email me if you'd be interested in scanning them in.