Argument For More Fugazi

At the start of this year, Marcus posted about The Argument from Fugazi. His story sounded similar to mine, as I'd started to lose interest in Fugazi records with Red Medicine and then never really cared for End Hits... so by the time The Argument was released in 2001, I barely gave it any attention. At some point I did download it, and put it on a CDR in an attempt to try and hang with the album, but I quickly wrote it off and it ended up in the trash. My mind is more open these days and I spend most of my time lately obsessing over bands that I thought that I hated... so when I saw the post from Marcus talking about how surprised he was that he was enjoying The Argument, I thought that maybe it was time for me to give it a fair chance as well.

Look, I can completely understand why I didn't like this record in 2001. This was not nearly aggressive enough for me at the time. There are times when it was far too laid back and slow for my frantic hardcore kid energy. Listening to this in 2025, I can hear that it is still very much a Fugazi record, but there are layers and moods here that I just didn't understand or appreciate at the time. The Argument is kind of perfect for me at this time and place, and I'm tempted to check out other Fugazi recods that I haven't listened to in the past 25 years to see how I feel about them now.

This "thor" blue marbled colored vinyl looks great.

Out Of Takes

I'm not big on alternate recordings for songs. It just doesn't interest me. All I need is the final version that ended up on the record. Anything else is wasted on me. So when I heard that there was a new Minor Threat record with some outtakes, I didn't give it much thought. However, as I was listening to the DJ station on Spotify and it queued up this different version of In My Eyes, it caught my ear and I thought it was kind of cool.

Okay, a little backstory. Chad Lutzke is an author that I enjoy quite a bit. He writes short novellas that tend to come in just over 100 pages, and focus on darker coming-of-age themes and slice of life stories. He writes in a very stripped down style that works incredibly well for him, and I binged seven of his books to start the year, including his classic Of Foster Home And Flies and a reread of one of my favorite novellas ever, Out Behind The Barn. The other thing about Chad is that he loves old school hardcore punk, and we have exchanged a few messages and comments through Instagram... but I was surprised when he had tagged me in a post a few months ago asking if I'd picked up the new Minor Threat 7 inch. While I hadn't really considered buying the record, getting called out like that had me rushing to the Dischord store so that I didn't lose any punk points with the man.

Was I happy that I caved to peer pressure when the record arrived? The packaging is great, with the story on how this recording came to be, plus the photos from that time are a perfect documentation of history... the clear vinyl looks great, and the songs are fun as hell. Does that answer your questions, motherfuckers?

Dischord Box

I was a later bloomer when it came to record collecting, and by the time I got serious with it, those early Dischord 7 inches were already way out of my league. I'd never even entertained the thought, but then at some point near the beginning of 2021, I started to think that maybe chasing something like a later pressing of the S.O.A. record might be fun. Yes, it was going to carry a high price tag, but fuck it, I felt like maybe I should make an attempt at a serious serious record like that.

Then a couple months later, Dischord announced that they were releasing a box set with the first six 7 inches, and all those thoughts about chasing a big ticket Dischord record went out the window. A $50 box set is much easier to swallow.

Everyone should know the deal with these six 7 inches, so I'm not going to go into any detail over them. Dischord did an amazing job creating these to mirror the original first pressings. If I'd spent the money or time collecting those original pressings, I might have a problem with this reproduction, but I don't, so I think this set is fantastic.

As a bonus, Dischord included a 7 inch with the unreleased songs from pre-The Teen Idles band, The Slinkees. This is cool from the historical beginnings of Dischord and those early bands, but it certainly is a shaky start. Fun for what it is.

Nice package all around. Of course you know that Dischord was going to do this right. Top quality.

So Moved

Last year I picked up the Hammered Hulls 7 inch, and quite enjoyed it. With Alec MacKaye on vocals the comparisons to his classic bands from the 80's was inevitable, and it got me reaching for those older albums...until I realized that I didn't own a single Ignition record.

I love the Ignition stuff, so I jumped on Discogs to see what damage I could do, and surprisingly I was able to pick up the Machination album for only $11. I guess that if you aren't buying from the early Dischord catalog, you'll find that prices are reasonable. Might have to make a move to pick up The Orafying Mysticle Of... soon as well.

I was late to the Ignition party, and didn't bother checking them out until the mid-90's, after Dischord released that Complete Services CD with all of the band's songs. Happy to finally have some of the vinyl in my collection.

Includes a nice big fold out lyric sheet poster.

S.O.A. D.E.M.O.

While I was picking up the new pressing for the Red Hare 7 inch, it was recommended that I grab the new colored vinyl for the S.O.A. demo as well. Since I'm sometimes easily influenced, and have an inexplicable aversion to buying a single record when purchasing from an online store, I took the bait.

I'm generally not interested in multiple recordings of the same songs...so if a band's demo songs end up on their first album, I'm generally not going to spend much time with that demo. Over the past few years, Dischord has released a number of old demos on vinyl, and I've ignored them all. If I hadn't been in their webstore for the Red Hare record, I probably would have passed by the S.O.A. demo as well. On a whim, and because I wanted to beef up my cart, I grabbed a copy.

This S.O.A. demo is damn good. Great packaging, and killer songs. I'm glad I picked this up, and while the yellow vinyl probably looks best with the cover, now I'm kind of interested in the red and blue vinyl pressings of this. It also peaks my interest to possibly check out the string of Dischord demos that I've ignored to this point.

Dag With Shawn 2016

With Red Hare back on the map with a new 7 inch earlier this year, and a new LP in the works, it was kind of surprising to see a new record from Shawn Brown and his old bandmates from Dag Nasty.

I typically approach these one-off reunion recordings with some trepidation. These guys haven't been in the studio together for almost 30 years, so you've got to wonder if they have still got it, or if it will come off as some uninspired Dad (Punk) Rock bullshit that we can all ignore. Fear not. Shawn Brown ain't going out like that. These two songs are excellent.

It's a rare feeling when it comes to reunion records, but this 7 inch leaves me wanting more.

As someone that is approaching 46 years old, these pictures on the inside sleeve of "current self" next to "1985 self" kind of freak me out. "I'm looking at pictures, and I'm thinking of those times. Those times have changed, and so have I.".

Rain Like The Sound Of Mid-90's Emo

There was a time when CDs were my format of choice when listening to music. Each day I'd grab between 10 and 15 CDs and head out the door for my day...listening to them in the car or at work on the CD player at my desk. They were portable and convenient...and for those albums that I had exclusively on vinyl, or had downloaded from napster, WinMX, or soulseek, I burned them to CDRs. At one point, I must have had close to a thousand of these CDRs. My iPod has basically made these CDRs obsolete, and in an effort to make some space in the Music Room, I've started cleaning them out. Some of these burned CDs are for albums that, for one reason or another, I've just never owned a physical copy of. Some of it I've determined that there is a reason that I never bought a copy before, and I've sent it to the trash bin, while other stuff has got me thinking that I need to finally get off my ass and buy the vinyl.

After catching the Salad Days movie downtown one night, I happened to get to the R section in my CDR clean up. I had the full Rain Like The Sound Of Trains discography on one of these burned CDRs, and while I own all their 7 inches, I have never picked up a copy of the full length LP. Inspired by the movie, I managed to stop listening to metal for a few seconds, and found that I really needed to finally own this record.

Featuring Bobby from Soulside, and Pete from Verbal Assault, I really loved what this band was doing in the mid-90's. As a kid from Maine, whose major access to purchase music was through Ebullition or the Lumberjack distro, I had some trouble locating the Rain Like The Sound Of Trains album when it was released. However, with the full power of the internet now in my hands, I found that it was quite easy to locate and purchase a copy...and a steal for under $10. Thank you Discogs and paypal.

Pocket Hurts

These days, it seems like I'm continually playing catch-up with Chris over at Unwavering Spirit. I'll see him post about a new record, and then about a month later, I will have worked through my vinyl backlog, and finally get it up over here. It seems to happen quite a bit lately, and here we are with a post on the new Soulside reissue from Dischord, and of course it has all been done before. Either that dude needs to calm down, or I need to get my shit together and catch up on my backlog.

The reason why Dischord reissues are better than most, is evident with their latest offering of Soulside vinyl. Even though I'm trying to save the money, and stay away from needless repressings, with the label adding the three songs from the Bass/103 7 inch, and updating the cover art...it made this release too tempting to avoid.

Honestly, I'd forgotten how much I love these Soulside songs until I dropped the needle on this vinyl. I bought this reissue because "it just looked nice", but this ended up as a nice reminder as to how great the band was. If I'd received this kind of wake up call a few months ago, I may have made an attempt to make a trip to DC to catch the band play a reunion show with Moss Icon in December. Man, that show is going to rule.

Scream For A Dischord Reissue

For some reason, there is something less offensive about a Dischord reissue, compared to a Revelation reissue. Maybe it is because there is a large portion of the Dischord library that I don't give a shit about, so I don't have to worry about falling into a bottomless hole, like I do with REV. Whatever the reason is, when I saw this new pressing of the first Scream LP, I had no problems buying myself a copy.

I've never owned Still Screaming on vinyl, and with this new reissue staring me in the face, it just seemed logical to finally grab a copy for the collection.

Honestly, I've never really cared about Scream. I bought the Still Screaming/This Side Up CD about 10 years ago, and probably only listened to it a handful of times. It never clicked with me, and I think it was because the disc closes with the This Side Up songs...and they kind of bore me. By the time the CD would end, I'd just toss it back on the shelf to be ignored for another couple of years.

Earlier this year, I decided to take smaller bites, and I just added the Still Screaming songs to my ipod, and I was surprised at how great they were. Just what you'd expect from Dischord in 1982.

Losing My Grippe

"I'm no longer going to buy needless reissues". I've repeated those words over and over countless times. I'm going to avoid getting sucked into a trap of endless vinyl repressings for bands that I don't care enough about to collect. I'm going to save my money and put it towards something a bit more useful. I have the best of intentions...

I like Jawbox. LIKE. I've never lost my mind over them. They were good enough for me to buy their two Dischord LPs back in the day, but these days I rarely gave them much of a thought.

Then Marcus posted about Dischord's recent repress of the Grippe LP. That was when my resolve started to show cracks.

His picture of that purple vinyl...goddamn it...it looked so good. I suddenly felt the desire to not only give the album a spin, but to also buy this good looking repress.

After dusting off my original Dischord press of Grippe, I found that I had to do the same with their second LP, Novelty. Amazing. I found myself listening to both of these albums repeatedly, and I was surprised by how much I was loving this band.

Shortly after Jawbox released Novelty in 1992, they moved to Atlantic Records...and being on a major label at that time was a kiss of death for me. I never bothered with anything the band released from 1993 forward.

Being on this big Jawbox kick, I felt adventurous, and decided to give 1994's For Your Own Special Sweetheart a try. Damn! I love finding surprises like this, and being proven wrong. What a great album, and not much of a departure from what they'd been doing with Dischord. Since I couldn't immediately find a vinyl copy of this LP available, I decided to grab the Motorist / Jackpot Plus 7 inch single instead. Both of these songs would end up on For Your Own Special Sweetheart, but I didn't mind spending a couple bucks for this record.

My last cheap Jawbox grab was for a split that the band did with Crackerbash. The Jawbox song, Falk, is only an instrumental, and I don't really care about the other band, so this was a bit of a throw away, but I'm still glad that I can tuck this in with my other 7 inches.

Clusterfuck Of Used Records

Back at the Cruel Hand show last month, in addition to the Clear 7 inch that I bought, I took the opportunity to go through a box of used records. Of course, there were a few in there that I wanted.

The first one that I pulled out of the pile was Painkiller number one...The A-Team 'Clusterfuck'. I've had the 'A Is For Asshole' album for a while, but never really looked into what else The A-Team had released outside of that. Holding the first press on orange vinyl in my hands, I figured that now was as good a time as any to finally grab something else by them. Good stuff.

Limited to 321.

Next one to be pulled from the box of records was the Soulside 7 inch. I love this band, and I've been digging a bunch of this kind of Dischord stuff recently. I bought the Trigger LP back in the early 90's, but after buying their discography CD, I never bothered with any more of their vinyl. When I saw this 7 inch, I knew it was time to fill this hole in my record collection.

Finally, I grabbed the R'N'R 7 inch. Their follow up LP fell a little flat for me, but the two songs on this EP are amazing. First press on Cadmium Sick Records. I'm glad to finally have a copy of this.

My Favorite Blue Job

I really enjoyed the Red Hare album that Dischord/Hellfire released earlier this year. I like it so much that there have been times when I've flirted with the idea of putting it in the number one spot for my Best of 2013 list.

I was very interested when I heard that Dischord was doing a second pressing of the record, but once I saw what they were doing to it, I didn't hesitate to order a copy.

The first pressing was on red vinyl, with all the art done in the same color...an obvious choice for a band named Red Hare. The second pressing, however, gets a makeover in blue.

It would have been so easy to just wrap the new blue vinyl in the same sleeve as the first pressing, and be done with it. Instead, the label went ahead and changed all the colors on the cover to match the new vinyl pressing, and holy shit, it looks amazing.

No shortcuts on this either, as even the insert gets the blue treatment.

Such an amazing job. What's next? Is Dischord going to be able to keep this up with the next pressing?

Purple Matter

Another vinyl re-issue...this time from Dischord, and not Revelation.

It amazes me how long it took me to check out some of this Dischord stuff. While the Food For Thought LP was originally released back in 1985, I didn't getting around to listening to any of the Gray Matter stuff until some time in 2004. I liked it the instant that I heard it...still, it took me another 8 years to finally buy a copy.

I was doing some research on discogs to try and find some pressing info for this. I didn't have any luck, but it did list that there was also a green and a gray pressing. In addition to that, I found that the Food For Thought album wasn't originally released on Dischord...the initial release was on R&B Records. I had no idea.

I Have Faith

This one has been in my blog backlog for a few months. Honestly, I've been procrastinating on making this post, as I just don't really have anything exciting to say about it.

Faith are one of those classic DC Hardcore bands. For some reason I never really took the time to check out most of those early Dischord bands until the last few years. In fact the first time I really heard Faith was through a couple cover songs...M.O.D. doing Confusion/You're X'd back in '87, and then In My Eyes doing What's Wrong With Me. After hearing In My Eyes cover the band, I figured that maybe it was time to finally check them out.

This LP is another one of the Dischord re-issues, as they package the Subject To Change EP along with the band's '81 demo.

Wig Out With Shawn

I picked up a couple of the Dag Nasty remasters from Dischord recently.

Before there was the Can I Say LP...before there was Swiz...Shawn Brown handled the vocal duties for Dag Nasty. There have been some unofficial releases floating around for years, but it's nice to see Dischord finally recognize those first recordings with a proper release.

The back of the album cover documents the brief history of the Shawn-era Dag. There is no mention of why Shawn left the band, but hey, it gave us Swiz, so I'm not complaining.

Until now, I have never bothered to really listen to anything past Can I Say that did not have Dave Smalley as the singer. Can I Say is perfection, and around 1990 I followed it up by buying the All Ages Show 7 inch. As a young kid whose world was starting to be taken over by Hardcore, the All Ages Show record was complete shit. I dropped the needle on the vinyl and immediately hated it. I couldn't believe how bad it was, and vowed to never bother with anything post-Can I Say.

Here we are 30 years later, and I get an introduction to the Dag Nasty song Safe from H2O's recent covers album. Of course I'd never heard this song before, so it was new to me. I did some research and found that it was from Dag's Wig Out At Denkos LP. I was diggin' H2O's cover, so I figured that I'd track down the original. Surprisingly, Wig Out isn't nearly as terrible as I expected...sure When I Move is painful to get through, and but overall, this is a solid album.

Since I liked Wig Out At Denkos a lot more than I expected, I decided to pull out the copy of All Ages Show that I bought so long ago. Upon first listen, I can certainly see what turned off the 20 year old version of me. Really, these songs are pretty far removed from Can I Say. After a couple of spins though, I'm not hating it, and I can see it fitting in with the whole Revolution Summer thing that DC had going on at the time. Yeah, I'll keep it. Who knows, maybe if I get daring enough, I may get around to checking out the Field Day LP.

1...2...3...Repeater

Since picking up the first two remastered Fugazi records last year, I've been contemplating picking up Repeater as well. I'm not a huge Fugazi fan, but you can't deny that everything up through Repeater is a classic. My local record store had a copy of the vinyl in stock, and my Mom was nice enough to pick it up for me at Christmas.

Black vinyl. Big deal. This would have looked great on a clear blue colored vinyl.

Devoid Of Faith

Most people with any knowledge of Hardcore history, have probably already heard all of the early Dischord catalog. Not me. For some reason, up until recently, my collection went from Minor Threat straight into the Revolution Summer bands like Embrace, Fugazi, and Soul Side. I completely missed the early harD.C.ore years. Over the past year, I've really started digging in to the Dischord early years and finding those classic bands that I've been missing out on. The newest discovery for me is the Faith/Void split LP. Dischord recently reissued this on colored vinyl, so I figured that it was a good time to check it out. Great stuff, and I can see why a band like In My Eyes would cover their song What's Wrong With Me. Classic.