Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement

Summary

I grew up in the suburbs. When I was thirteen my brother (nine years my senior) gave me a gift for my birthday. He bought me a CD copy of Repeater+3 Songs by Washington D.C. punk band Fugazi. At first, I didn’t really know what to think of the gift. I was already a fan of bands like Rage Against the Machine, but Fugazi struck a different chord for me. As I came to learn that Fugazi was a band that put out all their records on an independent label named Dischord that was started by Ian MacKaye, I was amazed at their resolve and DIY aesthetic. MacKaye’s guitar playing inspired me to get better at guitar.

Fugazi came through Little Rock when I was sixteen years old to promote their album The Argument. It was an all ages show held in the smallest outdoor concert space in Little Rock. They had stayed true to their roots and charged six dollars a ticket. Their merch table didn’t have any T-shirts brandishing their logo – just vinyls, CDs, and a DVD of their movie Instrument. The show was incredible. If memory serves me right, they played for two hours straight, which for a punk show is an anomaly. After the show, I approached my hero Ian and asked him for an autograph on my copy of Instrument. He obliged and I told him what a positive impact his band had on me. He could not have been any nicer or less in a rush to talk to a sixteen year old fan. It still ranks as one of my concert memories of all time. Recently I stumbled upon a documentary on the roots of Washington D.C. based punk rock and hardcore called Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement. I watched it over the weekend.

The story of the film begins around 1976 and continues through 1983. It begins by focusing on bands like the Slickee Boys and Bad Brains and their immediate impact that they made on the youth in D.C. At the time, D.C. was primarily known for their bluegrass music. The lead singer of Bad Brains had read a book by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich which talked about P.M.A. – Positive Mental Attitude. Bad Brains played punk rock much faster than the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, and their lyrics reflected a positive attitude despite their fast punk sound. This inspired a group of teenagers to form a band called Teen Idles, which included a young Ian McKaye. Ian’s close friend was a punk enthusiast named Henry Rollins. Teen Idles spawned the band Minor Threat and the record label Dischord record. Henry Rollins soon headed the short lived band S.O.A. and then Black Flag. These were all the stepping stones that created the D.C. hardcore scene and also unintentionally created the “straight-edge” movement.

Well – this documentary is an absolute blast. One of the things that always separated the D.C. punk scene was the DIY aesthetic and the togetherness of their scene. This film perfectly captures what that scene was and why it resonated (and still resonates) with teenage suburban kids across the country. I had always wanted to know more about the early days of the D.C. punk scene, and this film dove deep. Utilizing great Super 8 footage alongside interviews with Henry Rollins, Ian McKaye, and members of The Nurses, The Slickee Boys, Faith, Teen Idles, The Enzymes, Minor Threat, and Bad Brains, the documentary successfully paints a picture of a specific time in music history. Filmmakers James June Schneider, Paul Bishow, and Sam Lavine obviously know their stuff and have done their homework.

My only qualm with the film is that it cuts off a few years before my favorite D.C. punk band Fugazi was formed out of members of Minor Threat and Rites of Spring. We can only hope that one day we get to see a sequel! Until then, this is one hell of a great document of that time. Highly recommended!