Washington, D.C. Hardcore

C. hardcore is mostly a set of rules about how records get made and shows get run: own the label, keep the price on the sleeve, play all ages.

The music moves from 90-second blasts in 1981 to something tangled and melodic by 1985. Same people, same studio in Arlington, same catalog numbers running in sequence.

Washington, 1979-1991. Bad Brains — four Black musicians who started as the fusion group Mind Power — played punk faster than anyone and left for New York.

The teenagers watching them picked it up. , Minor Threat, Government Issue, Void, Faith.

c. space and the Wilson Center; almost everything was tracked by Don Zientara at Inner Ear in Arlington.

By 1985 the speed had curdled and a loose reset the locals called Revolution Summer put Rites of Spring, Embrace and Beefeater on stage — longer songs, broken voices. Fugazi formed in 1987 and turned the ethic into policy: $5 shows, cheap records, no merchandise.

The press called the 1985 bands emo. They hated the word.

R. and Dr.

Know, Guy Picciotto, Brendan Canty, Amy Pickering, Zientara behind the board, Dischord House in Arlington as the mailing address. What: trebly guitars, no solos, drums up front, vocals shouted rather than sung, lyrics about betrayal and self-control instead of politics abroad.

Tempos drop after 1984; guitars start ringing instead of chugging. 50 Postpaid from Dischord" ran as a stripe across the front of Out of Step.

Catalog number in sequence, no contracts.