Speaking of the DC post-hardcore scene…
One of the biggest death knells to a punk band is to be deemed a sell out. And in the 90s, when every record label in the world was signing every noisy band they could in hopes of finding the next Nirvana, the sharks came circling around Dischord Records. While Fugazi famously turned down a number of massive record deals, not everyone was as staunch in their business ethics.
When Jawbox entered into a deal with Atlantic Records, the punks were up in arms. But somehow, the two records released on Atlantic were unscathed by the corporitizing and sanitizing that came with selling out. Like For Your Own Special Sweetheart before it, their ’96 self-titled record is a cavalcade of jagged post-hardcore by one of the best to ever do it—major label or not.
The mythos of rock and roll party culture is almost as significant to pop music history as the music itself. And while no one is caught off guard to hear about acts of depravity from Guns & Roses or Mötley Crüe, it comes as a surprise to most people that one of the most notoriously wild acts of the 1980s was none other than The Go-Go’s.
No matter how closely I scour the various corners of pop music history, there’s always something I miss. There are countless bands that have fallen through the cracks of year-end lists from various journalists, retrospectives, and trends on the music charts. And many of those bands are actually worth several damns, despite how much or little notoriety they achieved in their time.
