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Please understand: GOVERNMENT ISSUE is the only DC hardcore band you still need to hear.
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 10-Oct-05 @ 12:00 AM
FILE UNDER:
Eclectic DC Posi-Core-Or, Why Dag Nasty Existed
YEARS OF EXISTENCE: 1981-1989 RECORD TO START WITH: Legless Bull E.P. (1981; reissued 2002) AFTER THAT, CHECK OUT: Complete History Volume One (2000), Complete History Volume Two (2002) GO DOWNLOAD: "Understand," "G.I.," "Lost In Limbo," "I'm James Dean," "Blending In," "Lie, Cheat & Steal," "Sheer Terror," "Snubbing"-among the 100 or so other classics they cranked out. THE MUSIC, THE MESSAGE: When most of us think Washington, DC, hardcore, our thoughts naturally turn to Ian MacKaye and his Dischord Records empire-which, as even your parents know by now, has MacKaye's bands Minor Threat and Fugazi at its axis. But odds are, when Ian MacKaye thinks DC hardcore, his thoughts turn to John Schroeder (a.k.a. John Stabb), one of the most infl uential, enigmatic and misunderstood fi gures in the history of DC's underground. Cutting his teeth in-and pulling his stage name from-the late-'70s DC punk group the Stab, Schroeder built his punk-rock legacy via the Stab's successor, Government Issue, a revolving lineup band who, besides featuring members who'd later make history in Minor Threat, Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Dag Nasty and Bad Religion (to cite just the marquee names), made history in their own way by never fitting into the scene most people naturally associated with their city. Even if the band's fi rst offi cial release, the long-impossible-to-fi nd Legless Bull E.P., is back in print today via Dischord. PUNK-ROCK RELEVANCE: Punk may seem more codifi ed than ever today, with bands and fans essentially having to sport uniforms-the right hair, the right clothes, the right avoidance of the right trends-to fi t into a given scene; but the B.S. was just as smelly 20 years ago, as Stabb & Co. could attest. Though they started out playing solid, standard-issue melodic hardcore, Government Issue weren't afraid to let their outside influences, no matter how incongruous, infect their music-or, in Stabb's case, their look, as well. Heck, G.I. even took abuse from scenesters over not releasing their music through the right record labels. (As Stabb once told Spontaneous Combustion zine, "I graduated the old school, so why should I be kept back?") So, while Stabb's hairdos and stage clothes got increasingly kookier, so did the band's music draw ideas from pop, goth, psychedelia, Middle Eastern music and beyond. And while changes like these could seem like sellout moves for a group that once wrote a song called "Rock 'N' Roll Bullshit" (not the Against Me! jam, but the same idea), they were a vital next step in the evolution of [insert whatever eclectic punk CD you're listening to today]. CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: Don't hold your breath for a G.I. reunion, though you can see the band in all their glory on the newly released Government Issue Live 1985: Flipside DVD, available from Music Video Distributors. And, of course, you can see them in the ? esh elsewhere today: Early guitarist Brian Baker, besides being an instrumental member (on bass) in Minor Threat and (on guitar) Dag Nasty, now plays guitar in Bad Religion; and late-period bassist J. Robbins has had his own run with success after his tenure in G.I. Prior to his current power trio, Channels, and in tandem with the engineering work he's done on countless punk and emo records since the breakup of his seminal band Jawbox, Robbins was rocking alongside former G.I. drummer Peter Moffett in Burning Airlines. More recently, Robbins mixed Redtape, the new album from Stabb's (now Schroeder's) post-new-wave quintet the Factory Incident. Though it came out on the DC label Postfact (postfact.com), Redtape is available through Dischord-proving, once again, that history, like hardcore, moves in circles. -Aaron Burgess |
