DC Hardcore's Long Aftershock
How a handful of straight-edge teenagers in Washington left their mark on grunge, riot grrrl, and emo.
- 11979-1986 · Washington, D.C., USA
DC Hardcore
In the early 1980s a handful of teenagers in the nation's capital built a scene around Dischord Records, and Minor Threat gave the straight edge movement its name. Ian MacKaye's bands set a do-it-yourself ethic that spread far beyond Washington.
Read the issue - 21984-1997 · Seattle, Washington, USA
Seattle Grunge
Grunge grew up in Seattle rather than in DC, but the two scenes were linked. Dave Grohl drummed for the DC hardcore band Scream from 1986 until it broke up in 1990, then moved to Seattle to join Nirvana, and Fugazi's refusal of major labels became a reference point for the Northwest's independent bands.
Read the issue (members) - 31988-1996 · Olympia, Washington & Washington, D.C., USA
Riot Grrrl
Riot grrrl had two homes, Olympia and Washington. Bratmobile moved to DC in 1991, the first Riot Grrrl Convention was held there in 1992, and Ian MacKaye produced Bikini Kill's first EP at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, before Kill Rock Stars released it that October.
Read the issue - 41989-2000 · Midwest United States (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky)
90s Midwest Emo
Rites of Spring and Embrace, both part of DC's Revolution Summer of 1985, turned hardcore inward and are often counted among the first emo bands. In the 1990s Midwest bands such as Cap'n Jazz and Braid, raised on Fugazi, took that emotional directness somewhere more melodic and introspective.
Read the issue (members)