MRR #275-DC Hardcore
If you ever take a writing class, the teacher usually says “write what you know” one thing I know is DC Hardcore. So lets get right to it.

This month I’d like to talk about a band that made a big impression on me as a youth, Government Issue. I started going to hardcore shows in DC kind of late, in 1983. At this point Minor Threat, Faith and Bad Brains were broken up. Void was arguably past their peak as well. But the one band that could seriously BRING IT on a weekly basis was Government Issue. Of the pantheon of DC hardcore bands I feel like GI took the longest to develop and hone their sound it’s most crucial. Their career can be viewed as a long arc, from sloppy teen hardcore punk, to most crucial hardcore, and then into psych alternative rock. Some may take umbrage at my assertions but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Make an Effort ep and Joy Ride LP are GI at their peak. Everything before was just building it up, and everything after was just coming down from the high. That’s not to say that I think early GI material is weak, just that the mid period is so much more intense that it takes the sound to the next level.

GI had a long and productive career for an early 80’s hardcore band. In fact they re invented themselves towards the end as more of an indie/altrock/psychedelic band and were still gigging in the early 90s. I have 8 different GI 7”s and 9 LPs here by my stereo, and there could even be some less essential ones I’m missing. Compare this output to say Void, Artificial Peace, Deadline or any other DC band and I think you’ll find GI has had the most releases, excepting possibly the Bad Brains. Although some of their later material is spurious (remixes, live etc.)

GI’s first demo has recently been released on vinyl. But I’m going to discuss demos/bootlegs/ and out takes in a later column. The reason for this is that most people found out about these bands through their vinyl releases and only after they became popular did more ancillary material get dug up and released.

Legless Bull was Dischord #4 released in the most heroic year of DC hardcore, 1981. Raw and boisterous the early GI has a really snotty punk influence. John Stabb’s lyrics are often wry and sarcastic as opposed to the more political, introspective, or anti social lyrics of other DC bands. “Rock N Roll Bullshit” is a great example of this sort of parody. The intro bust is rather Meatmenesque. The pace of this record is actually pretty slow, the riffs are great and owe a lot to 77 UK punk. Also there is a strong influence here of early LA bands like Middle Class and Rhino 39. Notably the “really fast punk/early hardcore” style. “Bored to Death” and “No Rights” could almost be cockney rejects or other UK punk stompers tunes if they weren’t so fast and Stabb’s lyrics so obnoxious. But the speed it up considerably on a few tracks and make the leap into full on hardcore style. This record ends with the droner “Sheer Terror” which this band would re record and re release on several of their records, much to my dismay.

G.I’s next release was a massive step forward. Boycott Stabb LP was released in 1982 as a split release between Fountain of Youth and Dischord. The two most important DC labels. Indeed, the Dischord story has been told many times, but the Fountain of Youth tale is yet to well chronicled. An interview I’d like to do.. As with most of the DC classics this one was produced by Don Zientra at Inner Ear. The first thing you notice about this record in comparison to Legless Bull and the Flex Your Head tracks is the massively more beefed up guitar sound. The songs on this release are mostly top shelf. Tom Lyle’s guitar features a not so subtle influence from hard rock, but with all the intensity and energy of hardcore. “Hour of 1” “Lost in limbo” and “Plain to See” are DC hardcore with some serious thought put into the riffage. Short and fast, but still sticking in your head for days. “Plain to See” especially stands out with it’s dope breakdown and wicked fast riff. I think “happy people” is a pretty weak track though, and the world probably didn’t need a second version of “Sheer Terror.”

Later in 1982 Brian Baker came in on guitar and Tom Lyle switched to bass. This line up recorded the absolutely essential Make an Effort ep. This record holds a hallowed place in my record collection as it was the first hardcore record I ever bought. Three of the four songs on this record are solid gold hardcore classics. And the fourth song is another version of Sheer Terror, which albeit a good song, we’ve already heard twice now in GI’s career. “Teenager in a Box” is an anti drunk driving anthem (GI were still nailed to the X at this point) and “No Way Out” tells the tale of an armed robber surrounded by the cops and waiting for the end. The duper dope bassline and jagged raw guitar riff perfectly capture the tension, hopelessness and desperation of the song’s protaganist. “Twisted Views” is a short fast ripper, which sounds faster and more ripping by preceding what’s probably the best version of Sheet Terror. There are probably five or six different pressings of this record by now, so if you are hunting one down, maybe check a reference like Flex to make sure you don’t get hosed on a re press masquerading an original copy.

The last and to my mind best, of the crucial GI recordings is the Joy Ride LP. This came out in 1984. By this point most other early DC hardcore bands had broken up, or changed their sound. But GI soldiered on. I used to go see them on a very regular basis as they seemed to always be playing around the DC area. Also, guitarist Tom Lyle had a radio show on college station WMUC to which I was a loyal listener. By the time Joy Ride rolled around Brian Baker was out of the picture and Tom Lyle was back on guitar. I think Lyle is every bit as good as Baker anyway and you really can’t tell the difference between the guitar playing on this record and “Make and Effort”. I’m guessing Lyle wrote all these songs in any case. The guitar sound on this record is sizzling and meaty like hot bacon off the skillet. It’s hard to listen too this record and NOT picture these songs being played in huge arenas in front of tens of thousands of fans. The guitar playing has a seriously pronounced hard rock influence on this record with lots of palm muting. But the songs fail to step into metal or cross over territory. Instead they inhabit a domain of beefed up mid tempo rocking hardcore that few bands successfully enter. I think only later Poison Idea gets this sound right to the same degree. I find this record somewhat lopsided with side 1 nailing most of the best songs and side 2 having some quite notable filler. “Blending In” “Understand” and “Time to Escape” would rock any party from 1984 to the present. On the flip the title track is a banger and “Hall of Fame” and “Reflection” are solid but no one needed to hear a cover of “These boots were made for Walking” or yet another recorded version of “Sheer Terror”. My guess is they had too many songs for a 7” and not enough for an LP so we got two clunkers. But don’t let that stop you from blasting this rager. I still really need a copy of this on Blue Vinyl. I bought a copy at the record release show but it was stolen from my collection in the early 90s. If anyone has a copy to spare we can make a deal!

In 1985 GI released The Fun Just Never Ends and this is where their sound started to jump off the rails. There is still some great songwriting on this record and it’s certainly still a hardcore record. But the pace has slowed somewhat, the guitar sound has gone from USDA pure beef, to low fat, and the rock influence is starting to sound a little too rock instead of just hardcore with a hard rock edge. I still like this record but coming after Joy Ride it seems like kind of a let down. I saw them do most of these songs live, and I can say they are much more intense in that setting. I think if they’d gone into the studio a little more amped or pissed off and brought the same guitar stack they used for Joy Ride, this record could have been just as good. I keep wanting to slide the pitch adjustor on my turntable up to speed these guys up. Thankfully, this record does NOT include any version of Sheer Terror, but it does feature a remake of “Bored to Death” from the 7” which falls kind of flat and a cover of the Faith’s “Trapped” at about half the speed the Faith played it at (and the Faith didn’t play very fast).

Somehow in this period GI got mixed up with Mystic Records. Mystic managed to milk five different records out of 4 studio tracks. All of which appear on different GI releases. Give us Stabb or Give us Death was released both as a 7” and as a 12”. The only difference being the 12” included a live version of “Day of Reckoning”. “Plain to See” appeared already on Boycott Stabb and Blending In is on Joyride. “Written Word” and “The Next Time” are on The Fun Just Never Ends. In addition to the 12” and 7” versions there is a 12” “valu pack” version which contains a throwaway bonus 7” with two live tracks and an interview. Then later Mystic issued some of these 7”s with covers as Government Issue Video Soundtrack ep. Mystic also managed to finagle a live LP Live on Mystic out of these guys. I’m in the audience at three of the shows on this record. Hopefully they learned their lesson with Mystic, because the next three releases were back on Fountain of Youth.

I’m not going to talk about GI s/t, Crash, or You LPs. I’m not really into any of those records, but I know they are influential in the emo scene. I will just say that GI’s sound progressed away from hardcore more into rock territory. The talent and songwriting was still great, but they were using their powers for another cause. I’m sure these are great records, and I love GI so much, I’m just going to avoid talking about them rather than say anything negative. Maybe someday my tastes will mature as well and I’ll get more into those records, but for now, lets just stick to the Hardcore.

GI spawned a legion of German bootleggers to issue the Finale LP, No way Out 82 7” and Fun and Games 7”. All are decent live records. But I personally think live hardcore record suck, so they are only for the superfan or completist.

If you are interested in the GI catalog and don’t want to track down all the vinyl Dr. Strange has done us all the great service of releasing a GI discography on 2 CDs. There’s some bonus material on the CDs as well and they are a great introduction to this important band.

There is also a long running Rumor that John Stabb is writing a book about GI. I’ve met Stabb a few times and he’s a funny, eccentric and down to earth guy. I’m sure this book will make great reading and a fresh perspective on the early 80’s DC hardcore scene. This is a story that can be told from many view points. And I will continue to tell it from the view point of records next month.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1984

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