Various Artists "20 Years of Dischord" liner notes by Rollins
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"Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s had a small localized music scene; cover-bands and bands who slipped originals into sets padded out with covers to keep the patrons drinking and dancing. Around 1979, a small scene within a small scene emerged. Bands like the Bad Brains, The Penetrators, The Enzymes and others were playing a harder-edged brand of music than the new wave bands working in the local club scene. Early Dischord roots can be traced to this year as The Slinkees (Ian MacKaye, Jeff Nelson, Geordie Grindle and Mark Sullivan) played their only show at a garage party that summer. Mark went to college in the fall, Nathan Strejcek took over the vocalist slot, and they became The Teen Idles. They were playing in the DC area before year's end.
In late 1980, the Teen Idles were coming to the end of their run. They decided to record and self-release some of their material, figuring no one else would do it. It is important to note that at this time, putting out your own record was virtually unthinkable. They'd been disappointed with their two previous studio sessions, and had no idea how to get a record out. Thankfully, Skip Groff, owner of a record store in Rockville, Maryland called Yesterday and Today, an early supporter of the scene, was getting some local band exposure on his label, Limp Records. Skip gave advice on recording and pressing records. His role in helping the Teen Idles is no small detail and should not be overlooked. Skip produced the first two Dischord releases and mixed the third.
It is important to note that in the twenty years since Dischord's start, the recording industry has changed drastically. These days, many bands know a lot about the recording process, management and promotion. They figure a record deal is out there waiting for them - and a lot of times, they're correct. There was no thinking remotely like that amongst the Teen Idles. The next time you listen to the Teen Idles single, picture the time and the relative musical wilderness in which these guys were knocking it out - it makes the listening that much better. To rip it as hard as they did in the studio with such little experience is a testament to how good they were as a band.
Following up Skip's suggestion, the Teen Idles booked time at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studio to make the record. They knew they'd need a name for the label, and Ian came up with "Dischord". Months later, Dischord No. 1 was released: The Teen Idles; 'Minor Disturbance EP'. Eight songs on a 7" record. It was an exciting start for the label and a swan song fro the band, as they broke up soon after recording.
The Inner Ear / Dischord relationship proved to be hugely important and has a lot to do with the early Dischord sound. At the time, Inner Ear was a 4-track setup, located in Don's basement. Don was notable in the scene because he had recorded the amazing Bad Brains sessions that all of us had bad-sounding, much-played cassettes of (Later to emerge in the mid-90s as 'Black Dots' on Caroline Records. Worth checking out). The band I was in, SOA, and Ian and Jeff's new band, Minor Threat, recorded at Inner Ear in 1981 and the results were Dischord Nos. 2 and 3.
Don gave great support and guidance to Ian, who was new to the recording process and interested in producing. Don's energy, enthusiasm and support for Dischord is off the map and remains the same to the present. By the same token, everyone knows that Inner Ear is where most Dischord bands record. If you look at the recording information on Dischord releases, a great number have been tracked at Inner Ear and many have been produced by Ian. The amount of work they have done together is miles past impressive. Ian and Jeff's friendship with Don is now over twenty years on.
On a personal note, my favorite Don Z. story reads as follows: One of the best shows I have ever seen in my life was in June of 1983 when Minor Threat opened for The Damned at DC's Ontario Theater. I have never seen Minor Threat do a show that was less than great, but on this night they were beyond belief. The audience was set on frenzy for the entirety of the set and it was not a gentle scene on the dance floor. After the set was over, I see Don walking crookedly out of the mass of people - he stands over six feet tall so he's easy to spot. here's this guy, older than everyone there, shirt wet with sweat, glasses crooked, out of breath, eyes wide, huge grin across his face. He looks at me and says "They were great!" as he staggers out to the lobby.
In 1981 Ian and Jeff moved the label across the river to Arlington, Virginia into an old green house they shared with three others, which was subsequently dubbed Dischord House. (The picture sleeve of Dischord No. 15 has Minor Threat on the front porch.) Not knowing how long they would stay, they kept Ian's parents' house on Beecher Street as the mailing address. A small room off the kitchen served as the record company office. It was a company run when they weren't at their day jobs, practicing with their bands in the basement, or on tour. There was a lot of work to be done. At this time, the 7" sleeves were hand cut and pasted together, there was no company budget to speak of; things moved slowly.
It is one thing to sell records locally. One can sometimes get small record stores to take small quantities on consignment. Getting the records outside your own area code is not easy now, and back then it was all uphill. Small distributors who would take a chance on a small label would often not have the money to pay the label what they owed because they, too, were getting shorted by the people they were selling to. Like many small labels, Dischord was and still is a lot of work, but twenty years down the road it keeps going strong. Countless labels with larger budgets have done less, had less impact and disappeared in the same time. You might ask how Dischord does it. I think it's down to the music and the people behind it. At all great labels like Dischord, (Chicago's Touch and Go Records comes to mind) there are great people at every level from the bands on down the line. Music over marketing, content over profit, ethic over strategy.
Dischord keeps their prices low, the ads are informational and hype-free. They are looking for listeners, not consumers. They run fairly in the face of what's known as the "music industry". They are not trying to out-do, there is no competition. Dischord is now what it started out as - a small label that is dedicated to releasing the music of DC-area bands. That being said, Dischord has struck worldwide cultural impact with taste-fullness, style, and recognition that is unique and envied by labels all over, and with an integrity that labels of all sizes will strategize to acquire in basements and boardrooms for years to come.
Some of the records documented in this box have affected you, inspired you or in some way moved you. That's why you keep showing up, right? Absolutely."
- Henry Rollins
