MDC is an American punk rock band formed in 1979 in Austin, Texas, subsequently based in San Francisco, and currently Portland, Oregon.

Formed in the late 1970s as The Stains and playing their first gig under this name in August 1980, MDC were one of three pioneering hardcore punk bands in Austin, Texas, in the early '80s, alongside The Dicks and Big Boys.

They released one single as The Stains in 1981, featuring a slower version of the future MDC song "John Wayne Was a Nazi" backed with "Born to Die".

By this point the band were active participants in the growing hardcore scene and released their debut LP Millions of Dead Cops on their own label, R Radical; Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles helped with distribution.

The album is now widely considered a punk classic, and features songs such as "John Wayne Was a Nazi", "Dick for Brains", and the harsh criticism of the police, "I Remember".

Other targets of criticism devoid of irony included capitalism ("Corporate Death Burger"), homophobia ("America's So Straight"),[8] and American culture ("Violent Rednecks").

Upon Bad Brains' departure from the bill, they refused to return a loan owed to Big Boys and instead left a note that reportedly read "burn in hell bloodclot faggot".

In 1983 the band began to deemphasize the "Dead Cops" aspect of its name, as drummer Al Schvitz noted in a Flipside interview: It's a problem of people can't see the [name] concept, they take it as a violent action of saying what to do.

The EP broke new ground by addressing, in the lengthy liner notes and artwork, the growth of corporations and the violent suppression of left-wing politics in Central America.

If I Had a Face Like Yours ... , featuring Bill Collins (formerly of Fang, Special Forces, Intensified Chaos) on guitar and Matt Freeman (of Operation Ivy and Rancid) on bass.

MDC's singer, Dave Dictor, returned with an entirely new backing line-up in 2000, which included Long Island musicians Matt Van Cura (bass), Erik Mischo (guitar), and John Soldo (Drums).

[13] At the 2016 American Music Awards on November 20, the band Green Day adopted the anti-Trump slogan for a controversial impromptu chant during their live on-air performance, which Dictor applauded and encouraged.

[14] The media spotlight Green Day's action put on MDC inspired the band to create new material based around the current political climate.