Washington, D.C., hardcore
[2] The Atlantis, located in the rear room of the Atlantic Building's ground floor at 930 F Street NW, was a short-lived venue, but was significant in the development of the punk scene.
[2] By early 1979, the Atlantis had closed, but the space would reopen under new ownership on May 31, 1980, as the Nightclub 9:30—soon known as 9:30 Club—and serve as an important part of the D.C. punk scene's foundation.
Among the earliest Washington, D.C., punk bands formed in the early 1980s were Iron Cross, the Velvet Monkeys, Bad Brains, the Teen Idles, the Untouchables, Minor Threat, S.O.A.
(fronted by Henry Rollins), Chalk Circle, Void, the Faith, Youth Brigade, Government Issue, Scream, and Marginal Man.
[6] The group broke up in November 1980, and band members Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson quickly formed Minor Threat, who debuted in December 1980.
[11] When the Faith (with Alec MacKaye) put out the EP Subject to Change in 1983, it marked a critical evolution in the sound of D.C. hardcore and punk music in general.
"[15] During these years, a new wave of bands started to form, including Rites of Spring, Lunchmeat (later to become Soulside), Gray Matter, Mission Impossible (with Dave Grohl who later joined Scream), Dag Nasty (formed by Brian Baker of Minor Threat with members of Bloody Mannequin Orchestra and Shawn Brown later in Swiz), Beefeater, and Embrace (with Ian MacKaye and members of the Faith).
[1][12][16][17] Rites of Spring has been described as the band that "more than led the change",[15] challenging the "macho posturing that had become so prevalent within the punk scene at that point", and "more importantly", defying "musical and stylistic rule".
[15] Journalist Steve Huey writes that while the band "strayed from hardcore's typically external concerns of the time – namely, social and political dissent – their musical attack was no less blistering, and in fact a good deal more challenging and nuanced than the average three-chord speed-blur",[18] a sound that, according to Huey, mapped out "a new direction for hardcore that built on the innovations" brought by Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade.
"[29] The band, which included MacKaye, Picciotto, and former Rites of Spring drummer Brendan Canty along with bassist Joe Lally, issued in 1989 13 Songs, a compilation of their earlier self-titled and Margin Walker EPs, which is now considered a landmark album.
[29] On the other hand, Jawbox had been influenced by "the tradition of Chicago's thriving early-'80s scene",[31] while The Nation of Ulysses are "best remembered for lifting the motor-mouthed revolutionary rhetoric of the MC5" with the incorporation of "elements of R&B (as filtered through the MC5) and avant jazz" combined with "exciting, volatile live gigs", and being the inspiration for "a new crop of bands both locally and abroad".
