Dischord 1981: The Year in Seven Inches

Dischord | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 25, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dischord
• ASIN: B000000JNM
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,504 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Teen Idles

2. Sneakers

3. Get Up and Go

4. Deadhead

5. Fleeting Fury

6. Fiorucci Nightmare

7. Getting in My Way

8. Too Young to Rock

9. Lost in Space

10. Draw Blank

11. Girl Problems

12. Blackout

13. Gate Crashers

14. Warzone

15. Riot

16. Gang Fight

17. Public Defender

18. Gonna Hafta Fight

19. Filler

20. I Don't Wanna Hear It

See all 48 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Puts today's "hardcore" to shame, December 1, 2005

By 

Dead Cell (Wouldn't you like to know?) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dischord 1981: The Year in Seven Inches (Audio CD)

This is a compilation of the first six EPs released by the seminal indie label Dischord (obviously). The music contained herein changed the face of punk, and set a benchmark for hardcore music that's unparalleled by many of today's metal-tinged "hardcore" bands. The production on these EPs was lousy, and the words often hard to make out. That didn't matter then, and it hardly matters now. This was about passion rather than fashion, which separated them from the Brit punks and New Wavers. Or as Nathan Strejcek so nicely put it on Dischord No. 1, "Instead of studying theory, we're gonna get up and go!" What keeps me from giving this another star is the aforementioned lousy production, which often subdues the bass in the G.I. and Youth Brigade EPs, which are pretty fierce on their own.

Any fan of old harDCore should snap this one up. This is all short, fast, and loud, the way hardcore was meant to be done.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, August 22, 2011

By 

Shawner - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dischord 1981: The Year in Seven Inches (Audio CD)

Definitely a must have for fans of dcXhc and sXe filled with different bands and their greatest songs. has greats like the songs Straight Edge, Lost in Space, Seeing Red, etc.

5.0 out of 5 stars Contains some of the best punk rock ever made, October 11, 2009

By 

Tom P. the Underground Navigator (Park Forest, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dischord 1981: The Year in Seven Inches (Audio CD)

My headline is no exaggeration. The early material by Washington, D.C. punk label Dischord Records is the blueprint for all hardcore punk to follow. This particular release, which contains the first six 7" EPs the label ever released, all during that essential year for underground music, 1981, is something that every hardcore fan probably already owns and definitely should if they don't.

Minor Threat is considered to be the quintessential D.C. hardcore band and is already a virtual household name, with their material readily available elsewhere, so I am going to focus in this review on the other four bands featured here.

The compilation opens with pre-Minor Threat group Teen Idles, which featured two future members of the former on bass and drums, Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson, respectively. But to just focus on its most famous members ignores pioneering hardcore vocalist Nathan Strejcek along with the band's guitarist Geordie Grindle, both of whom shine on this 7", the first Dischord ever released. In my mind, Teen Idles, though much lesser known, were every bit as good as Minor Threat. Tracks like "Sneakers" and "Getting In My Way" are flat out brilliant. It's a shame that to the best of my knowledge guitarist Grindle never pursued anything else in punk rock after his initial stint in Teen Idles. This one record though was enough to make him a punk legend forever after.

From there it's on to another little known band that featured a member who would later become famous, S.O.A. (State of Alert), which featured in its ranks a 19-year-old Henry Rollins on vocals. When you talk of fast thrash-style punk, L.A. bands such as Middle Class and Circle Jerks may have been the ones to first pioneer the form, but S.O.A. were perhaps the first to play it at THIS high a speed and this intense. And keep in mind this was only late 1980. Sure, D.C.'s Bad Brains had been fast, but S.O.A. were true innovators of thrash (before the term had any metal connotation) of the most ferocious kind.

Henry Rollins was a charismatic frontman and was responsible for some of the angriest but most clever lyrics punk had seen up to that point. Whether he was tackling the abyss of heavy drug use ("Lost in Space") or the phoniness of many love relationships ("Girl Problems"), this fellow was ANGRY folks.

This "No Policy" 7" eventually made it into the hands of Black Flag's Greg Ginn, who became such a fan of the record that he soon recruited the young Rollins out to the west coast to sing for Black Flag. While this incarnation remains more famous than anything S.O.A. (who would then disband) ever did, to me Rollins shines more in his own skin and singing his own lyrics here in State of Alert.

And who could forget what might be the crown jewel of this compilation, Government Issue. If you think S.O.A.'s lyrics were anti-social...

"Legless Bull," the band's debut 7" featured here in its entirety, was recorded at Inner Ear Studio in July '81, and remains one of the defining releases in all of hardcore punk. Who says you need any sort of recording budget to make great music? This EP eschews all discernible production values in favor of visceral and exceedingly RAW, true punk rock.

One member that really shines here is legendary guitarist John Barry, legendary because he would depart from the band's ranks after this one recording but boy was he brilliant here. His improvisational style is truly unique and sadly missed (there's a reason they gave him the tag as a "God" on the reverse of the 7"). This record contains some never to be surpassed classics such as "Rock 'n Roll Bulls**t" and "Bored to Death"; so potent were they that they must have had even the aforementioned Greg Ginn gazing from the other end of the nation in amazement. Some of the best punk ever made.

Finally, closing out the compilation is the D.C. incarnation of Youth Brigade, which Nathan Strejcek formed after the dissolution of Teen Idles. While their "Possible" EP may be the least of those on offer here, it still contains some tough, hard nosed and angry shouted street punk.

Put all these bands together and this CD is the Bible of early hardcore punk. Absolutely essential stuff for any fan of vintage punk.