DC Rock History

In this episode, we take a deep dive into No Kill No Beep Beep, the 2000 debut from Washington, DC band Q and Not U and one of the most distinctive records to come out of the 2000s DC scene. The band formed in the summer of 1998, with Chris Richards and Harris Klahr on guitars and vocals, Matt Borlik on bass, and John Davis on drums. All four had come up as fans of the Dischord catalog rather than peers of it, and they arrived at a moment when the DC scene was in transition, with Fugazi between records and many of the label’s defining bands already gone. Setting danceable, rhythm-forward drumming against two dissonant guitars with no clear lead or rhythm role, Q and Not U carved out a sound that sat comfortably in the Dischord lineage while pushing it somewhere new, roughly two years ahead of the dance-punk wave that would break nationally.

Recorded in 2000 at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, and produced and engineered by Ian MacKaye and Don Zientara, No Kill No Beep Beep arrived on October 24, 2000 as Dischord 123. It is the only album to feature the band’s original four-piece lineup, with Borlik departing in 2001.

In this episode, we’re joined by Sahan Jayasuriya, author of Don’t Say Please: The Oral History of die Kreuzen and a Milwaukee-based music writer and musician who came up in the late-’90s punk and hardcore underground. Drawing on his own interview with Chris Richards, Sahan helps unpack the influences, the community, and the intention behind the record. Great conversation, this episode is not to be missed.

Go Further:
Q and Not U on Dischord
Don’t Say Please: The Oral History of die Kreuzen

Follow Us:
Social media: @dcrockpod
Email: dcrockpod@gmail.com

Hosts:
Philip Basnight - Broke Royals
Alex Vidales - Pilot Waves
Podcast Artwork by Rebecca Basnight

In this episode, we take a deep dive into Soda Pop*Rip Off, the 1994 debut from Washington, DC trio Slant 6 and one of the sharpest records to come out of the early ’90s Dischord scene. The band formed in 1992 from the ashes of Autoclave, the group in which Christina Billotte had played bass alongside Mary Timony. Billotte moved to guitar and vocals for the new project, joined by Myra Power on bass and vocals and Marge Marshall on drums. They came together in the orbit of the Embassy, the Mount Pleasant group house shared with members of Nation of Ulysses, and took their name from the Chrysler Slant Six engine. Grouped with early riot grrrl through proximity and association, Slant 6 followed their own danceable, angular, retro-leaning direction.

Recorded in October 1993 at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia with engineer Don Zientara and produced by Ian MacKaye and the band, Soda Pop*Rip Off arrived in February 1994 as Dischord 91:

In this episode, we’re joined by Sara Marcus, author of Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution and a professor at Notre Dame, who came up in the DC-area scene herself as a zine-making teenager. Great conversation, this episode is not to be missed.

Go Further:
Slant 6 on Dischord
Sara Marcus

Follow Us:
Social media: @dcrockpod
Email: dcrockpod@gmail.com

Hosts:
Philip Basnight - Broke Royals
Alex Vidales - Pilot Waves
Podcast Artwork by Rebecca Basnight

In this episode, we take a deep dive into The Obsessed, the 1990 self-titled debut from the Potomac, Maryland doom band led by Scott “Wino” Weinrich and a foundational document of heavy music in Washington, DC. The band formed in 1976 as Warhorse, became The Obsessed by the end of the decade, and built a cult reputation through live shows and tape trading while playing a heavy, Black Sabbath-derived style in a scene dominated by punk and hardcore. Recorded in 1985 at Ambient Studios in College Park for Metal Blade with Wino on vocals and guitar, Mark Laue on bass, and Ed Gulli on drums, the tapes were shelved and left unreleased while Wino relocated to California to front Saint Vitus.

Germany’s Hellhound Records revived the material at the end of the decade, mixing it in Berlin and releasing it in 1990 on the condition that Wino reform the band, which he did with a new rhythm section of bassist Scott Reeder, later of Kyuss, and drummer Greg Rogers. Known to fans as the Purple Album.

For this episode, we’re joined by DC Metal Chris, who has run dcheavymetal.com since 2009, documenting the DC-area metal scene as a fan, photographer, and audio engineer. We discuss the band’s roots in a punk-dominated city, how The Obsessed sounds from the vantage point of more than thirty years, and why Wino’s uncompromising, old-school approach made him one of the defining figures in doom.

Go Further:
The Obsessed
DC Heavy Metal

Follow Us:
Social media: @dcrockpod
Email: dcrockpod@gmail.com

Hosts:
Philip Basnight - Broke Royals
Alex Vidales - Pilot Waves
Podcast Artwork by Rebecca Basnight

In this episode, we take a deep dive into Con Art, Smart Went Crazy's 1997 swan song and one of the most ambitious records to ever come out of the Dischord catalog. The band formed in DC in 1993 as a high school trio of Chad Clark, Abram Goodrich, and cellist Hilary Soldati, eventually signing to Dischord and releasing Now We're Even in 1995 before spending two years building toward something bigger. Recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington with overdubs tracked at their own practice spaces using a hybrid analog and ADAT setup, Con Art incorporated cello, farfisa, samplers, and song structures that resisted easy categorization then and still do now. At 73 minutes across 19 tracks, it nearly overwhelmed its own label and a band that broke apart less than a year after its release, scattering its members across some of the most interesting groups in DC's post-hardcore lineage: Faraquet, Medications, Beauty Pill, and The Caribbean.

For this episode, we're joined by Devin Ocampo, drummer on Con Art and the guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter behind Faraquet, Medications, and The Effects. Together, we discuss what it was like to be inside a band burning that bright, how Con Art sounds from the vantage point of nearly thirty years, and why a record this restless has lasted this long.

Go Further:
Smart Went Crazy - Bandcamp || Dischord Records

Follow Us:
Social media: @dcrockpod
Email: dcrockpod@gmail.com

Hosts:
Philip Basnight - Broke Royals
Alex Vidales - Pilot Waves

Podcast Artwork by Rebecca Basnight

In this episode, we take a deep dive into The Pink Album, Tuscadero's 1994 debut and one of the defining records of the DC indie pop scene. Formed 1993 in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, Tuscadero built their sound around girl group influences, 1970s pop culture, and the everyday perspective of primary songwriters Melissa Farris and Margaret McCartney. The album was released on Teen-Beat Records before Elektra signed the band and released a re-recorded version in 1996. 

For this episode, all four members of Tuscadero join us: Melissa Farris, Margaret McCartney, Phil Satlof, and Jack Hornady. Together we discuss the band's formation, their early shows, the Teen-Beat years, the jump to Elektra, and what it has been like to revisit these songs across several reunions. We also listen back to "Heat Lightning," "Leather Idol," and "Nancy Drew Books" and hear the stories behind them directly from the people who wrote and recorded them.

Go Further:

Tuscadero – Bandcamp || Wikipedia

The Pink Album – Discogs

Follow Us:

Social media: @dcrockpod

Email: dcrockpod@gmail.com

 

Hosts:

Philip Basnight – Broke Royals

Alex Vidales – Pilot Waves

Podcast Artwork by Rebecca Basnight