1994

1994 saw the major label debut records of Jawbox and Shudder to Think, two of D.C. punk’s most significant bands. Following the mammoth commercial success of the punk-rooted Seattle band Nirvana in the early 1990s, debate about the ethics and sustainability of a punk band signing to a major label shifted from hypothetical to reality for some D.C. groups. “This is an incredibly fertile scene, but D.C. remains independent of the traditional rock 'n' roll/entertainment industry,” the Positive Force D.C. activist Mark Andersen asserted to The Washington Post in 1992. “The difference in this city is that the leading voice is Fugazi, and they set a very different tone. [...] New bands like Bikini Kill and Nation of Ulysses are pursuing a really underground, creative and truly alternative and subversive way of creating music.”

Shudder to Think’s Craig Wedren acknowledged to Who Cares? fanzine as early as 1991, however, that “we've been thinking about [moving from Dischord to a major label], because we all want to move forward, and progress.” He continued: “I don't want to lose the artistic integrity that comes along with Dischord, and the total artistic freedom that we have being on Dischord, and [...] the lack of contractual obligations. But at the same time, I want to be able to broaden our audience and, I mean, I guess it can be done.” In a 1991 interview with Uno Mas, High Back Chairs drummer and Dischord co-founder Jeff Nelson also aired some of the major vs. indie factors his band considered. “The only reason we would leave Dischord would be for better distribution,” he said. “If a label offered us everything we wanted and could get us out there, we might think about it. But that's all very hypothetical, we'd have to look at everything.”

Jawbox’s debut for Atlantic Records came first, with the Savory + 3 EP in January followed the next month by the For Your Own Special Sweetheart album. Shudder to Think’s Pony Express Record was released by Epic Records in September, preceded by the volcanic lead single, “Hit Liquor,” which the group re-recorded after initially releasing it as a single on Dischord in 1992. Both bands ventured into the world of mainstream alternative rock, performing on national television, touring with platinum-selling alternative rock bands, and having their music videos skewered by Beavis and Butthead on the animated pair’s eponymous MTV show. A notable connection between Jawbox and Shudder to Think’s major label debut records and the earliest days of DC punk was that both albums were produced by Ted Niceley, former bassist for the Razz and the Tommy Keene Band. Neither Jawbox nor Shudder to Think found much commercial success on major labels, but the bigger recording budgets did enable their finest musical hours and help cement legacies that remain influential today.

Full folor poster featuring a photograph of Jawbox

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Aside from the major label explorations of Jawbox and Shudder to Think (the latter had moved to New York City by this point, as well) indie rock and punk continued to thrive in DC in 1994. Velocity Girl released their second album for Sub Pop Records, ¡Simpatico!, which resoundingly built off the artistic and commercial success of the previous year’s debut, Copacetic. Their friends and touring partners in Tsunami also released a strong sophomore album in 1994, The Heart’s Tremolo, which saw the quartet reach a creative peak through a darkly beautiful sound that somehow married discordance, melody, fragility, and force.

Dischord withstood the departure of Jawbox and Shudder to Think, releasing two other landmark D.C. punk albums in 1994. The debut albums from Slant 6 (Soda Pop*Rip Off) and Hoover (The Lurid Traversal of Route 7) demonstrated that a new crop of bands was emerging and could make music as intriguing and innovative as their predecessors. Hoover, however, split up just months after the February release of Lurid Traversal, with members resurfacing soon after in the bands Regulator Watts, the Crownhate Ruin, and Sevens.

Two other new D.C. bands emerged in 1994 to grab the attention of the scene. Tuscadero was an indie pop quartet that released a pair of singles and a debut LP (The Pink Album) on Teen-Beat Records. Their wry humor and the unpretentious joy of their concerts signaled a mindful shift away from the “serious” tag that the D.C. scene was often slapped with in the early 1990s, fairly or not. Tuscadero’s embrace of whimsy and fast ascent within the scene led to grumbling among some members of the community, particularly after Tuscadero received plum opening gigs for Velocity Girl or, on a grander scale, at the 1994 HFStival. That festival was organized by WHFS, a local alternative rock station, which drew tens of thousands of fans to RFK Stadium. “[Our drummer] is on American Online and he saw that some guy was saying he saw us with Velocity Girl and that they really sucked but we sucked more,” guitarist Melissa Farris explained to the D.C. punk fanzine Slanted that summer, offering a humorous slice of the mid-90s zeitgeist. “I know a lot of people feel that we’re getting a lot of breaks that we don’t deserve, but since we’re not actively seeking them out, we don’t feel too bad about it. [...] I don’t necessarily disagree with them.”

Frodus was another new band that made its presence felt in the scene throughout 1994. A teenage trio from a few miles outside the city in Springfield, Virginia, Frodus leavened their heavy, angular punk with an anarchic sense of humor and gleeful abandon. The group had released their debut single, “Tzo Boy,” a year earlier on their own label, Gnome Records. Throughout 1994, however, the band played constantly in support of a new cassette-only EP, Molotov Cocktail Party, and recording the songs that would make up 1995’s Fireflies album. As with Tuscadero, Frodus’ willingness to make humor a prominent part of their identity made them a welcome addition to the community.

Tuscadero and Frodus each appeared at that summer’s inaugural Indie Rock Flea Market, an event organized by the Arlington-based record store, Go! Compact Discs. The flea market featured tables staffed by most local punk record labels, along with other vendors peddling musical instruments, food, zines, and even voter registration forms. As Go! co-owner Jimmy Cohrssen told The Washington Post, “I just wanted to create a venue where the demographics were all the same, where everyone liked the same stuff.” Held at Lyon Park on July 9, the flea market included a concert inside the park’s sweltering community center, where the aforementioned Frodus and Tuscadero performed alongside Poole, Tone, Ditchcroaker, Blast Off Country Style, Cobalt, and Fluffer. One local label, Derek Morton’s Rocker! Supernova Records, playfully created trading card sets of the bands on the bill to sell to the two thousand indie rock fans who passed through.

As influential as the Dischord, Simple Machines, and Teen-Beat record labels were in 1994, a number of D.C. bands that were mostly unaffiliated with those labels made an impact with new records that year. Edsel’s 1993 album, The Everlasting Built Co., had been one of the best albums to come out of D.C. in 1993. Their 1994 follow-up, Detroit Folly, was tighter and less experimental, but packed with just as many memorable songs as its predecessor, such as “I’m No Pony,” Switch the Codes,” and “Another Go-Ahead.” The D.C. quartet Pitchblende trafficked in similarly noisy, tuneful, exploratory music as Edsel, but were even more sonically pummeling due to the disorienting time changes they frequently employed and the extreme volume of their live sets. Their second album, Au Jus, was released in 1994 via the Chicago-based indie label, Fist Puppet. It flaunted one of the best opening tracks of any D.C. punk record with “Nine Volt,” which managed to somehow convey a catchy melody as it hurtled along through shifting time signatures and battering dynamics.

Bratmobile returned for The Real Janelle EP—their finest release, led by its ferocious title track—in 1994 on the Olympia-based Kill Rock Stars label. The trio disbanded in the spring, however, in the wake of a chaotic concert in New York City. Following disruptions of their set by a handful of concert attendees, “some members of the band didn’t agree with the others on if we should continue playing and that led to some problems,” guitarist Erin Smith told Slanted a few weeks after the incident. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen next.” Indeed, it was five years before the group reunited, eventually releasing more music and reuniting intermittently in the years ahead.

It would have been reasonable for the D.C. scene to have been shaken by the shift of two key bands to major labels but, at least for the moment, the city’s punk community remained as strong as ever. The rise in popularity of punk and alternative music led to more young fans joining the scene and starting bands and fanzines. It also helped pack clubs like the Black Cat and 9:30 Club for shows by bands at the forefront of the scene like Fugazi and Velocity Girl. Encouragingly, Jawbox and Shudder to Think (despite the latter’s relocation) remained tightly connected to the D.C. scene, each playing sold out shows at the Black Cat in 1994.

Drawn from the punk collections at UMD, these images illustrate the year in D.C. punk. Explore by category or click an image to find more.

Further Listening

Antimony. Red Herring/Longevity. Regulus/Dischord Records, single.

Branch Manager. Top Scale Speed. Sweet Portable You Records, 7-inch EP.

Branch Manager. Spirit Boy 2000. Level Records, single.

Bratmobile. The Real Janelle. Kill Rock Stars, 12-inch EP.

Chisel. Sunburn. Gern Blandsten Records, 7-inch EP.

Corm. Custom Cool. Shute Records, 7-inch EP.

Dismemberment Plan. Can We Be Mature? Alcove Records, single.

Edsel. Detroit Folly. Grass Records, album.

Eggs. Teenbeat 96 Exploder. Teen-Beat Records, album.

Eggs/Pitchblende. Balls! Balls! Jade Tree Records, split single.

Hoover. The Lurid Traversal of Route 7. Dischord Records, album.

Jawbox. For Your Own Special Sweetheart. Atlantic Records, album.

Jawbox. Savory +3. Atlantic Records, EP.

Las Mordidas. Surrounded/KITA. Compulsiv/Dischord Records, single.

My Life in Rain. What People Say. Grass Records, album.

The Norman Mayer Group. ”Point Blank”/Ketchup.” Dischord Records/Mira Records, 7-inch single.

Pitchblende. Au Jus. Cargo/Fist Puppet, album.

Rain Like the Sound of Trains. Rain Like the Sound of Trains. Dischord Records, album.

Slant 6. Soda Pop * Rip Off. Dischord Records, album.

Smart Went Crazy. Cubbyhole. Cozy Disc, EP.

The Suspects. The Suspects. Torque Records, 7-inch EP.

Townies. The Red Carpet Parlay of the Decade. Little Voice, EP.

Tsunami. The Heart’s Tremolo. Simple Machines, album.

Tuscadero. Mt. Pleasant/Nancy Drew. Teen-Beat Records, single.

Tuscadero. Angel in a Half-shirt/Poster Boy. Teen-Beat Records, single.

Tuscadero. The Pink Album. Teen-Beat Records, album.

Various. Echoes of the Nation’s Capital Part Two (w/Ape House, Corm, Edsel, Geek, Ignobles, Las Mordidas, Mud, Norman Mayer Group, Revision, Sweetie, Trusty, Velocity Girl, Wingtip Sloat). Third World Underground, compilation album.

Various. Gots No Station (w/Las Mordidas, Eggs, Jawbox, Pitchblende, Sweetie, Severin, Edsel, Norman Mayer Group, Tsunami, 9353). WGNS Recordings, compilation album.

Various. Hamster (w/World Collide, Ashes, Load, I-Spy). Level Records, compilation 7-inch EP.

Various. Teen Smash Hits For Students (w/Trusty, Antimony, Lorelei, Craig Wedren, Rollercoaster, Branch Manager, She Crabs, Las Mordidas, Ashes, Holy Rollers, Lois, Anasin, Substance D). Level Records, compilation album.

Velocity Girl. ¡Simpatico! Sub Pop Records, album.

Materials are drawn from the Chris Baronner digital collection on D.C. punk, the D.C. punk collection, the D.C. punk and indie fanzine collection, and the John Davis collection on punk.

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