Dischord House, the Home Base for Dischord Records, Turns 40

Most folks admit important anniversaries with some form of celebration or fanfare. Ian MacKaye, formerly of Teenager Idles, Small Threat, and Fugazi, is not 1 of all those persons, permitting the 40th anniversary of the label he co-started in 1980, Dischord Documents, go by last 12 months with neither pomp nor circumstance. October 1, 2021, marked the 40th anniversary of Dischord Household, the setting up that is the house foundation for the document label. MacKaye, although nonetheless not into fanfare, agreed to notify us the story of how it arrived to be. 

While a single could imagine the residence was portion of a grand system to endorse D.C.’s punk scene, the house was a result of parental strain on his to start with band, Teenager Idles. “Jeff [Nelson], Nathan [Strejcek] and I graduated from substantial college in 1980 and then we attended ‘punk college,’” suggests MacKaye. “We did not go to university. We all lived at dwelling. Summer time of ’81, our dad and mom are like, ‘OK, what is the system?’ and the program was to be in bands.” Needing a area of their have to dwell, rehearse, and work their burgeoning label, they set up 3 conditions for acquiring a space: It had to be cheap, detached (so the neighbors wouldn’t complain when bands rehearsed), and in a secure community for their young good friends when they frequented. “It was by now really hard plenty of, the abuse that punks have been receiving on the streets,” MacKaye recalls. Kismet, in the kind of a real estate advert, introduced the band to its latest location—the very first residence they seemed at. “It was fortuitous. The landlord was good. Just didn’t give a fuck,” claims MacKaye. 

The house served its goal. Its basement, with a ceiling which is a lot less than 6 ft tall, has hosted rehearsals for bands such as Rites of Spring, the Faith, and Fugazi (“It’s both sitting down or placing your head up in the rafters,” claims MacKaye) and it has a compact galley area that served as the 1st Dischord workplace. As a bonus, it was situated near Interior Ear Studios (each the first and 2nd destinations), where 90 p.c of Dischord releases have been recorded, and served as a way station in the ’80s for touring American hardcore punk bands to get a crack from sleeping in vans. When the property arrived up for sale in 1994, MacKaye was in the “throes of Fugazi” and regularly on the street. “I could not maybe think about moving out at that place due to the fact this was the foundation of operation [for Dischord], so I purchased the house,” says MacKaye. Now 40 several years on from developing the label and going into the household (please don’t present up looking for a tour), MacKaye understands the desire in the anniversary, but like any punk with a Do-it-yourself operate ethic, would like to get on to the upcoming detail. “I just wanna do my operate.”