Listening to Minor Threat (with a coffee in hand, just because) and writing up another ‘here’s what the fuck is happening in Frederick’ again. It’s interesting moment to write this, just as the city is at a crossroads of either turning into something uniquely different than another gentrified version of Bethesda // or it just turns into Bethesda, we look back at a different musical era that’s been oft mythologized: the DC hardcore punk scene, and some of the roots that also worked it’s way to- Frederick in the 70’s and 80’s.
We look back because this Saturday November 3rd at New Spire Studios (115 E. Church St) starting at 7pm, THIS rad event is happening: Cynthia Connolly presents Banned in DC, her book that she first published along with Leslie Clague and Sharon Cheslow in 1988 (and now in its 7th edition), Cynthia will give a multi-media presentation to discuss the book about the pivotal years between 1979-1985 when DC punk made it’s mark on the world. She’s bringing along her pal, filmmaker James June Schneider, who is (along with fellow filmmakers Paul Bishow and Sam Lavine) on the cusp of releasing a documentary 18 years in the making, Punk the Capital, capturing the years 1979-1985 (also parallels years covered in Banned in DC) when DC hardcore was at its peak wave. He’ll be showing exclusive unseen outtake archival footage and short films (James wanted to be clear, he’s not necessarily previewing Punk the Capital, but this footage being shown will certainly complement Cynthia’s presentation).
Subversive spoke to both Cynthia and James recently and got some reflections on their up close perspectives witnessing the DC punk rock years and its relevance today.
Cynthia’s indirect introduction to the punk world had a sense of feminist dismissal of a then male dominated environment: “I grew up in Los Angeles…near the coast. The predominant teen culture was surfing. In the late 70’s, girls were usually sitting around and the guys were surfing. I really wanted to surf but that culture wasn’t a nurturing environment for a young woman to go surfing. So I looked for other things to do and one of the things I discovered along the way was punk music and Hollywood. So I would take a bus and go to shows, because that kind of culture seemed more equal, where girls and guys were being involved in creating that scene and community…”
After moving to DC in 1981, Cynthia immediately immersed herself in the DC punk universe, which by then had already gathered steam and continued to forge ahead. “I discovered kids doing their own shows – 16 year old kids were basically setting up their own shows in different venues and stuff…It was really inspiring when I was 15, to see people my age actually booking their own shows, having their own bands, putting out their own records. And being super productive…”
Cynthia discovered that few, if any, were really documenting what was happening with this burgeoning original sound and DIY culture coming from the District, so she borrowed her friend’s camera and began snapping photos.
“Most of the people seeing bands were also in bands, so I was of the few people not in a band. I actually wanted to start a band and I had a bass,” she explained but after playing a few bands, hung up the instrument. “I decided I would rather be an artist than play in a band with a bunch of people,” primarily due to a lack of promptness from other bandmates. “That really irritated me when they weren’t on time,” she recounted, and then proceeded to laugh about that recollection over the phone. Nevertheless, playing that process of elimination helped define her role within the DC punk community. Her associations with DC bands allowed her the ability to contribute her artistic talent to the DIY nature of…well practically everything in that world, such as when she created the iconic album art for Minor Threat’s Out of Step, that indelible crayon drawn black sheep resonating timelessly through the years.
Jumping to 1985, the last year covered in the book, and an important milestone evolution in punk rock history, I asked Cynthia if she thought looking at today’s #MeToo movement if there was an echo of Revolution Summer. That was the name of the movement that overlapped into the summer of ’85 within the punk counterculture, with one of many moving parts a feminist re-examination of punk culture as a response to sexism found within the scene. “In Revolution Summer, that was a concerted effort more about from the stagnation of the music -we weren’t really inspired the same way we were in 1981 and how could we shift that. That’s how that happened.”
However Cynthia did point out a similar component: “…You don’t see changes on a day to day basis. But then all of a sudden one day you notice how something shifted…or that something is the same, and that sameness is…bothersome. The #MeToo movement, it’s the same kind of thing where you see these different parts of our society shift and change, enough to aggravate people to finally say something about it. I see that connection but the connection is really about the need to change and shift the way we live -and how do we do that and what are the tools we have around us to be able to do that.”
We’ll come to a close on our conversation with Cynthia, but before we move on, I had to ask if she herself knew at that moment that she was bearing witness to a pivotal point in American music history
I knew something was happening,—I knew there was something going on that was important and I couldn’t say what it was at the time. That is why I took the photographs. I really thought there was something exciting happening. -Cynthia Connolly on the years she covered the DC Punk scene
She explained that at some point not long after she moved and started seeing shows, in 1981, partly thanks to a broader advertising reach the 9:30 Club had, she and the other locals started seeing more and more out of state people, some traveling as far as Boston and New York, to see DC punk shows. That was a watershed moment when she realized “something bigger was happening.”
……………………………..
We talked about James June Schneider earlier, he’ll also be at New Spire Studios with Cynthia – screening some jaw dropping outtakes, previously unseen films in around the years 1979-1985. I’m hoping he shows some footage of the Slickee Boys, a band that Frederick’s own Martha Hull used to be the lead vocalist for. She was in the first iteration of that band in 1976, long long before she and Bob Berberich (also in DC bands including Grin with Nils Lofgren) started Vinyl Acres here in Frederick.
We caught up with James via phone and he explained that the reason the upcoming Punk the Capital (which will be released in 2019) begins the documentary in 1979 is partly because “that’s when Paul Bishow began (recording and documenting) the scene on Super 8 film.” Of course, DC punk began a number of years before ’79, many pointing out that Bad Brains jumped onto the scene in 1977. However, 1979 stood out for him as THE galvanizing year when DC punk coalesced around a central hub/venue. “Madam’s Organ brought all the generations together to share their underground perspectives on music and punk and all kinds of things – that identity of the DC punk scene really took shape (there).”
Talking further with James, he pointed out that the film was more than just a film, “it’s also an archival project.” Wanting to emphasize the collaborative nature of the project, he highlighted the painstaking work alongside the DC public library’s ongoing archival set up with establishing the DC Punk Archives. That includes the final draft of Punk the Capital, a future add on to the Archives, “because we all believe in the importance of this history and it’s continuing usefulness. It’s been a real success in creating an archive that’s linked with a living community – a continuing active community.”
I wondered if Jame’s background in creating experimental films (try The End Of The Light Age aka 1,2,3 Whiteout) might wind up in Punk the Capital. Again emphasizing that he’s one of three directors, together with Sam Lavine and Paul Bishow, “we really worked hard to make the film a sensorial pleasure in additional to being historically and thematically interesting.”
So, I take that as a yes.
That Super 8 format just lends itself to experimental side of presenting film as a warm analogue medium. James expressed his preference for Super 8:
“It has a way of absorbing atmosphere and time that (newer media) has trouble doing. It’s a film chock full of Super 8 footage that puts us back to the ambience of the time.” – James June Schneider on his love for the medium
Check out Banned in DC this Saturday, November 3 at New Spire Studios (115 E. Church St) at 7pm. Hey, Subversive is sponsoring it along with New Spire Arts and if you’re looking for the newest edition of Subversive (we’re on lucky #7) we’ll have it. Get it soon, less than 15 left.
I’m going on a limb and suspect that Cynthia will show her photos she took of the Weinberg on November 25th 1987, that’s the year Fugazi formed and November 25th they played their 6th show ever (first out of DC) at the venerable Weinberg. The only 3 times when wild mosh pitting happened at the prim and proper Weinberg: Fugazi 1987, Fugazi 1989, Fugazi 1990. Unbelievable scenes, I wish I had a time machine to travel back into to have seen all that. James June Schneider referenced the DC Punk Archives and you can find a Frederick connection at the DC Public library there: a hand drawn concert flyer for Fugazi’s first show at the Weinberg. 
Western Machines chewed on the significance the 30th anniversary of Fugazi taking over the Weinberg; they delve a bit into a Frederick News Post article from November 2017 that examined that incredible bit of Frederick music history, talking to both people attending, the person (17 year old at the time) who booked the show and Ian MacKaye himself dusting off his own handwritten diary to reveal his personal notes from that show(!) There’s a picture that Cynthia took of the Weinberg marquee sign hanging in front of the theater with Fugazi’s name in lights {Surreal} and if lucky, that picture will make its way into the presentation on Saturday.
Next year, this is what we can look forward to, the release of Punk the Capital. Here’s a sneak preview from a kickstarter video released a few years ago.
EXTRA TIME:
Shows to look out for
Friday Nov 2 / Miss Lonelyheart, the Meer and Double Motorcycles will be playing at Cafe Nola. Music starts at 10pm
Saturday Nov 3 / after you visit New Spire Studios to take in Banned in DC, it’s a SHE/THEY music event @ Nola entitled CHOSEN FAMILY: AN ANTI-PATRIARCHAL MUSIC EVENT. The music starts at 10pm
Joy Postell
https://soundcloud.com/joypostell
Nina Gala
https://ninagala.bandcamp.com/
Dreambush
https://dreambush.bandcamp.com/
Baby Razors
https://www.facebook.com/pg/BabyRazors/about/?ref=page_internal
From their facebook event page, they even have a byline: TAKING DOWN THE HETERONORMATIVE PATRIARCHY ONE EVENT AT A TIME.
Fuck yeah
