A YOUNG SCOTT WILLIAMS HOLDING UP THAT ISSUE OF FLIPSIDE, 1986.
I remember living at Ashe Ave in the summer of 1986. It was a interesting time for us outraged young punk rockers. There was the feeling that the times were a changing and before you knew it, punk rock was getting pretty burnt. I took a picture of my then roomate Scott Williams while he is holding a copy of the magazine from L.A., FLIPSIDE. It came out that previous winter, but that issue sent ripples all over the punk rock community. A giant article about Washington D.C. and their newest wave of bands, all tied up in this funny nickname, REVOLUTION SUMMER.
Well, we all looked up to the D.C. bands. Looking back, it is obvious even then that people put a lot of those folks on some kind of pedestal. But that how it was, I guess. Maybe I should just say that I certainly put what they did on a pedestal, making people like Ian Mackaye mini Bob Dylans for our time period, eventually turning on them for the sake of comedy and certainly never ever getting an ad from Dischord Records for one of my books. But it was true that what a lot of those people did was dubbed very important by a lot of people. Not everyone, though. Right after that Flipside came out, I met up with COC in Los Angeles when they were recording the aborted first version of "Technocracy". We talked about some of the new D.C. bands that were coming out, and I remember both Reed and Mike Dean cracking on one of the new D.C. bands, EMBRACE. They both quoted some of the lyrics and seemed to not be very impressed. It was pretty funny, though.
I bought all of the bands records. Only a handful stand out to me now. I liked the first MARGINAL MAN record. I liked the RITES OF SPRING album. And even though I sort of ignored them at first, GRAY MATTER were really terrific. And yeah, I gotta throw in the DAG NASTY debut record. I really liked these records, and I bought all of the rest of the records, so I won't try and look back like I wasn't into it. The Washington D.C. scene was huge in my book. I think that the Washington D.C. scene was also huge to a handful of Raleigh friends of mine, who were in this band called DAYS OF..
DAYS OF.. were a fairly short lived band from Raleigh that were briefly the most exciting band going and everyone knew it. They had a lot of really great songs, meant everything that they were doing and really could have been something if they stuck it out. On the other hand, they were a interesting collection of five very young men who made every band decision into some sort of life or death matter, some kind of war. Some people thought that they were arrogant and big headed. Others thought that they were the shit. Their attitude for me was, quite frankly really entertaining. I loved it. It was a nice change of pace from the usual "golly gosh gee were all friends" kind of local music mindset. In the end it all came to haunt them and it all fell apart. Then ten years later, some kid puts out their album. I recently played it and it still sounds great to me. They were melodic brick heavy post hardcore type music. Does that even make sense?
THE NORSE GOD HIMSELF, THOMAS PHILLIPS.
Drummer Sam Mauney was a nice guy. What he lacked in drumming chops he made up for in total brute force. He beat the shit out of his drums and although it seemed like things would fall apart they rarely did. I was jealous of course. I wanted to be in this band! Then there was guitarist Thomas Phillips and bassist Mark Weddington. They were like the actual "musicians" of the band. They could really play, and stood on stage right for the shows. Thomas was this like Swedish looking blond longhaired affable really really nice guy who peeled off these delicate licks on his Gibson SG. Mark was another really nice guy who had this sarcastic side lurking beneath the surface. He usually called it like he saw it. Unlike most bass players, Mark stood WAY UP FRONT with all of the others while hammering out these intricate basslines. Mark and Thomas were the musical glue of the band.
The other two members were guitarist Scott Williams and singer Kevin Collins. Scott was the de facto "leader" of the band. It seemed like he could barely play guitar at the time but he made up for that with stage presence..the guitar seemed to always be flying out of his hands. He always paced the stage before they played like he was going to burst. I think he might have just been nervous. Kevin was previously in Winston Salem's SUBCULTURE but he quit and moved up to Raleigh. He already knew the rest of the guys. They were previously in SECOND COMING, who were kind of a generic hardcore band trying to branch out. Eventually they fired their singer and lo and behold Kevin stepped in. They took quite a bit of time off and wrote a whole new set of music and eventually a new band was born.
I have to once again remind everyone of the time. IT was 1986, going into 1987. Hardcore at the time was played out. There were a lot of idiots at shows doing their furious little battles and dramas with the music as the background. It just wasn't fun anymore. And so some folks looked five hours north in Washington D.C., cause their whole "Revolution Summer" thing was going on. I think that was a big inspiration to the members of DAYS OF.., as it was to me and several others. We all dug RITES OF SPRING and also this short lived band they did afterwards, ONE LAST WISH. We all thought that their circulated demo was really great.
And at the same time there were also these interesting new local bands that were all diverse and filled with cool people. CONFESSOR, ANGLES OF EPISTEMOLOGY and THE SLUSH PUPPIES were around during the time. I have always said this but everyone more or less thought (although it was never discussed) that there was just too much good music coming out to be discredited because it wasn't fast hardcore. It was just the spirit of the times, really. It was time for a change.
I was out of town when they did their first show,which went down really well. Their second show was at the Fallout Shelter. I remembered Kevin sort of saying stuff into the mike before they started, like "all of my friends are here, all of your friends are here..it's a really good crowd". When they counted off, they blew the doors off o the Fallout Shelter. They were really good. The songs were really good, and it was just all around good. There was a new sheriff in town.
As time went by, their rep spread. They did some really great shows, maybe a few bad ones. They had some label interest from a few people but it seemed like the "tude was getting the best of them. They rejected all of the offers and passed up all of the opportunities because they couldn't reach some kind of agreement as a whole.
But there were plenty of golden moments....Kevin holding up a bag of pot onstage at the Brewery opening for the Bad Brains and quoting the Meat Puppets. The band opening for Redd Kross with Kevin ripping a shirt off to reveal another shirt that said something like, "It's 1987, not 1967 motherfuckers" only to have Jeff MacDonald compliment the band afterwards on a good set. Scott smashing his crappy guitar in a very Pete Townsend inspired fashion before crumbling against the wall of the Fallout Shelter, in mock drama. I remember that they played in Richmond once and seeing some of the hardcore kids (who were still not really with the whole "grow your hair out and play slower" program) who really looked up to Days Of.. trying very hard to get a "slam pit" going during a cover of the FAITH's "Untitled". Pretty funny what sticks with you I guess.
They played a final show in Washington D.C. that I did not attend. Apparently some of the D.C. locals were taunting them because of their long hair, singing "dude looks like a lady" at them when they walked by. Turned out one of them was that kid who ended up being in that band the Make Up and did that other band..what were they called again? I must say, that is pretty funny. I am not sure why they just stopped, they just did. They all have gone on to other bands and done plenty of other things too numerous to mention.
As far as me and the Washington D.C. scene, musically I lost interest in what those bands were doing after awhile. The last band that came out of that record label that I really loved was SHUDDER TO THINK. Then they left the label and put out their very best record on major label right afterwards. Go figure. I still think that MINOR THREAT were a great band, but I really haven't listened to a lot of that stuff in awhile. I still think it is all really good music, though.
Once in awhile, the "legacy" of DAYS OF..has popped up here and there. I play in a band with two of these guys, and they have ran into people here and there in our travels that totally love DAYS OF..and really respected what they briefly had done. I think that it strikes them as being kind of funny. I guess that shows you how music can be passed down over the years and that even if it existed outside of someones own life span (remember, it was all a long time ago.) it could still resonate with someone. And all because hardcore (or at least the first wave of it)was dead in the water by 1986.
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