The prestigious and now legendary history of the D.C. punk movement has been completely neglected as of late. Instead of hearty doses of Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, Embrace and Fugazi, students opt instead for the watered-down emo-punk that is spoon-fed to them from the Warped Tour and Hot Topic.
But these alleged punks don't quite carry the same urgency and fervor in their message that their punk rock forefathers once did. In addition to ignoring the plethora of politically aware punk rock records that erupted from the District, the average AU student just doesn't know that this University has a bona fide connection to the now legendary D.C. punk scene of yesteryear.
When a young Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi fame was a kid growing up in Glover Park, he took piano lessons at AU. As he grew his interests changed, and MacKaye took up skateboarding. He recalls being scolded by the police for skateboarding on the AU tennis courts.
MacKaye quickly befriended a young man named Henry Garfield - who would later change his name to Henry Rollins - and the two bonded over like-minded political views.
Henry Rollins, Black Flag frontman turned poet, author, solo artist and actor (The Chase, Lost Highway, Bad Boys II) attended AU in 1981, according to MacKaye. The ripped, tattooed and perpetually pissed-off Rollins calls for greater bragging rights from the alumni association than say, Goldie Hawn or Maury Povich. MacKaye recalls that Rollins detested school from the structure of higher education in general, and more specifically AU.
"He did not want to go to college," MacKaye said of his childhood buddy. "He did not want to go to American. He just wasn't into it."
Rollins first musical incarnation, the short-lived SOA - acronym for State of Alert - once played a show in a dorm room on campus, resulting in what MacKaye remembered as a "semi-police riot."
MacKaye has visited campus for a myriad of speaking events, from a meeting with AU's audio engineering majors to the annual National Conference on Organized Resistance held in the Ward Circle Building every January. He was one of five panelists in Tuesday's American Forum titled "File-Sharing and Downloading: Whose property is it anyway?" MacKaye was transparently out of place in a panel consisting mainly of music and film industry executives, and admittedly as much.
"I honestly don't know why I'm here," he said.
MacKaye sat quietly for the majority of the discussion, until he unleashed a tangent about the evolution of music and chastized the rest of the panel for regulating music - the most primative form of communication, he said. The ability to record sound allows musicians, who primarily support themselves by playing live and touring, another source of imcome through record sales. He co-founded Dischord Records, essentially a record label for people who hate record labels, on his own terms in the 1980s.
He created Dischord as his outlet for music he performed and produced - a task he knew he would require self-dependence after being told "no" for years while in the District's public school system, MacKaye said in a phone interview in his D.C. home.
In a world where independent labels act like miniature major labels, Dischord is the exception. MacKaye said he and his label mean absolutely nothing to the music industry where independent artists are not considered for awards like the Grammys.
Dischord as well as other independent labels benefit from online file-sharing - but benefit doesn't mean financial gain, MacKaye said. Instead, he means the benefit is that people are listening to the music, which is essentially the goal - or what should be the goal - of all musicians; to be heard. To be recognized, famous, or wealthy may be nice but the primary purpose of music is to share the sonic moment an artist and listener connect.
While one may not like the music or agree with the politics of Fugazi - its cryptic punk rock sounds, barebones $6 concert prices and an anti-violence, no moshing requirment, one thing is certain - Fugazi is important.
Their cultural impact has been immeasurable: from pioneering the do-it-yourself work ethic to consistently filling 2,000-capacity venues with little to no advertising or publicity and a notoriously loyal fanbase that spreads Fugazi's punk rock gospel through word of mouth. Not to mention MacKaye's indirect influence on creating the straight-edge subculture after penning the Minor Threat anthem, not surprisingly titled "Straight Edge."
MacKaye doesn't mind his fans illegally downloading his music. "I don't equate loyalty with sales," he said. As for the suits who plan to stop illegal file-sharing? "I have no argument with those people other than don't put a gate over my music"
