Minor Threat EP

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Minor threat
Extended Play by Minor Threat

Publication
(s)

1981

Label (s) Dischord Records

Format (s)

EP

Genre (s)

Hardcore punk

Title (number)

8th

running time

9:20

occupation
  • Guitar: Lyle Preslar
  • Drums: Jeff Nelson

production

Minor Threat / Skip Groff

Studio (s)

Inner Ears Studio, Arlington County

chronology
- Minor threat In My Eyes
(1981)

Minor Threat EP is the first release of the band Minor Threat on their self-founded label Dischord Records .

History of origin

After the breakup of the previous band Teen Idles , Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson decided to release an EP from their new band Minor Threat as the next release of their label. Since the label had too little money available, the EP No Policy was first released by State of Alert , for which lead singer Henry Garfield himself came up. With the money generated by this Minor Threat financed their first EP in the 7 ″ format . Like the Teen Idles single, it was recorded by Skip Groff at Don Zientara's Inner Ear basement studio in Arlington County .

Cover

The cover shows a photograph of Ian McKaye's brother Alec MacKaye with his head bowed and shaved. MacKaye was photographed by Susie Josephson Horgan. The recording was also used for her compilations First Two 7 ″ s on a 12 ″ (1984) and Complete Discography (1988). The first pressing was limited to 1000 pieces and presented the photograph in a shade of red. This was followed by two further pressings of 1000 pieces in green and yellow and one last pressing in blue of 2000 pieces.

The cover has been recreated by several other punk bands over the years. The best known is Rancid's album … And Out Come the Wolves , but Talco and the punk supergroup The Falcon (consisting of members of The Lawrence Arms and Alkaline Trio ) also took up the cover photo in a mixture of tribute and parody.

Publications

The complete EP was reissued in 1984 together with the successor In My Eyes (1981) on the compilation First Two 7 ″ s on a 12 ″ as 12 ″. The compilation Complete Discography (1988) also contains all songs from the EP.

Track list

  1. Filler - 1:31
  2. I Don't Wanna Hear It - 1:13
  3. Seeing Red - 1:02
  4. Straight Edge - 0:46
  5. Small Man, Big Mouth - 0:55
  6. Screaming at a Wall - 1:31
  7. Bottled Violence - 0:55
  8. Minor Threat - 1:27

Music and lyrics

Minor Threat's first EP is very fast-paced hardcore punk that was played very easily. The songs on the EP are based on the band members' personal experiences and were all written by Ian MacKaye , except for Seeing Red . Two tracks ( I Don't Wanna Hear It and Screaming at a Wall ) deal with the death of guitarist friend Marc Halpern (The Nurses), who died in May 1980 at the age of 28 as a result of an overdose . Both songs are also about the ignorance of older punks . Bottled Violence is about Paul Clearly from The Faith , who could become very aggressive under the influence of alcohol. Seeing Red was written by Jeff Nelson and "dealt with being judged only by how you look". Straight Edge finally gave the straight edge scene its name. In terms of content, the song is about drug consumption.

reception

The first EP from Minor Threat made the band known beyond the borders of Washington, DC and made the group next to the Bad Brains one of the most influential underground (cultural) bands of the 1980s and 1990s. With the first EP they laid the foundation for the straight edge movement and gave the scene a name with the song of the same name.

The cover artwork was also influential. The band Rancid used a variation of the cover on their album … And Out Come the Wolves . In 2005 Dischord Records sued the Nike group because their skateboarding department used the covershot for their Major Threat East Coast tour without the band's consent . Nike withdrew the layout of their campaign and apologized in an open letter to Minor Threat, Dischord Records and their fans.

Individual evidence

  1. Mark Anderson / Mark Jenkins: Punk, DC . Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-931555-86-3 , p. 92 .
  2. a b Mark Anderson / Mark Jenkins: Punk, DC . S. 102 .
  3. Minor Threat EP. Discogs , accessed August 2, 2011 .
  4. Minor Threat: First 2 7 ″ S EP on Allmusic (English). Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  5. Nike Skateboarding: Major Threat East Coast Tour Poster. (No longer available online.) Nike , September 27, 2005, archived from the original on May 4, 2015 ; Retrieved August 2, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nike.com