The Most Secret Method released two fine albums, Get Lovely on Slowdime and Our Success on Superbad, in the late 90s and early 2000s. These albums are now available to download from the Dischord webstore and also from itunes, e-music, amazon and all of the other download services that carry regular Dischord releases.

In going through our warehouse we came upon several boxes of CDs and LPs from Slowdime Records and decided to use this discovery as an opportunity to put a spotlight on the bands that recorded with this important label. We'll be selling all Slowdime albums for $5 per LP and $4 per CD while supplies last.

Slowdime was founded by Amanda MacKaye and Juan Luis Carrera in 1996. The label's intent was to offer an outlet for some of the younger and more experimental bands that were making noise in the DC underground at the time. The first Slowdime release was an LP by the highly influential avant-hardcore band Meta-matics. The next several releases, by ex-Hoover mates Regulator Watts, Kerosene 454, and All-Scars were released in conjunction with Dischord Records.

Slowdime eventually dropped the Dischord half-label affiliation but Dischord continued to act as a partner, offering full production and distribution services. Amanda, who had previously run Sammich Records, decided to move on shortly after the first releases, and John Wall, bassplayer for Kerosene 454, soon joined Juan as partner until 2002 when the label became inactive.

Slowdime cultivated bands from seemingly disparate DC scenes. Bands like Meta-matics, Meltdown, The Crainium and Chrom-Tech–were experimental in nature; and those like Regulator Watts, Kerosene 454 and Most Secret Method were post-hardcore bands with experienced pedigrees that were dedicated to the DIY touring circuit. Bands like Golden and The Sorts straddled the two. Over time Slowdime also began releasing albums from bands outside of the DC scene altogether. HIM, Victory at Sea and Three Second Kiss were introduced to the label as touring partners of bands that were already on the roster.

Slowdime was an important label, especially for the time period in which it existed. So-called "alternative music" had just begun to assert itself into the consciousness of mainstream culture and bands were either trying to take advantage of this recognition or were redoubling their efforts to remain both independent and artistically relevant. In retrospect it is clear that the boldness of bands like Meltdown, Crainium and Crom Tech, bands that completely freaked out some of the most "alternative" sensibilities, set a standard of clarity and bravery for a generation of experimental bands that are just now finding success and acceptance. It's no accident that bands populated with ex-Slowdime members and ex-tour mates of these bands popped up in the vibrant new millenium scenes in Baltimore and Brooklyn.

See all the Slowdime titles for sale here

Story/Stereo continues on Friday November 5th at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland with readings from Doreen Baingana (Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe) and Alison Pelegrin (Big Muddy River of Stars) and a solo musical Performance by Devin Ocampo of Medications.

This is a free event. Program Begins at 8:00 PM. The Writer’s Center is located on the Red Line at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD

On October 30th Joe Lally begins two weeks of tour dates in Europe that will take him to Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. For tour details click on the tours page.

Joe has also finished recording a new album that should be released early next year.

Story/Stereo continues this Friday evening at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland with readings from Jenny Browne (The Second Reason) and Jessica Handler (Invisible Sisters), and a musical performance by DJ Will Eastman.

This is a free event. Program Begins at 8:00 PM, The Writers Center is located on the Red Line at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD

Dag Nasty, Dag With Shawn, will be released on CD/LP/MP3 in stores on October 18th and is available NOW from the Dischord web-store.

Dag With Shawn was recorded on Halloween Day 1985 and features the original line-up of the band with Shawn Brown on vocals. Initially songs from this session were to be released as a four-song 7" on Dischord, but shortly after the recording Shawn left Dag Nasty and the tape was shelved. In early 1986 the band re-recorded the entire album with new vocalist Dave Smalley and released it as Can I Say.

Cynthia Connolly is exhibiting her photo-show Mix N' Match at The Quality Mending Co (15 Prince Street) in NYC from September 10 through December.

See Cynthia's free standing photographs of Alabama re-arranged with the objects in the store fortnightly by the following artists, musicians and curators: Rich Jacobs (Artist, California), Mrs. Roni Freeman (Homemaker, Virginia), Michael Azerrad (author and journalist), Carter (Artist, New York), Paul Roth (Executive Director Richard Avedon Foundation, former curator of photography at the Corcoran Gallery of Art), Carole Greenwood (Musician, Artist, Washington, DC / New York), Angela Jerardi (FLUX space, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

The Three, Dark Days Coming, and Lungfish, Pass & Stow albums are being re-issued on CD and LP and will be available September 20th in stores and are on sale NOW from the Dischord website. These albums have been out of print on both formats for some time and both were re-cut and re-mastered from original tapes at Chicago Mastering Service. The Lungfish album artwork has been re-built from Daniel Higgs' original art pieces (many of the old records from our catalog were never digitized and so had to be re-built). Both 12" LPs feature Mp3 downloads. The Dark Days Coming CD features 10 extra tracks of demos and outtakes and the free MP3 Download and Digital Release will include these tracks.

For a complete list of our re-issued LPs click here: Re-Issued LPs
For a complete list of our re-issued CDs click here: Re-Mastered CDs

On Friday September 3 Story Stereo will continue its run with poet Aryn Kyle (Boys and Girls Like You and Me), poet Allison Benis White (Self-Portrait with Crayon) and musician John Davis. John will be performing new interpretations of works from his canon, including Title Tracks, Georgie James, and Q And Not U.

Story/Stereo is presented at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The shows begin at 8pm and are free.

(Updated) Every now and then when a storage space, warehouse or basement gets rearranged, we find random parts of records - empty sleeves, inserts, raw vinyl. As the '90s wound down and vinyl looked like it was going the way of the 8-track, most of this stuff began to look more like trash than treasure. But times have definitely changed, and discoveries like these now present opportunities to bring back old favorites that might otherwise remain out of print. In this case we are now shipping HOOVER, SLANT 6 and IGNITION all of which have received limited re-issues on vinyl thanks to the discovery of several boxes of empty sleeves (in stores on August 16th).

DIS89 HOOVER The Lurid Traversal of RT. 7
Even though Hoover was a short-lived band, it was a crucial part of of D.C.’s early ‘90s landscape and became a hit with a newer generation of punks. This re-issued edition of The Lurid Traversal of Route 7” (on green vinyl) was re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service from the original tapes and features an free MP3 Download coupon. the re-mastered CD is also still available.

DIS39 IGNITION The Orafying Mysticle Of...
Ignition features Alec & Chris of Faith, Dante of Gray Matter, and Chris Thomson of Circus Lupus. Their shows were chaotic and unpredictable - one ended before the band had finished even a single song because Chris Bald smashed his guitar and amp in a fit of frustration. The Orafying Mysticle Of..., the band’s second 12” release, originally came out in 1989. This re-issued edition was was re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service from the original tapes, is limited to only 300 copies, and features an free MP3 Download coupon.

DIS85 SLANT 6 What Kind of Monster Are You?
This 3-song single was recorded at Inner Ear Studios with Ian MacKaye in 1993. The band returned to Inner Ear with Ian later that year to record their first full-length, “Soda Pop Rip Off” (still available on CD) , which was released on Valentine’s Day 1994. Slant 6 toured in both the States and in the UK and broke up shortly after recording their 2nd full-length, Inzombia. This re-issued edition of What Kind of Monster Are You? was re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service.

For a complete list of our re-issued LPs click here

For a complete list of our re-mastered CDs click here

Medications are heading out for another group of tour dates in support of their fine new album, Completely Removed. They will again be accompanied by mates, Deleted Scenes for these shows and you can find their dates on the tours page.

Medications Dischord Page
Medications: band website

Rebecca, our new mail-order guru, will be starting up a Dischord Orders Mailing List (separate from our general Dischord newsletter). The new mailing will focus more specifically on regular stock updates, new releases, and Mail-Order news. To join this new list, click here, and write "new mailing list" in the subject field.

Rebecca has already launched a Dischord Orders Twitter Account for those of you looking for real-time stock and release news. The Dischord webstore carries tons of cool DC related stuff, in addition to all the Dischord stuff, so these options could be a good way to keep tabs on all that we have.

The Dischord vinyl re-issue series keeps motoring along with 2 new re-issues due in stores on June 28th (and available NOW on the Dischord web-store) The Scream, This Side Up, and Nation of Ulysses, 13 Point Program to Destroy America albums have both been re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service and feature free MP3 Downloads. The Scream album features a new silver album cover and both albums come on colored vinyl.

Dischord has re-issued more than 35 albums from our catalog in the last year and a half (including the entire Fugazi catalog), for the complete list of re-issued LPs go here.

Washington, DC's Transformer Gallery, in recognition of Dischord's 30th year, has invited the label to take part in their ongoing series, Sustainability Lab, taking place in the first weeks of June.

On Thursday, June 3rd at 6:30pm Ian MacKaye will participate in a panel discussion titled, Built to Last: Truths & Myths of Sustainable Cultural Production at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

On Saturday afternoon (June 5th) from 1-7pm Transformer will present, A Day of Dischord, featuring performances by Andalusians and The Aquarium (2-4:30pm) and a screening of the Fugazi/Jem Cohen film, Instrument (5-7pm), all at the gallery.

Transformer Gallery is located at 1404 P Street, NW Washington, DC. For more information on the panel or the show please visit the Transformer website.

The Story/Stereo series continues on Thursday May 20th at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland with readings from authors William Archilla (The Art of Exile) and Alison Amend (Things That Pass for Love) and a musical Performance by Don Zientara (Inner Ear Studios, Dischord/Northern Liberties). This is a free event.

Program Begins at 8:00 PM
The Writer’s Center is located on the Red Line
at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD

Medications kick off a week of east coast tour dates with a record release show at Black Cat in Washington DC on Thursday May 20th. The band continues on with pals Deleted Scenes. These shows will be the first since the release of their fine new album, Completely Removed, and feature their new drummer, Jesse Fox.

Say God, the new album from Daniel Higgs on Thrill Jockey, is available to order from the Dischord web-store. Say God is being made available as a double CD or double LP (with a free MP3 download coupon).

We are now carrying all of the in-print singles from M'Lady's Records, the folks who brought you the brilliant Felt Letters single. We now have stock on the following releases:

City Center, Cops Don't Care single
Druid Perfume, Other Worlds single
Bad Thoughts, Oh Jena single
Explode into Colors, Coffins
Mutating Meltdown, Fantasy

See all M'Lady's stuff on the Dischord site: here
Visit the M'Lady's website: here

The new Medications album, Completely Removed, is now available in shops, digital outlets and here at the Dischord webstore.

Completely Removed documents a new phase for Medications with Chad and Devin covering all the writing and most of the instrumental duties following the departure of Andy Becker. Not surprisingly the album represents a departure from the band's signature off kilter rockers. The advantage of being able to record and mix the album over several months at Devin’s home studio, Treehouse, enabled the band to focus more time on arrangements and production. This is not to say Medications have lost their edge -the new material dives headlong into new musical territory with thrilling results.

Medications also has a newly re-designed website: www.medicationsband.com

We have several very good releases from DC area labels and bands available now from our web-store. Shortstack has a fine new album, Please Leave My Mind, available on CD and LP on Free Dirt Records. Free Dirt is also helping to release the new Nethers album, What The Wind Will Never Tell. Minutes, Ryan Nelson's (Most Secret Method, Soccer Team, Beauty Pill) new Kalamazoo based band has released a debut single that includes a lovely limited edition hand-screened cover. We also have a new book on Straight Edge, Sober Living For The Revolution, which looks at the phenomena from a progressive point of view.

Dischord mail-order has several cool DC related CDs back in stock that have been unavailable for quite some time. Beauty Pill's first release, The Cigarette Girl From The Future, is back in stock as is the Embassy Tapes CD by Nation of Ulysses, The first Darkest Hour CD, Mark Of The Judas, on Art Monk and Mancake, We Will Destroy You on CD.

Nathan Bell's (Human Bell, Lungfish) newest project, Brassa Bell, will be playing several shows, begining Friday April 26 at Bossa in DC (early show, 8:00PM), with M. Takara 3 from Brazil. M. Takara 3 features Mauricio Takara who accompanied Joe Lally on his Brazilian tour. These shows will feature two sets, the first featuring Brassa Bell accompanied by Takara and then a M. Takara 3 headlining set. Dates listed after the jump:

4/27: Metro Gallery, Baltimore, MD w/ Lo Moda
4/28: Zebulon, N.Y.
4/29: Cake Shop, N.Y. w/ Invisible Circle
4/30: Now That's Class, Cleveland, OH w/Scarcity Of Tanks
4/31: Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL w/ Bruce Lamont

The Daniel Higgs art 'zine, Artist Music Journal, from Soundscreen Design is now available from the Dischord web-store. This is a limited edition (1,000 hand-numbered copies) 24 page, saddle-stitched art 'zine printed on thick stock and encased in a 10" record jacket.

The Faraquet album, The View From This Tower, has been re-mastered and re-issued on CD and LP. The LP edition also includes a free MP3 Download. Faraquet band-members Devin and Chad also form the core of Medications who will be releasing their fine new album, Completely Removed, in early April.

The Faraquet singles Anthology is also available CD, LP, MP3.

Over the last 12-18 months we have re-cut and re-issued over 30 albums from the Dischord back catalog, including the entire Fugazi catalog and a handful of classic Dischord albums that had either fallen out of print or were in needed of a tune-up. All albums were re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service and all feature MP3 Downloads.

This project began when we decided to bring the production of our albums back to the USA after having them made in partnership with Southern Records in Europe for many years. All the albums were then re-cut, either from the Silver Sonya Re-Masters or from the original tapes, at Chicago Mastering Service. Many of these albums feature updated artwork, often from original art pieces and newly found period photos, and some feature bonus tracks.

For a complete list of our re-issued LPs go here.

For a complete list of our re-mastered CDs go here.

The new vinyl pressing of the 1982 DC Punk Sampler Flex Your Head is now available. This pressing has a new cover featuring the DC Flag on a red field and is pressed on red vinyl. This is the re-cut version and comes with a free MP3 download.

Flex Your Head was the very first full-length album released by Dischord Records (in 1982) and features multiple tracks from: Teen Idles, Untouchables, SOA, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Youth Brigade, Red C, Void, Iron Cross, Artificial Peace, and Deadline. Different pressings of this sampler have featured different covers and this edition reprises a European pressing from the mid-80s that featured the DC Flag. However, that pressing had a black field and this one is red.

Title Tracks, featuring John Davis (Q And Not U), released their debut full-length album, It Was Easy, on Ernest Jenning Record Co. on February 23. We have copies for sale here on the Dischord site. Title Tracks are also on tour in the USA (featuring some dates with Ted Leo). See tour dates here.

The Title Tracks single, Every Little Bit Hurts, is also still available.

The Story/Stereo series continues Friday February 19th at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland with readings from authors Marianne Villanueva (Mayor of Roses) and Steve Fellner (All Screwed Up) and a one-off solo performance from J. Robbins (Jawbox, Channels, Burning Airlines, Office Of Future Plans).

Robbins will present interpretations of songs that span his entire catalog and will be accompanied by cellist Gordon Withers. In 2007 Withers released the album of cello arrangments titled Jawbox On Cello with proceeds benefiting the Cal Robbins Fund.

The program Begins at 8:00 PM and is free. The Writer's Center is located on the Red Line at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD.

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the label we thought it would be fitting to reduce the price of our 20 Years of Dischord Box Set. The 3 CD set will now be available for $16.00 (down from $22).

The Box set also includes a free download coupon for 14 tracks from bands that have released albums since the Box Set was first issued. These Box Set Bonus Tracks are also available to purchase separately as a download, as are the Rare and Unreleased Tracks from the original set.

Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s “suicide.chat.room” will primere on January 28th at Flashpoint's Mead Theater Lab in Washington, DC. The play is written and directed by Marcus Kyd (ex-The Most Secret Method), choreographed by Paulina Guerrero, and features an original score by Beauty Pill.

To view a video of internal rehearsal workshop footage click here.

The Play runs from January 28-February 13th. All Tickets are $10. Make reservations by calling (202) 261-6612 or emailing tix[at]taffetypunk.com

For more info on Beauty Pill visit their official website and twitter account.