For the nation’s capitol it was a decade ushered in by the
final death throes of the Carter administration and the arrival of Ronald
Reagan in the Oval Office. For music it
was MTV, Madonna, Michael Jackson (with glove) and the mid-80s arrival of
Metal, but through it all the D.C. area had it’s own music revolution.
On Sept. 18, MVD Entertainment Group will be releasing
documentary filmmaker Scott Crawford’s insightful look at the punk scene in
Washington D.C. during this electric period with the DVD debut of the New Rose
Films production of Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90).
They were educated, many were the scions of wealth and
political power, but their love and focus was music. They spawned Ian MacKaye’s Dischord Records
and his bands Minor Threat and Fugazi; Henry Rollins and State of Alert (who
would jump to the other coast with Black Flag); the reggae punk of Bad Brains;
the transitional Rites of Spring and more.
Director Scott Crawford has fashioned a real tell-all about
this unique music chapter, combining contemporary interview sessions with those
who literally grew up during this period and nicely blending in vintage
fan-supplied concert clips. They grew,
they mutated … they moved into other venues and sounds, but this is where it
all began for many of them. A must for
music fans and surprisingly effective in its telling.
Bonus features include live performances by Fugazi,
Government Issue, Gray Matter, Marginal Man, Beefeater, Embrace, Holy Rollers
and Soulside, plus additional interview sessions with Henry Rollins, Ian
MacKaye, Kevin Seconds (of 7 Seconds) and Brian Baker (Minor Threat … and
later, Bad Religion).
