[LittlePuppetBoy]

Fang
early Meat Puppets

[uhler]

Originally Posted by DJ Rick

If I woulda specified a year as to when Discharge would become a more prominent influence on American HC bands, I'd have said it was much later than 1982. Most of these bands were very young and not in close proximity of the kinda record store that would stock British import vinyl, so their influences were the bands that they saw on tour in their nearby Vets Memorial Halls and Elks Lodges. That would point to Black Flag, Bad Brains, M.D.C., D.O.A., D.R.I., the Big Boys, and other tireless bands that toured like crazy, playing anywhere and everywhere...even in the boonies.

The bands that had some Discharge influence in the early 80s were the few that were in-the-know about Discharge, and the largest grouping of them was in Massachusetts, where bands like Siege and Psycho were among the first to more closely resemble their sound. It is chronicled that there was a coterie of tape-traders in Boston and Western Mass who also traded with UK traders, and this is probably thee #1 reason why the connection existed there like nowhere else. Other bands that had Discharge influence early on were very isolated....such as Septic Death coming outta Boise, Idaho. Several other bands that "kinda sound like Discharge" early on were perhaps because they were impressed by an American band who had copped a Discharge influence, or it was purely coincidental, which is understandable given that when HC became a speed trial for who could play fastest, several bands just naturally started to sound more similar to each other.

Aside from NYC and British punk circa 1977, most punk scenes--and independent music scenes--existed in isolation unless local scenemakers (label honchos, show promoters, impresarios) brought influences into their communities...or as a particular place (e.g., the SF Bay Area throughout the 80s) became destinations for bands looking for greener pastures.

On a more national level, what brought more outside influences into American HC was the availability of BCT Tapes, or Borderless Countries Tapes, a one-man operation in San Diego that compiled bands from all over the world, but especially Europe, onto cassette compilations and a few vinyl ones. Before that, there were only a couple compilation LPs which offered the same window to different scenes...the legendary "Peace" 2xLP and MRR Presents "Welcome to 1984." These comps all came out within about one year's time, and these European bands definitely sounded very different to American ears. The story of Discharge's primacy in the story of overseas HC was just beginning to unfold to most American listeners. A bunch of American labels beginning in 1984 began putting out foreign HC bands on comps and solo releases. This is also when bands began to come from overseas to tour the US....Riistetyt and BGK chiefly during that time.

maybe it was just regional, but i remember reading reprint copies of old zines from the early 80's and a lot of the bands listed discharge as an influence. i know the dc scene was big into discharge for a bit.