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Hardcore Punk

Venice, Los Angeles, 1980

Suicidal Tendencies

Suicidal Tendencies formed in Venice, Los Angeles, in 1980, with Mike Muir singing, Mike Ball on guitar, Carlos Egert on drums and Mike Dunnigan on bass. The self-titled debut came out on Frontier Records in 1983. Later they signed to Epic and let more metal in, and they get credited, along with D.R.I. and Corrosion of Conformity, as founders of crossover thrash. Robert Trujillo joined on bass in 1989, started the funk metal side project Infectious Grooves with Muir, and later ended up in Metallica. The band folded in 1995 when the Epic contract ran out, and Muir had a new lineup going by around 1996. Former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo toured with them in 2016, and in April 2026 they played Coachella.

Tel Aviv, surf-core, 1997

The Astroglides

The Astroglides are an Israeli band, listed as formed in 1997, who called what they did surf-core. About two-thirds of their material is surf instrumentals driven by hardcore punk, and the rest is vocal songs closer to hardcore and metal, with lyrics about sleazy characters. The guitar is double-picked and dark, a theremin howls over the top, and the melodies borrow from Middle Eastern and klezmer music. The album titles all run the same way, Fondling With..., Channel Surfing With... and Selling Out With..., and there is a live album recorded at the Patifon. Tal Oren of the RPS Surfers has said they ran a small underground club in Tel Aviv, and that they were the band that got him into surf music.

Washington, D.C., Dischord

Fugazi

Fugazi formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. Ian MacKaye had been in Minor Threat. Brendan Canty took over the drums from Colin Sears in January 1987, and Guy Picciotto, his old bandmate from Rites of Spring, became a full member after his own band Happy Go Licky broke up. All their albums came out on Dischord. The first, 13 Songs in 1989, put two EPs together, and the last studio album appeared in 2001. They aimed for five-dollar tickets, sold no merch on tour and played Elks Lodges and pizza places. Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun once offered them a label of their own and more than ten million dollars, and they turned it down. They went on indefinite hiatus after three London shows in November 2002.

Austin, 1980

Dicks

The Dicks formed in Austin in 1980 around singer Gary Floyd, with Buxf Parrott, Pat Deason and Glen Taylor. Floyd was one of very few openly gay musicians in 1980s punk, and the band's lyrics leaned Marxist in the Reagan years, taking on police abuse and homophobia before most punk bands did. Their debut was a live LP recorded at Raul's Club and split with the Big Boys. In 1983 Floyd moved to San Francisco and put a second lineup together there, Lynn Perko among them. There was an LP on SST in 1983 and another on Alternative Tentacles in 1985, and the band broke up in 1986. The Dicks reunited in 2004, got a documentary in 2015 and played their last shows in Austin in October 2016. Floyd died in May 2024.

Charlotte, 1983

Antiseen

Antiseen formed in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1983. Jeff Clayton and guitarist Joe Young started it, and Clayton announced the band in his fanzine, New Breed. The name is a mangled version of anti-scene. The songs are short and heavily distorted, built on Ramones and Stooges power chords with hardly any solos, and early on people called it destructo rock. Pro wrestling runs all through it, down to the barbed-wire bats on stage. In 1991 they backed GG Allin on his first record after prison. Young ran for office twice as a Libertarian and died in April 2014, aged 54. Clayton kept the band going, and they released another album in 2023.

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