The Germs are the band people think the Sex Pistols are

I need to give them a listen. No idea why I have not yet.

Hey, I start threads about the Minutemen, and they are from Pedro. But that's because the Minutemen are one of the greatest bands to ever exist.

I adore SST, and that's Long Beach. But we all know the greatest punk rock bands came from DC. It's scientific fact.

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But we all know the greatest punk rock bands came from DC. It's scientific fact.

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Ha... growing up, I always prefer the west coast bands... those straight edges bitches could frick off!!

I was young and dumb..

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Didn't know I had an anti-LA punk rep.

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I think it's just with me.

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Stuff like Agnostic Front or the Cro-Mags is just too meathead for me.

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I couldnt' get into any of those either.

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I adore SST

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well that's true. I think in my mind you have east coast bias.

Straight edge never had the first bit of appeal to me.

Love me some Sex Pistols.

I never imagined I would see The Germs discussed on this board.

Black Flag
The Germs
GBH
Fear

My favorite punk/hardcore bands in order.

Straight edge was a militant form of hardcore, primarily out of DC. It is best summed up by Minor Threat's Out of Step: Don't drink, don't smoke, don't frick. It is essentially doing the things your parents supposedly want you to do, and still pissing them off.

It was an incredibly violent scene and it was populated primarily by under 18 year olds. DC bars would admit under age kids to clubs, and put an X on their hand to indicate they couldn't drink. Straight edge kids took this as their symbol ("The X is my mark!") and touring bands would usually play two shows in DC: a night time show for the drinkers and a matinee show with no alcohol served. Holy shite, those matinee shows were insane. You get a bunch of sexually frustrated, angry, puritanical 15 year olds in a room and then play them the fastest, loudest music you can, and bad things happen. It was an awesome time, but it is completely ridiculous with the benefit of any distance from the scene (time or space). Some great music came out of it, Minor Threat especially, but the scene was such a dead end.

The Germs are nowhere near straight edge. They were in LA and they were pretty much all addicted to heroin to varying degrees. They also openly antagonized their audience and Darby would usually be so drugged out of his mind, he couldn't sing into the microphone, he just yelled to the rafters. You can see some of that on the last track of (GI), which is a nine minute dirge, after an album of 2 minute hardcore songs.

(GI) by the way, stands for Germs Incognito. It was a name they used to book gigs in LA, as the Germs shows were apparently so destructive that they were banned from almost every venue in town. I point this out to again say the Pistols were a bunch of British poseurs.

I f'n love Dag Nasty. Yeah, I saw them back in the day. I'm a little too young for Minor Threat, but I've seen Fugazi multiple times. I spent a lot of time at the old 9:30 Club, yes. We were suburban kids who took the Metro down for shows.

Never got into NYHC. It seemed so meathead. It was very "NY tough guy", and I had no interest in that. Even the DC violence wasn't about targeting people, it was this weird mutually assured destruction thing. But then a lot of bands started pushing back against the pit in the early 90s. By the time riot grrrl showed up (I know that's more of a Pacific Northwest thing, but they were embraced in DC), it was embarrassing to think about slamdancing. It's so exclusionary and sort of sexist when you stop to think about it. Girls want to see the shows without getting punched in the head. Bikini Kill was eye opening for me.

I think a lot of the former straight edge guys moved on to other things. They ended up doing lots of cool things, just not in straight edge. It was a starting point, not a destination. I don't regret one second of those days, but it's hard for me to point a young music fan back to that cul de sac. Get the Flex Your Head compilation and then move on to their later projects.

The Germs are the blueprint for hardcore, and for about five years, hardcore was the indie scene. In fact, almost all of 90s rock music is borne out of that scene. New bands still name check Black Flag.

That's awesome....love some dag nasty with Dave. To not derail the thread into a DC love fest, I will agree with you on the germs having the early shock factor the pistols wanted.

Pretty good movie out there about them.

Called "What we do is secret"

Actor that played Darby is from Baton Rouge and he also became a frontman with the Germs for a while after filming the movie.