‘Salad Days’ DC Punk documentary posts second teaser

Posted by aubin on Friday, March 23, 2012 at 12:30 PM (EDT)

The documentary about the Washington DC hardcore/punk scene of the early 80s, titled Salad Days: The DC Punk Revolution, has released some more footage from the documentary. As we first noted back in February, the film promises to be "the most comprehensive, honest and insightful look at the DC punk scene from the early 1980s to the decade's end. The film will include exclusive archival photographs, concert footage and interviews with dozens of bands, artists, label owners, zine publishers and others who helped mold and nurture DC's underground community during this inspired decade of music."

Participants include John Stabb, Ian Mackaye, Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, and Alec Mackaye. Scott Crawford, who was a fanzine writer himself back in the early 80s, wrote and directed the documentary, which also sees the help of Jim Saah as director of photography. Salad Days is slated for a 2013 release. In the meantime, they're keeping their facebook active by posting old photos and flyers, as well as stills of the film, which you can check out here.

Bands in this story

Ian Mackaye

Henry Rollins

Movies and Documentaries (20 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

mattramone (March 23, 2012)

As someone who grew up in the area/still live here and who loves the music and respects the creators of this era, I gotta ask, really??? Another documentary about a scene that's already been picked over more than a bone in a dog pound? There is no new information to be gleaned or commentary that has not already been said by 100 other people already, Henry Rollins is not going to suddenly going to remember an amazing anecdote about Ian MacKaye that has previously been undocumented, and they are not going to miraculously find footage of The Slickee Boys' first show. Let's find another scene to examine, huh?

This is like every time a new book about the Civil War comes out. We get it, 50 year old dudes with no other hobbies. Time to maybe start re-enacting the Mexican-American War instead.

pornnamesareoverrated (March 23, 2012)

I get where you're coming from. I feel like the reason early-80's DC in particular gets so much attention and analyzation is due to the fact that it's just such an important time period for a lot of kids who are into punk/hardcore and some of the key members of that scene are still around and coherent; they can still recall and cite stories and happenings. I know I've read just about every book on punk/hardcore from those days on all the major scenes in the country that I could get my hands on and I know I'll be looking to watch this when it's finished. A lot of us now weren't around for it back then. I know I was born about 10 years too late to experience it and things like this are about as close as I can get besides listening to the records and tapes I stole from my sisters boyfriend when I was 11. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing these dudes recall those days. It's a little like learning my ancestry.

stagedivecity (March 23, 2012)

This plus it's like re-reading a favorite book or watching a favorite movie for the millionth time. You just want to hear the story again

mattramone (March 23, 2012)

I understand where you're coming from. I didn't move here until 1996, when I was still in elementary school. I missed out on this whole thing, and while it bums me out, I've had so many great experiences in punk rock and been a part of so many great contemporary scenes that listening to your grandpa once again tell you the same old story about how there was rationing during the war seems boring to me. I would trade seeing the Black Lips in a basement or Mike Hale make a room full of punks cry from laughter doing a ballad version of "I Want Your Skull" for anything in the world. I respect my punk rock forebears, but I see no reason to worship them.

I guess honestly the problem I have with this is that I want to see other scenes documented. Having read the Touch and Go zine anthology, I would love to see a documentary about that time and that place and what it was like being a band like the Necros or the Meatmen in the MIdwest. There's still meat on that bone.

mattramone (March 23, 2012)

wouldn't trade*

The distinction seems cr00sh

pornnamesareoverrated (March 23, 2012)

I hear you. I guess the distinction must be made between worshipping the forebears/lamenting that the music scene isn't like '84 DC anymore and those of us who just genuinely enjoy hearing the history told by those who were there. Slippery slopes, all that.

And good fucking christ what I wouldn't give for a documentary on midwest hardcore from the time period. Hearing Tesco Vee talk about his shenanigans would be priceless.

I would love a focus on Texas specifically even more.

Ravnos (March 23, 2012)

There's a documentary called Cleveland's Screaming about the hardcore scene in Cleveland and Akron. One of the guys behind it was in some band I don't remember or care about and wrote a bunch of zen stuff for SuicideGirls. I never saw it because I don't care but if you're interested, it's out there somewhere.

franchise (March 23, 2012)

this - people have some glorifiied ideal in thier mind that they refuse to get past. im always hearing people complainging about how shitty the DC scene is now, but none of those people go see local music. none of those 80's figures are really relevant anymore and if people moved on instead of drooling over the past theyd realize there is just as vibrant a scene now as that they could help create and improve instead of reminiscing over something they were never a part of anyways.

badbrain (March 23, 2012)

Those people do go see local music, the present DC scene isn't very good, the Baltimore scene is a lot better right now. The DC scene right now is kind of mired in a vibe of pretentiousness and is a lot of artsy psuedo-indie hipster crap. This opinion derived from years of attending shows within and dealing with or hearing stories from friends who dealt directly with the people putting on said shows and/or basically running the scene. There are a small small handful of hidden exceptions, but for the most part that's how I've felt about it for the later part of the last decade. There hasn't been a band in the DC scene that I've liked since Dismemberment Plan and Q and Not U and Len Bias, and Edie Sedgwick was ok. The DPlan offshoot bands are OK I guess. Not much in the way of punk though, very few but it's mostly been math-rock or indie type stuff for a while now. Baltimore has the better punk scene by far

badbrain (March 23, 2012)

Also Max Levine is great but they've been around for a while so I don't really count them as representative of the current scene

badbrain (March 23, 2012)

And there are people who are more involved than I am who might be able to refute me, but this is just my opinion of it from my personal experiences over the past 10 years

kneel (March 23, 2012)

there is a scene, its not all artsy-indie stuff. there are two thriving scenes in dc:

beerpunk (think windian records)
hardcore/thrash (tons of shows in the burbs and NW
http://dcshows.net/calendar

a friend of mine, who has lived here like his whole life, and has been in the punk scene for i think over 15 years, says there is more stuff going on now than he has ever seen.

there just isnt any beardpunk/orgcore/poppunk stuff like we like. so yeah baltimore wins for that.

franchise (March 25, 2012)

I will agree that it is mildly pretentious and the whole max levine thing kind of drives that pretentiousness. in my experience. PCDC

cloudkicker (March 25, 2012)

Shameless plug:

http://lashingout.bandcamp.com/

There's plenty of DC punk bands - you just have to look for em'. We're not PC, nor pretentious. Good, however, is another question haha.

mattramone (March 23, 2012)

You are absolutely right. I cannot think of a DC band that even comes close to Dead Mechanical, other than maybe Cop Stabber.

kneel (March 23, 2012)

the shirks are amazing

rsplatpc (March 23, 2012)

So it's gonna be half documentary, half b-roll shots of Washington DC?

leeunited (March 23, 2012)

Am i the last one to find this? https://twitter.com/#!/JADEDPUNKHULK

longshot (March 23, 2012)

Nice.

Bastard_squad (March 23, 2012)

Any friend of Heisel is no friend of mine.