Salad Days

Nine Dischord Records essential albums, from the Washington, D.C. label Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson started in 1980 to put out their first band's record. The set is named after a Minor Threat song, and much of it was recorded with Don Zientara at Inner Ear, his studio in Arlington.

The order is chronological, and it follows a family tree as much as a label. Minor Threat's Out of Step is hardcore at its tightest. Rites of Spring slowed it down and let it hurt, and got called emo for it, a word the band hated. Embrace was MacKaye's next band, and its only album came out after they had split. Fugazi joined MacKaye with Rites of Spring's Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally, and their four albums here run from the tense, clipped Repeater to The Argument in 2001, their last record before an indefinite break. In on the Kill Taker was made after they scrapped a session with Steve Albini; Red Medicine they produced themselves. Jawbox's Novelty is the label's heavier side, made before the band signed to a major. Q and Not U's No Kill No Beep Beep shows the label still finding new bands at the turn of the century.

Fugazi kept tickets at five dollars and shows open to all ages, and Dischord kept its records cheap. If you only have time for one, play Repeater: hardcore's urgency with room to move in it.