My NOIZE

CERTIFICATE OF PATIENCE TO ME FROM MINOR THREAT TACOMA 1983 

This is exactly why as a kid I loved sending away for records so much.

Minor Threat were one of my very favorite East Coast Hardcore bands second maybe only to the incomparable Bad Brains. I loved their lyrics and their message but more than anything it was their sound that set them apart from so many other lesser bands.

Lyle Preslar’s thick, rich guitar tone, Jeff Nelson’s urgent, artful drumming, Brian Baker’s bouyant bass lines and of course Ian’s tuneful, heartfelt, shouting, talking and singing when heard together in tightly knit, perfectly rendered chunks were just awesome.

Living in Seattle and Tacoma as I did during the band’s brief run meant I never got to see them perform live. I do remember seeing their name on a list of upcoming shows at The Metropolis and being ecstatic about it. As fate would have it however, the band would break up before fulfilling my dream of seeing them. The show never happened.

At least I had the records.

Their first two 7“‘s and the tracks on Dischord’s excellent Flex Your Head compilation, (which constituted a third e.p. the way I listened to the album, always setting the needle back at the beginning of Minor Threat’s bands of grooves as soon as the last note of the track “12XU” sounded) was a miraculous sounding body of work to my young ears. 

When I learned there was a new 12” out I was beyond excited. I sent away for it as soon as I heard about it. 

In an earlier post I wrote about the necessity and thrill I had in this era of ordering records through the mail. I mentioned the long wait you’d often have to resign yourself to while the wheels of commerce and the US Postal service spun. Usually I was fine with the wait but this time it was different.

Three days after I ordered the new album “Out of Step” I started searching the porch with my eyes, looking for the square flat cardboard box. A couple weeks into the wait I remember I’d even close my eyes as I approached the front steps so I could blink them open and make the record show up. Maybe it had been stolen?

Now that I think about it, that’s really cute.

When it finally did arrive a month after I’d ordered it I couldn’t have been happier. I was doubly stoked when inside with the album I found this “certificate of patience” made out to me personally and signed by Ian and Jeff of Minor Threat. I thought it was very funny and too damn cool at the time and I still do!

Of course the record is one of the greatest of the era, a total classic, and a great work of art for all time.

Minor Threat continues to be one of the rare bands from that era whose music always sounds fresh, new, and exciting. The songs never sound the least bit dated, the lyrics speak to anyone in any time and the sound is still the sound.

I gotta get this thing in a frame! Pronto!

Get em while they are hot kids. 

White Flag emerged in 1982 as the Bizarro World version of Black Flag. Their logo was the Black Flag bars painted white and turned sideways. White Flag advocated surrender instead of rebellion, lionizing cops, condemning Communism, and exhorting listeners to “Go to God.”