Minor Threat
When their former band, The Teen Idles, broke up, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson decided to form a new band with Ian on vocals. In 1980 they started playing with Lyle Preslar, who sang for the Extorts and wanted to switch to guitar. Lyle introduced them to Brian Baker who started playing bass in November and the band played its first show a month later. Minor Threat and SOA were part of a small wave of new kids and bands in DC, many of whom were not into drugs and alcohol. Some of the bands made mention of this in their lyrics, and Minor Threat's song "Straight Edge" coined the phrase that is now used to describe a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle. The band played regularly but broke up at the end of the summer of 1981 when Lyle left DC to go to college. Six months later, dissatisfaction with school and a sense of unfinished business prompted Lyle to drop out and Minor Threat reformed in April '82. That fall, Steve Hansgen joined to play bass while Brian moved to second guitar and the band recorded and toured as a five piece until June '83. Minor Threat played a few more shows as a four piece that summer, but they were not getting along. They were unable to agree on the direction of the music, and ended up spending more time arguing than playing in the practice space. Faced with this dilemma, the members decided that it would be better for all involved to shut it down. Ian went on to form Embrace, Egg Hunt, Fugazi and the Evens. Jeff later played in Three and the High Back Chairs. Lyle played in Samhain and Brian formed Dag Nasty and currently plays guitar in Bad Religion.
Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1980 and disbanded in 1983. While Minor Threat was short-lived, it had a strong influence on the hardcore punk music scene in the United States. Minor Threat's song "Straight Edge" became the eventual basis of the straight edge movement, while the band often professed their own "straight edge" ideals. Critics have called Minor Threat's music "iconic," and have noted that their "groundbreaking" music "has held up better than [that of] most of their contemporaries."
Along with the fellow Washington DC hardcore band Bad Brains, Minor Threat set the standard for many hardcore punk bands in the 1980s and 1990s. They produced short, often astonishingly fast songs, eventually with high production quality, which at the time was lacking in most punk and alternative rock. All of Minor Threat's records were released on Ian and Jeff's own Dischord Records label.
Early Years
While at Wilson High School, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson were in the Washington DC punk band The Teen Idles. After that band broke up, MacKaye decided to switch from bass guitar to vocals, and organized Minor Threat with Nelson, bassist Brian Baker, guitarist Lyle Preslar and keyboardist Nate Fore. Minor Threat's first performance was in December 1980, opening for Bad Brains. Their first 7" EPs, Minor Threat and In My Eyes, were released in 1981. The group became popular regionally, and toured the United States east coast and Midwest.
"Straight Edge," a song on the first EP, helped to inspire the straight edge movement. The song seemed to be a call for abstinence from alcohol and other drugs a new thing in rock music, which initially found a small, but dedicated following. Other prominent groups that subsequently advocated the straight edge stance included SS Decontrol and 7 Seconds.
Another Minor Threat song from the second EP, "Out of Step", further demonstrates the belief: " Don't smoke/Don't drink/Don't fuck/At least I can fucking think/I can't keep up/I'm out of step with the world." The "I" in the lyrics was only implied (mainly because it didn't quite fit the rhythm of the song), and some in Minor Threat -- Jeff Nelson in particular -- took exception to what they saw as MacKaye's imperious attitude on the song.
Minor Threat's song "Guilty of Being White" led to some accusations of racism, but MacKaye has strongly denied such intentions and said that some listeners misinterpreted his words. The song was inspired by his experiences at Wilson high school, which had a 70 percent black student population, where he and his friends would get picked on by black students on a regular basis. Slayer later covered the song, with the last iteration of the lyric "Guilty of being white" changed to "Guilty of being right." In an interview MacKaye has stated that he was offended that some perceived racist overtones in the lyrics; "To me, at the time and now, it seemed clear it's an antiracist song, of course, it didn't occur to me at the time I wrote it that anybody outside of my twenty or thirty friends who I was singing to would ever have to actually ponder the lyrics or even consider them."
Hiatus
In the time between the release of the band's second seven inch EP and the Out of Step record the band briefly split when guitarist Lyle Preslar moved to Illinois for college – during his semester at Northwestern University, Preslar was a member of Big Black for a few tempestuous rehearsals. During this same period, MacKaye and Nelson put together a studio-only project called Skewbald/Grand Union; in a reflection of the slowly increasing disagreements between the two musicians, they were unable to decide on one name.
The group recorded three untitled songs which would be released posthumously as Dischord's 50th release. During this period Brian Baker also briefly played guitar for Government Issue and appeared on the Make An Effort EP. In March 1981, at the urging of Bad Brains' H.R., Preslar left college to reform Minor Threat. Shortly afterwards, Minor Threat and In My Eyes were re-released as First two 7"s on a 12". The reunited band featured an expanded lineup - Steve Hansgen joined as the band's bassist and Baker switched to second guitar.
When "Out of Step" was re-recorded for the LP Out of Step, MacKaye inserted a spoken section explaining, "This is not a set of rules..." An ideological door was already opened, however, and by 1982, some straight-edge punks, such as followers of the band SS Decontrol, were swatting beers out of people's hands at clubs. Minor Threat, however, did not promote such behavior.
Break-up
Minor Threat broke up in 1983. One contributing factor was disagreement over musical direction. MacKaye was allegedly skipping practice sessions towards the end of the band's career, and he wrote the lyrics to the songs on the Salad Days E.P. in the studio. This was quite the contrast between the earlier recordings as he had written and co-written the music for much of the band's early material. Minor Threat, who had returned to a four-piece at the departure of Hansgen, played their last show on September 23, 1983 with Go go band Trouble Funk and the Big Boys, ending with "Last Song", which was the original title of "Salad Days".
Subsequent activities
MacKaye went on to found Embrace with former members of the Faith, the obscure Egg Hunt with Jeff Nelson and later Fugazi and the Evens, as well as collaborating on Pailhead.
Brian Baker went on to play in Junkyard, The Meatmen, Dag Nasty, Government Issue, and currently plays in Bad Religion.
Lyle Preslar was briefly a member of Glenn Danzig's Samhain and his playing appears on a few songs on the band's first record. He joined The Meatmen in 1984, along with other Minor Threat member Brian Baker. He later ran Caroline Records, signing and working with, among others, Peter Gabriel, Ben Folds, Chemical Brothers and Idaho, and ran marketing for Sire Records. He currently lives in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers University law school.
Jeff Nelson played less frantic alternative rock with Three and The High-Back Chairs before retiring from live performance; he also runs his own label, Adult Swim Records, distributed by Dischord, and is a graphic artist and a political activist in Toledo, Ohio. The band's own Dischord Records released material by many bands from the Washington, D.C. area, such as Government Issue, Void, Scream, Fugazi, Artificial Peace, Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, and Dag Nasty, and has become a respected independent record label.
Steve Hansgen formed Second Wind with Minor Threat roadie Rich Moore. He also worked with Tool in 1992 on the production of their first EP - Opiate.
Copyright issues
"Major Threat"
In 2005, a mock up of the cover of Minor Threat's first EP (also used on the First Two 7"s on a 12" LP and Complete Discography CD) was copied by athletic footwear manufacturer Nike for use on a promotional poster for a skateboarding tour called "Major Threat". Nike also altered Minor Threat's distinctive logo (designed by Jeff Nelson) for the same campaign, as well as featuring Nike shoes in the new picture, rather than the combat boots worn by Ian MacKaye's younger brother Alec on the original.
MacKaye issued a press statement condemning Nike's actions and said that he would discuss legal options with the other members of the band. Meanwhile, fans, at the encouragement of Dischord, organized a letter-writing campaign protesting Nike's infringement. On June 27, 2005, Nike issued a statement apologizing to Minor Threat, Dischord Records, and their fans for the "Major Threat" campaign and said that all promotional artwork (print and digital) that they could acquire were destroyed.
"Salad Days"
On October 29, 2005, Fox played the first few seconds of Minor Threat's "Salad Days" during an NFL broadcast. Use of the song was not cleared by Dischord Records or any of the members of Minor Threat. Fox claimed that the clip was too short to have violated any copyrights.
Wheelhouse Pickles
In 2007, Brooklyn-based company Wheelhouse Pickles marketed a pepper sauce named "Minor Threat Sauce". Requesting only that the original label design (which was based on the "Bottled Violence" artwork) be amended, Ian MacKaye gave the product his endorsement. A small mention of this was made in music magazine Revolver, where MacKaye commented "I don't really like hot sauce but I like the Minor Threat stuff.
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