Missing In Action: A Quick Review Of The New Reissue Of Sessions From Assault & Battery (Marginal Man, Government Issue, Artificial Peace)

I swear, 11 songs in 9 minutes has got to be some kind of record, even for harDCore. Assault & Battery didn't exist long but the members here went on to some of the best bands from Washington, D.C.'s first wave of punk: Mike Manos and Steve Polcari went on to be in Marginal Man, Rob Moss in Artificial Peace (and a solo career as a writer and musician), and Brian Gay joined Government Issue. The only studio session from Assault & Battery is now out to provide a missing piece of the story of punk in this city.

Like I said, this is 11 songs in 9 minutes and that means that this stuff practically burns through the headphones and speakers you're using to hear this. Tracks like "Evidence" will feel familiar to anyone who listened to that first wave of Dischord bands, while tracks like "Danger U.X.B." and "War Path / Dead End" mix up a juvenile flirtation with military imagery (not uncommon then) with hard-and-fast riffs and rhythms. There's nothing here that is entirely a revelation, but what's here reassures that we're right to revere the harDCore legacy of the nation's capital. These players, even in their likely first forays into the form, attacked this stuff with energy and spirit.

The Complete Session, May 1981 by Assault & Battery is out now via Alona's Dream Records.