Dag Nasty – Dag with Shawn

by Thomas Harding on Jun 02^nd, 2011

I’m a big fan of DC hardcore legends Dag Nasty. I’m sure I’m not the most diehard, but — as they were one of the first hardcore bands (excluding standards like Black Flag, Minor Threat and Bad Brains who all punks in America seem to love) I ever got into — they and Bane are pretty special to me.

It was around early December of 2005 when I first heard them on the 20 Years of Dischord box set. So that pretty well narrows down the first Dag song I heard to an alternate take of “All Ages Show” which I love, or “Circles” which I recall not liking as much back then. At the time I wasn’t entirely sold on them until I heard “Justification”, which became part of a mix that used to on my daily runs when I still ran, in the days before I gained 20 pounds and quit running over the course of one summer. I would advise against putting on 20 pounds in one summer, by the way.

I don’t know when I first learned Dave Smalley had been the front man of Dag Nasty for most of their albums and a significant portion of their existence (three albums, about one year [cumulative] compared to Peter Courtner’s two albums, two EPs and two years [continuous]), but it was probably in late 2006. Perhaps it was when the American Hardcore film came out. That was important because I had long been a fan of Smalley’s other work in Down By Law, one of the first punk bands I had heard, and had recently begun listening to DYS. The more hardened Dag Nasty fans would probably ask why I focus on the front men and not guitarist and principal songwriter Brian Baker, who went on to join another melodic hardcore band called Bad Religion (a little known outfit from L.A. that have had zero impact on the modern punk sound). Did the sarcasm translate? In all seriousness though, Baker is a name all punks should learn as he was a founding member of Minor Threat, played in Government Issue, The Meatmen, the original Samhain line up and Junkyard.

At some point, I began to hear talk of another late 80′s DC band known as Swiz. Someone recommended them to me as I was beginning to get into bands like Rites of Spring and other early Emo bands. I looked them up and found that they seemed to be more well known for front man Shawn Brown than for their music. Further putting me off of Swiz was that no one really seemed to care about Brown’s prowess on the mic, but the fact that he was black. This is an all too common phenomenon in the white dominated punk scene. Maybe I just asked the wrong punks. Either way, three years after the fact, I fell in love with this band too.

When I finally got ahold of a Swiz record, the similarity to Dag Nasty was enough to sell me on it. I just chalked it up to imitation.  So I was somewhat surprised when Dischord issued the Dag with Shawn EP in which Shawn Brown is unmistakeably featured on the cover. And so I learned that the Swiz frontman was the first front man of Dag Nasty from its inception in 1985 until February 1986.

The recordings here are the first recordings made by the band. Because Brown left before they could be released, the tapes were shelved. A good number of the tracks were made available on the 85-86 7”box set (which was also issued on cassette and oddly again on vinyl as an LP – cassette and LP versions appear to be fairly easy to come by – all were on Selfless records) and have been up to sample on the band’s web site www.daghouse.com. The site has a lot of demos and live tracks up for free download as well as some samplings from the band’s official releases. Anyway, what we have here are re-mastered tracks from those old tapes recorded on Halloween day back in 1985 at Inner Ear. All of these songs are familiar, as they all were re-recorded with Smalley and released on the Can I Say album. It is definitely a release intended for the dyed in the wool Dag Nasty fans, but would be easily accessible to new listeners as well.

The instrumentation is more or less the same as on Can I Say but Shawn Brown lends his much rougher and looser vocal style to the recordings. Gone are all the subtle harmonies of the Smalley versions. For the most part, Brown is the only one doing vocals on these tracks, whereas later recording would feature Baker on backup vocals. In that way, the sound on the more stereotypical hardcore tracks like “Justification” are more like the sound of Start Today era Gorilla Biscuits. In an odd contrast, the less traditional hardcore tracks with Brown’s vocal delivery call to mind Embrace and other Revolution Summer DC acts.

This makes sense as Dag Nasty formed in that fabled summer of 1985. Therefore, Dag with Shawn is a testament to the roots of a movement that would turn the music world upside down in the following 20 years. From that group of DC kids trying to take back their scene from violent thuggish kids at shows spawned the likes of Fugazi and Moss Icon, who by touring would spread post hardcore and emo across the country. The modern mainstream perceptions of these already somewhat esoteric genres have since become antithetical to the hardcore scene they grew from, yet always there has been bands like Dag Nasty and later Lifetime there to walk that line and reconcile parent and child. Dag with Shawn offers a look at the early divergence of the two. It is at once hardcore and emo.

Dag with Shawn offers yet another take on these classic tracks, but unlike tribute albums or covers, Dag with Shawn loses none of the songs’ urgency and soul in translation. You get Dag Nasty at their most furious moment. While some tracks are at slower tempos than the Can I Say versions, Brown’s vocals really bring a new angle to what are arguably some of the best songs ever written in the band’s career. For fans, this record will prove to be a shot in the arm that will make you pull out the old records and jam them full blast. For new listeners, you’ll find that this record is an excellent starting point for these punk rock favorites.

Available from Dischord for a very fair price on CD, 12” Vinyl, or Digital Download. As always with newer Dischord Vinyl releases, the 12” includes a free download code.