Minor Threat

Minor Threat, from Washington, D.C., was not just the quintessential American hardcore punk band of the 1980s; it also was the best that hardcore ever produced. Germs and Black Flag, from Los Angeles, set the tone of the music; D.C.'s Bad Brains expanded its boundaries; and Southern California politicos Minutemen brought in the funk. But their recorded output was spotty. In Minor Threat's brief career, the band never released a bad song. What's more, one of its earliest tracks, "Straight Edge," unintentionally spawned a movement of clean-living young punk fans, and members of Minor Threat would ultimately form the hugely influential Fugazi. But the lesser-known Minor Threat was actually more significant to the development of modern rock.

The members were teenagers when they put out the first EP, which fairly brims with restless passion and creative energy. "I Don't Want to Hear It," "Small Man, Big Mouth," "Screaming at a Wall" and "Bottled Violence" all summed up the feelings of anxious, rebellious, politically progressive young people in the Reagan years. Subsequent EPs are just as passionate and powerful, and the band's first album, Out of Step, delivered an extended set of loud, fast, whiplash punk with a sense of humor and alienation. The album and EPs are all too brief, though, which makes the self-explanatory Complete Discography, released posthumously, the only essential Minor Threat CD. Any fan of postpunk and hard rock -- from Nirvana to Limp Bizkit -- should own this collection. The First Demo Tape EP is an interesting but inessential set of embryonic material from earlier albums. (MARK KEMP)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide