State of Alert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

State of Alert (or S.O.A.) was a hardcore punk group from Washington, D.C. fronted by Henry Garfield, who would later rise to fame as Henry Rollins. They formed in October 1980, and disbanded in July 1981 [1] and released No Policy on Dischord Records. They are sometimes regarded as one of the earliest groups playing what would be dubbed hardcore punk. They released a ten song 7" EP titled No Policy and contributed three songs to the compilation Flex Your Head, both on Dischord. The EP was financed by Henry since Dischord wanted to afford releasing the first Minor Threat 7" as well.

S.O.A. played a total of 12 gigs in and around the eastern US, their first on December 6, 1980, in Washington, D.C., and their last on July 10, 1981, in Philadelphia. Henry Rollins later described their performances: "All of them were eleven to fourteen minutes in duration because the songs were all like forty seconds... and the rest of the time we were going, 'Are you ready? Are you ready?' Those gigs were poorly played songs in between 'Are you readys?"

Today, S.O.A. is remembered primarily as Rollins' first band - before he joined Black Flag and then founded Rollins Band - but also as an example of early "DC Hardcore" and an influence to other bands such as Negative Approach.

Out of what was left of the band guitarist Michael Hampton went on to form The Faith in 1981 with Alec MacKaye (brother of Ian MacKaye), later in Ignition) who joined on vocals and Ivor Hansen, S.O.A.'s final drummer. Later Hampton went on to Embrace with Ian MacKaye in 1985, and One Last Wish with Guy Picciotto (Fugazi, Rites of Spring) and Brendan Canty (Fugazi).

Bass player Wendel went on to play in Iron Cross and Lethal Intent.

State of Alert's recorded material has been re-released by Dischord on the 20 Years of Dischord compilation and the Dischord 1981: The Year in 7"s compilation which includes the entire 'No Policy' EP.