MDC (band)

MDC

MDC performing live in Bar & Boos, Leiden, 6 May 2006. Left to right: Dave Dictor and Ron Posner. Dejan 'Poda' Podobnik (drummer) not visible behind Ron Posner.
Background information
Origin Austin, Texas, United States
Genres Hardcore punk
Years active 1982–1995, 2000–present
Labels R Radical Records, Crass, Boner Records, New Red Archives, Sudden Death, Tank Crimes
Associated acts Big Boys, Dead Kennedys, The Dicks, Patareni, Leftover Crack, Pig Champion, Operation Ivy, Rancid
Members Dave Dictor
Ron Posner
Mike Smith
Al Schvitz
Russ Kalita
Past members Michael Donaldson
Franco Mares
Dejan Podobnik
Brady Green Erik Mischo
Bill Collins
Matt Freeman
Chris Wilder

MDC (Millions of Dead Cops) is an American punk rock band formed in Austin, Texas in 1981. The band was subsequently based in San Francisco, California, and are currently based in Portland, Oregon. Originally formed as The Stains before changing their name, the band also changed their name to a different initialism of MDC with every new record released. They play fast hardcore punk music espousing far-left sociopolitical ideals, with singer Dave Dictor expressing his animal rights and anti-capitalist convictions.

MDC eventually released material through ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra's independent Alternative Tentacles label. In the 1990s, Dictor published editorials for the internationally distributed fanzine Maximumrocknroll. MDC's initial run ended in 1995, and the band spent five years on hiatus before Dictor returned in 2000 with new band members.

Career

Early years

Formed in late 1970s as The Stains and playing their first gig under this name in August 1980, MDC were one of three pioneering hardcore punk bands in Austin, Texas, in the early '80s, alongside The Dicks and Big Boys. These bands frequently played together and established the Austin hardcore scene. They released one single as the Stains in 1981, featuring a slower version of the future MDC song "John Wayne Was a Nazi" backed with "Born to Die".[1][2] Both songs were later released on the debut MDC album.

1980s

By 1982 the band had relocated to San Francisco, California, and renamed themselves MDC. By this point the band were active participants in the growing hardcore scene and released their debut LP Millions of Dead Cops on their own label, R Radical; Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles helped with distribution. The album is now widely considered a punk classic, and features songs such as "John Wayne Was a Nazi", "Dick for Brains", and the harsh criticism of the police, "I Remember". Other targets of criticism devoid of irony included capitalism ("Corporate Death Burger"), homophobia ("America's So Straight"),[3] and American culture ("Violent Rednecks").

During the summer of 1982 they became involved in the Rock Against Reagan Tour, during which time they fell out with the band Bad Brains when Rastafarian singer H.R. learned that Big Boys' singer, Randy Turner, was gay. H.R. and MDC's Dave Dictor had an intense confrontation. Upon Bad Brains' departure from the bill, they refused to return a loan owed to Big Boys and instead left a note that reportedly read, "burn in hell bloodclot faggot."[4] The incident resulted in the MDC song Pay to Come Along.[5] For MDC, 1982 ended with a tour of Europe with the Dead Kennedys which brought the band greater exposure in the punk scene outside of the U.S., especially in the UK.

Name change

In 1983 the band began to deemphasize the "Dead Cops" aspect of its name, as drummer Al Schvitz noted in a Flipside interview:

"It's a problem of people can't see the [name] concept, they take it as a violent action of saying what to do.... When we chose the name we really didn't figure on all the misinterpretation and we want to work around it and make our point clear and we don't want to have to talk through the name Millions of Dead Cops to any political issue we want to talk about. It doesn't mean that we don't believe in everything that goes down on the first album..."[6]

Their involvement in the Rock Against Reagan activities continued through 1983 and they returned to recording with the EP "Multi-Death Corporations" which was distributed in the UK by British anarcho-punk label Crass Records and R Radical in the U.S. The EP broke new ground by addressing, in the lengthy liner notes and artwork, the growth of corporations and the violent suppression of Communism in Central America. In 1984 they released another EP, Millions of Dead Children (also known as Chicken Squawk), this time dealing with Vegetarian and Vegan issues via a cowpunk tune.

Iconoclastic punk rock cartoonist John Crawford, an outspoken critic of the band, was cynical in his assessment of the alteration of the band's initial name, which he characterized as "stupid" and "inflammatory."[7] Crawford intimated that the name change had been opportunistic:

"It was like they thought there was something to be gained politically from cops busting the heads of kids, the old Yippies routine.... [C]onfrontational barricades politics are tactics that failed, only helped those they were intended to hurt. Now that was an awful thing for me to say right? But when MDC met with Crass in England, Crass told them they were bothered by the name Millions of Dead Cops and wouldn't include them on a compilation album they were plotting unless they changed it. So Mega Death Corporation was born."[7]

Smoke Signals was released in 1986, their second album featuring a more diverse style than previously, with a foray into '70s rock with the song "South Africa Is Free". This album also saw Gordon Fraser's first appearance as main guitarist. In the same year, MDC backed Michelle Shocked on a version of her song "Fogtown" that appears as a hidden track on her breakthrough album, Short Sharp Shocked.

Their third album, This Blood's for You, followed in 1987 and saw them continuing to showcase orthodox hardcore punk style and classic rock, including a cover of the Cream song "Politician". Themes again included intervention in Central America and criticism of the Reagan Administration. MDC toured Europe in 1988, where the live album Elvis - In the Rhineland was recorded. The band released the album Metal Devil Cokes in 1989.

1990s

The 1990s opened with a number of lineup changes, swiftly followed by the 1991 album Hey Cop! If I Had a Face Like Yours..., featuring Bill Collins (formerly of Fang, Special Forces, Intensified Chaos) on guitar and Matt Freeman (of Operation Ivy and Rancid) on bass. Collins wrote all the music on the album and sang three of the songs. This lineup toured the US and Europe. The acclaimed Shades of Brown album appeared in 1993, released by New Red Archives in the U.S. and We Bite in Europe. The album featured the Hip-Hop vegetarian song "Real Food, Real People, Real Bullets". MDC, now with guitarist Chris Wilder (formerly of Stikky) and bassist Erica Liss, marked the album with a tour of the former Soviet Union, making MDC the first American punk band to tour Russia. This was followed by two more European tours and several U.S. tours until 1995, where began a lull in the band's activity. The lack of new recorded material, other than a 7-inch release on Slap-a-Ham Records, and live performances after 1994, plus personal problems of band members, pointed to an informal break-up of the band.

2000s

MDC's singer, Dave Dictor, returned with an entirely new backing line-up in 2000, which included Long Island musicians Matt Van Cura,(bass) Erik Mischo,(guitar) and John Soldo,(Drums). MDC released a new album, Magnus Dominus Corpus, in 2004. They took part in a 25th anniversary world tour in 2005, with an all-original lineup. Following the death of Mikey Donaldson in September 2007, MDC has been touring the U.S. and Europe extensively with the Dictor/Posner/Smith/Schvitz lineup.

Recently, the band has been based in Portland, Oregon.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ David A. Ensminger Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk ...2011 - Page 82 "... club's logo, features a graffiti backdrop of the band's name and the phrases “No Frats” and “No KKK No War,” the latter likely spray-painted by the local band the Stains (later known as MDC), since it was a refrain from their song “Born to Die."
  2. ↑ David Ensminger - Left of the Dial: Conversations with Punk Icons 2013- Page 257 "I saw an archive photo of the iconic club Raul's in Austin, Texas, with “No War No KKK No Fascist / 1 ll {AH/1] ' USA” spray-painted on it.... It's from our song, "Born to Die." "
  3. ↑ Ashley Dawson, "Do Doc Martens Have a Special Smell?: Homocore, Skinhead Eroticism, and Queer Agency," in Kevin Dettmar, and William Richey (eds.), Reading Rock and Roll. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999; pg. 135.
  4. ↑ KFTH - Bad Brains Page
  5. ↑ Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins, Dance of Days. Akashic Books, 2003; pg. 108.
  6. ↑ Al Kowalewski and Pete Landswick, "MDC: Multi Death Corporation, Million Dead Children, Millions of Dead Cops," Flipside, whole no. 38 (c. July 1983), pp. 46-48.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "John Crawford," Flipside, whole no. 40 (Dec. 1983), pp. 44-45.

Lineup

Original members

Later lineup

2000–2002 Europe and USA tours lineup

One song on "MAGNUS DOMINUS CORPUS" reflects this line up, the song "Sick of It" which had been recorded a year or so before that album was made. A version of "I Remember," played in the style that this lineup often performed it live, was also recorded but never released. Before the 2002 European tour, drummer Al Batross and guitarist Brendon Bekowies left the band and were replaced by original guitarist Ron Posner (rejoining the band after an absence of many years) and New York City based drummer, Mike Pride.

2006 + 2007 Europe tour lineup

2008 Europe tour lineup

2008 America Tour lineup (August)

2009 America Tour lineup (March–April)

2009 NorthWestern America Tour line-up (Aug-Sept)

Discography

Singles/EPs

Albums

Splits

Live recordings

Compilations

External links