Rites of Spring was an American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band from

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, formed in late 1983. Along with Embrace and Beefeater, they were one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement Andersen, Mark; Jenkins, Mark ( Soft Skull Press, 2001). ''Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital''. Fourth ed., 2009.

Akashic Books Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher, formed in 1997. It was started by Johnny Temple (bassist), Johnny Temple, bassist of Girls Against Boys and mid-'80s Dischord band Soulside, with the mission "to make literature more part ...

. . p. 193. which took place within the Washington, D.C. hardcore punk scene. Musically, the band pushed the violence and passion of

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...

while experimenting with composition. The personal nature of their lyrics put them at the forefront of the emerging emo genre, though the band rejected the label. The band only performed 19 shows, 16 in the DC area and 3 outside of DC. Vocalist/guitarist Guy Picciotto and drummer Brendan Canty went on to play in

Fugazi Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They were noted for their style-transc ...

with producer and former

Minor Threat Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Washington, D.C., by vocalist Ian MacKaye and drummer Jeff Nelson. MacKaye and Nelson had played in several other bands together, and recruited bassist Brian Baker and guita ...

singer

Ian MacKaye Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye (; born April 16, 1962) is an American musician. Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.–based independent record label, and the frontman of hardcore pu ...

in the late 1980s, while bassist Mike Fellows formed Miighty Flashlight and has had a solo career.

History

Picciotto, Canty, and Fellows had previously played together in the short-lived hardcore band Insurrection. The trio was joined by guitarist Eddie Janney—formerly of the Faith, Skewbald, and the Untouchables—and began writing music together in December 1983. The band finished several songs during this early period, like "All There Is", "End on End", and "By Design". The group made a demo recording at Inner Ear Studios in April 1984, but Fellows moved to California. "We thought he was leaving forever", Picciotto recalled. "And then we just kept practicing without him, hoping he'd come back. Lo and behold, three months later, he returned." ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'''s Matt Kantor described the band's music as being at times "fast and furious", while also being "at other times lush and evocative though always with a sense of drive and melody". Though rooted in the loud-and-fast style of

, Rites of Spring is to be among the first bands who played music in the emotional hardcore genre, or what is now commonly and retrospectively called emo-core, a precursor of screamo.

Jenny Toomey Jennifer Gillen Toomey (born 1968) is an American indie rock musician and arts activist. Career Toomey was a member of the bands Geek, Tsunami (Virginia band), Tsunami, Liquorice, Grenadine (band), Grenadine, So Low and Choke, among others, a ...

notes that, "Rites of Spring existed well before the term did and they hated it." They were influenced by The Faith (Eddie Janney's previous band) and their 1983 EP '' Subject to Change'' with their introspective lyrics and angry, melody-tinged songwriting. The band is named after the symphonic ballet ''

The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring'' () is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky ...

'' by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

. "We were reading about Stravinsky and the first erformancewhere everybody beat each other on the head", Picciotto explained. "Whenever you fuck with someone musically and they take their music really serious, they're gonna fuck with you back." Picciotto also said the band chose the name to reflect their desire to revive the D.C. punk scene. "We were trying to create a rebirth of what's going on here", he said. "It seemed to be stagnating for a long time and we just thought the name kind of fit the way we felt, a springtime type thing."

Recordings

'' Rites of Spring'' was the band’s first album. Its twelve songs were recorded at Inner Ear Studios in February 1985, produced by

and

and Michael Hampton of The Faith and SOA. It was released on vinyl in June of that year as Dischord Records No. 16. The album was re-released on CD and cassette in 1987, with an additional track from the same session, "Other Way Around", as well as the four songs from the Rites' follow-up EP, '' All Through a Life'', Dischord No. 22. The CD and cassette originally retained the number "16", while the 1991 repress, as well as the 2001 remastered version of the same seventeen songs, were numbered "16CD" and given the new title '' End on End''. Their first demo of six songs was recorded in April 1984, almost a year before the sessions that became their debut album. It was released as a CD EP and 10" vinyl record in 2012 on Dischord Records with the catalog number 176. The band broke up in January 1986 soon after the sessions that produced the "All Through A Life" recording.

Post-breakup and musical influence

Picciotto, Janney and Canty formed

One Last Wish One Last Wish was a short-lived post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C. It was formed in May 1986 by members of Rites of Spring and Embrace, and split up in January 1987. History Amidst the breakup of Rites of Spring in 1986, three of its fo ...

with Embrace alumnus, guitarist

Michael Hampton Michael Hampton (born November 15, 1956) is an American funk/rock guitarist. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. Career Hampton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, ...

. They recorded one studio album, entitled ''1986'', which was released in 1999 due to the band breaking up after mixing was finished.Strong, Martin C. (2003) "Rites of Spring", in ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, The Rites of Spring personnel reunited for a quasi-reincarnation called Happy Go Licky, releasing an LP/CD of various live concert recordings though never producing any studio work. The music was much more experimental than Rites of Spring, heavily improvised and featuring tape loop effects. Picciotto and Canty eventually teamed up with bassist Joe Lally and former

, Skewbald/Grand Union,

Egg Hunt An egg hunt is a treasure hunt played at Easter during which children look for hidden decorated eggs or Easter eggs. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, ...

, and Embrace singer

(co-owner of the band’s label,

Dischord Records Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.–based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release '' Minor Disturbance'' by their band the Teen Id ...

) in

. Mike Fellows went on to do session work for the Drag City label and form Miighty Flashlight, releasing an eponymous album under this name in 2002. Dischord released the band's only demo, entitled ''Six Song Demo'', in October 2012. All tracks on the demo were previously recorded versions of songs appearing on the ''Rites of Spring'' album.

Musical style and legacy

Rites of Spring incorporated confessional lyrics into their hardcore punk style. According to Quinn Villarreal of ''Sirius XM'', "Songwriting focus shifted from disdain and rage, to themes like relationships issues, trauma, and other hard to discuss topics." Although Rites of Spring are regarded as having "unknowingly created and defined" the emo subgenre of

, Picciotto himself has publicly rejected this notion. When asked about it in an interview his response was, "I've never recognized 'emo' as a genre of music. I always thought it was the most retarded term ever. I know there is this generic commonplace that every band that gets labeled with that term hates it. They feel scandalized by it. But honestly, I just thought that all the bands I played in were punk rock bands. The reason I think it's so stupid is that – what, like the

Bad Brains Bad Brains are an American punk rock band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1976. They are widely regarded as pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members have objected to the use of this term to describe their music. They are also an ade ...

weren't emotional? What – they were robots or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me."

Members

* Guy Picciotto – guitar, vocals * Edward Janney – guitar * Mike Fellows – bass guitar * Brendan Canty – drums

Discography

Studio album

* '' Rites of Spring'' (1985)

EP

* '' All Through a Life'' (1987)

Compilation

* '' End on End'' (1991)

Demo

* ''Six Song Demo'' (2012, recorded in 1984)

References

External links

* Pattison, Louis (November 27, 2012)
"Rites of Spring and the summer that changed punk rock"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rites Of Spring American emo musical groups Hardcore punk groups from Washington, D.C. American post-hardcore musical groups Dischord Records artists First-wave emo bands Musical groups disestablished in 1986 Musical groups established in 1984 1983 establishments in Washington, D.C.