Minor Threat vs Rites of Spring
 

What say you? Two of the most influential punk acts in history, both sparked a new movement in punk. Pre-Fugazi battle time. Straight edge vs emo. Ian Mackaye vs Guy Picciotto (and Brendan Canty).

I'll take RoS. They took hardcore punk to new heights with an emphasis on melody and innovative personal lyrics. Minor Threat are great, but they'll bore me after a while.

Don't get me wrong I love Rites Of Spring but I'll never understand why they get so much credit for doing something that Husker Du were doing 4 years earlier.

Four years earlier, Husker Du's goal was to play really fast. They hadn't developed their new sound until Zen Arcade, and by then RoS was going strong. Zen Arcade is still one of the best, though.

You said

Husker Du were doing that as far back as the Everything Falls Apart album. (The cover of Donovan's Sunshine Superman ring a bell?) and with some of their singles like Status in 81 & their cover of Eight Miles High in 82.
Sure they slowed down a lot later in their career but they did the things you give ROS credit for (Melody & introspective lyrics) long before they released Zen Arcade.

BOOYA!

my thoughts exactly.....except i wound not say i love Rites of Spring.....in all honesty i don't really care for them much.....ironically i prefer Guy singing in Fugazi :)

Minor Threat will simply always be one of my absolute favorite hardcore/punk acts.....just too many great memories involving that band.....and even a few horrible one

I have to go with Minor Threat as well. No other punk band seems to bring the pissed off juvenile out in me more.

I guess I can admit that I'm wrong. I never knew the lyrics on Everything Falls Apart were already beginning to deviate from standard punk lyrics. I just never thought to compare that album with RoS.

Well then, the Descendents were doing it even earlier.

I think I like Rites of Spring better. Never really got into Minor threat, plus Drink Deep and For Want Of are the mad notes. I've always like Guy's voice a lot better than Ian's in Fugazi, so it's no wonder that carries back into their older bands.

Minor Threat.

These 2 bands really are too different to compare.

Should go with Embrace vs. Rites of Spring.

Fungzai vs Rites of Spring works alot better.

no, because the debate is Ian vs. Guy. Apart, not together.

Embrace would have made more sense, but I figured Minor Threat was the bigger, more influential act.

I also agree, Guy > Ian, vox-wise.

This a good point. The 2 bands in question are closely related to be sure but also so far apart.
Rites of Spring came after Minor Threat was dead and gone and DC hardcore was pretty much no longer being made there.
I personally can barely tolerate Picciotto's vocals (in Fugazi too) and I like the early hardcore sound so much better than Rites of Spring (I don't like Embrace either).

So.. Minor Threat for me. No contest.

i am still under the impression that Embrace was some kind of joke band :)

i think the vs here is actually great....two very different bands that are the beginning of a completely different band merging in many ways those two styles

i still would take Minor Threat as said above in no contest.....but if you made two cds of Fugazi....one all Ian Tracks and one all Guy....i would take the Guy cd over the Ian one

that is after i got my Unwound fix :)

Rites of Spring. I enjoy Minor Threat occasionally, but they tend to lose my attention quite quickly. There are other DC hardcore bands I prefer, and I rarely get through the discography in one listen. End on End, however, is another matter. That compilation opened up so many doors to other bands for me.

Just curious; which DC hardcore bands do you prefer to Minor Threat? If we're on the same page - I mean 1980-1983 or whenever Minor Threat disbanded.

OK, if we're talking 80-83, Bad Brains, whilst I also prefer the Void/Faith split LP.

Yeah, I agree with most of that.
Bad Brains were the best back then and I love Void (on that split LP) probably more than Minor Threat.
Ian's little brother's band (Faith) had nothing on Minor Threat though.

More to the point, I like all of those bands more than Rites of Spring. I don't particularly dislike the band but I find the "post-DC hardcore" sound generally boring in comparison to "DC hardcore" - even the lesser bands that popped up during the brief period. That plus the fact that I don't like the sound of Guy's voice equals me never listening to Rites of Spring.

Anyway, that's my convoluted explanation of why I like Minor Threat much more than Rites of Spring.

Void's half is amazing. Faith's half is kinda crap.

"You're X'd" has to be one of the most dumb songs ever.

dear god.


Government Issue were a great band, as were Black Market Baby, Untouchables and Scream.

But yeah, Faith is kind of a joke to me.

I never really got much into G.I., Untouchables, or Scream but I like them all more than Rites of Spring for sure.

Black Market Baby! Not exactly hardcore but a great band. When I was a little kid I used to hear them on the school bus every day for a while because older kids would blast it from the back seat. Later, as a grown-up but before the mp3 age I looked for a CD in every record store I went into - never found one. Great band. Here's a video.


And just because I love them so much, here's some Void.

Yeah. DC was never my favorite scene over all. Give me Boston over DC any day.

Nothing in DC comes close to the Boston scene, at least in my opinion.

My favorite Hardcore moment:



I mean, I do like Minor Threat, but as I say with their "complete discography" (which is not even complete. needs a re-issue with the "First Demo" CD and the tracks from the dischord box set), I find it to fall apart in the second half. The individual EP's to me are better than the compilation as a whole.

I'm into the Vancouver punk scene.

My thoughts exactly.

hmmmm i'm the exact opposite


but then i suck :)

I just liked them better when they were writing anthem songs like "Minor Threat", rather than doing half assed covers of "Good Don't Wear White" and all that. Second half of the record kinda bores me. Not bad, but they were better at their fastest and most furious.

Yes. Vancouver and Victoria were major scenes.

Dayglo Abortions, NoMeansNo, DOA, Death Sentence, Slow, Subhumans, The Stiffs, The Pointed Sticks.. the list goes on.

Canada to me is a country that may not be on the tip of the tongue when it comes to music in general. Be it punk or metal, but if you are to ask people some of the essentials in those genres, I bet you a Canadian band will be brought up.

In punk, DOA. In Metal, Gorguts or Cryptopsy. Canada is a hot bed for so many influential bands in different genres.

"What say you?"

Minor Threat every time! They got better with every release, Out Of Step's always going to be in my Top Ten best records.

yea man rites of spring is probobly just taking credit that doesnt even belong to them

The DC scene is weak if you subtract Minor Threat and Bad Brains.

Minor Threat. I have been trying to think of some clever and logical argument to back up my opinion but I think it just boils down to the fact they have a greater emotional impact on me. I can't really explain why, does that make me crap at this forum thing ?