(Akashic Books)

www.akashicbooks.com

BY ROXANA HADADI

There is basically nothing wrong with the updated version of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. In fact, if you're looking for flaws, good luck.

A slightly tweaked version of Andersen's and Jenkins' original work, which came out in 2003, this edition now includes a new chapter, more photos and some extra original material about the nation's capital's viciously lively and undeniably impactful underground punk scene. Whether Andersen, a local activist who co-founded the activist collective Positive Force D.C. in 1985, or Jenkins, a music writer for The Washington Post, Blurt, Time Out New York and other publications, are turning their eyes to Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bikini Kill or the one and only Henry Rollins, their musings and insights are offered up with eloquent depth and ease.

It's obvious that the two know the subject inside-and-out, and that kind of reassuring intimacy makes the book impossible to put down. There's so much packed in here, though, that you have to take a breather every now and then to process it all. There's 16 chapters, an introduction, a preface and an afterword, all of which not only put you closer to Andersen and Jenkins - who each describe their interest in and affection for the punk scene - but also to the book's countless characters, kids who became enamored with a fledgling underground scene that still continues to this day.

Whether the authors are touching on hardcore, riot grrrl or the political and social motives driving bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat, the depth of research put into the subjects is somewhat staggering. There are lengthy conversations here with people like D.C. legend Ian MacKaye and Virginia's Dave Grohl, and detailed accounts of important events like Revolution Summer, which went down in 1985 and helped switch the city's original thrashy hardcore sound into a more melodic one that would later inspire bands like Fugazi and Jawbox. As the book notes, "‘Revolution Summer was a climax, the end of something,' Amy Pickering said in 1987. The innocence and isolation of the original hardcore scene was gone, a development that was both threatening and promising."

And, as any good book about punk should do, Dance of Days also covers the concept of selling-out, and how the decision by some bands to sign with major labels sent shockwaves through the community. The role of D.I.Y. legend Dischord Records, which is co-owned by MacKaye and Minor Threat bandmate Jeff Nelson, is closely looked at, but as Andersen and Jenkins note, "the growing division of labor between musicians and labels was a logical evolution... For the most successful, signing to major labels was the next step. This was a painful transition for idealists like MacKaye. In early 1987, he sadly noted that bands like Hüsker Dü were no longer ‘confederates in the same conspiracy.'"

In that sense, then, the book is awash with nostalgia, a kind of hard-edged sentimentality that's obvious in the plethora of bands named, people interviewed and overall care given to describing this scene as closely and accurately as possible. But while the book is unquestionably a labor of love for Andersen and Jenkins, it's still critical and graphic enough to work as a well-rounded narrative, one that - as Andersen writes in the book's afterword - should inspire you to "find your own ideals, your own dreams. ... Make it a story worthy of being told to others someday, a story worth having lived." Preach on, brother, preach.