Album dossier / 1983

Out of Step

Minor Threat · Hardcore Punk/Straight Edge

Minor Threat's sole full-length was recorded at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studio in Arlington, Virginia, in early 1983 after the band briefly broke up when guitarist Lyle Preslar left for college; Ian MacKaye has said a conversation with Bad Brains' H.R. convinced him the band's message still mattered enough to reconvene, with Preslar quitting school to rejoin and bassist Brian Baker switching to second guitar so Steve Hansgen could join on bass for the record. MacKaye has described the album's lyrics as largely reflecting the gossip, backstabbing and internal tension within Washington D.C.'s own hardcore scene rather than outward political targets, and drummer Jeff Nelson convinced him to add a spoken-word interlude on the title track clarifying that its straight-edge lyrics described MacKaye's personal choice rather than a mandate for the band or scene. Released on the band's own Dischord Records, Out of Step became the definitive document of the drug-and-alcohol-free hardcore ethos Minor Threat's earlier singles had helped name, and its outtakes were later unearthed and released as a historical curiosity decades on.