Veteran Hardcore Band SCREAM To Release New Album 'DC Special' In November

Veteran hardcore band SCREAM will release a new album, "DC Special", on November 10 via Dischord. The LP's first preview track, "DC Special Sha La La", can be streamed below.

SCREAM formed in 1979. Drummer Kent Stacks, bassist Skeeter Enoch Thompson and the brothers Pete and Franz Stahl attended school together in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, when they began to discover the punk and new wave scene in Washington, D.C. and the provocative power of making music. Like most of the punk bands in D.C., they were influenced by the BAD BRAINS, but their rock and roll sensibilities set them apart. In 1982, they went into Inner Ear Studio with Ian MacKaye and Eddie Janney to record Dischord's first full-length album, "Still Screaming".

SCREAM followed this with a second full length album, "This Side Up", in 1984. The band toured throughout the U.S. and were one of the first American hardcore bands to tour Europe. In 1987, they released "Banging The Drum", which was recorded at both Southern Studios in London and Inner Ear. In 1988, "No More Censorship" was released on reggae label RAS Records. SCREAM returned to Dischord to release "Fumble" in 1993.

They made a few lineup changes along the way, including the addition of their friend Harley Davidson on second guitar, and, when Kent Stacks left the band to start a family, they asked a young local drummer, Dave Grohl, to take over. After a number of years with "the SCREAM team", Dave went on to join NIRVANA and form the FOO FIGHTERS. In 1996, at a Christmas reunion show, Kent Stacks returned as SCREAM's drummer; the show was recorded and released as the CD "Live At The Black Cat". Over the next few years, everyone branched out in different directions — Franz joined the FOO FIGHTERS for a short period and Pete played with GOATSNAKE and EARTHLINGS? The band returned as a unit, with Clint Walsh on second guitar, in 2011 to record the "Complete Control Sessions", which was released as an EP on Side One Dummy and was, until now, the band's most recent release.

For "DC Special", the band invited their extensive music community to help create a unique project that weaves the history of music in Washington, D.C. into the story of the band. Recorded by Don Zientara just weeks before his studio was evicted from its longtime location, the record is rich with both the sounds of Inner Ear and those of friends and musicians who influenced SCREAM and who shaped D.C. music over the past six decades. "DC Special" embodies the same sense of community and politics that inspired SCREAM from the start and is a truly special collection of new music that speaks to the present and also tells the story of D.C. music, SCREAM, and the influences that shaped them.

"DC Special" includes contributions from Jerry Busher, Amy Pickering, Mark Cisneros, Dave Grohl, Onam Emmett, Ian MacKaye, Joe Lally, Bob Berberich, John Goetchius and more voices from SCREAM's longtime community.

Photo credit: Joel Dowling