I AGAINST I (1986)
1 Intro
2 I Against I
3 House of Suffering
4 Re-Ignition
5 Secret 77
6 Let Me Help
7 She’s Calling You
8 Sacred Love
9 Hired Gun
10 Return to Heaven
Thus, in hindsight, this was the future, as seemingly every progressive-minded hardcore band willing to change things up from back then to the present day were inspired by this record, from NYHC contemporaries like Leeway (RIP Eddie Sutton) and slightly later contemporaries like Burn and Orange 9mm, and bands like Turnstile in the present day. And in their native DC, it’s certainly plausible that the then-emerging Fugazi and others like Scream likely took cues from this record. Dag Nasty’s “When I Move” was (in its original arrangement, finally recorded that way by singer Peter Cortner and drummer Colin Sears’ post-Dag Nasty band Los Vampiros) directly inspired by “Re-Ignition” as well. The record’s impact was also felt widely outside of the world of underground hardcore punk, with acts as diverse as Fishbone, Living Colour, 311, and others all being audibly influenced by it.
Among the audience members was Legs McNeil, who cofounded the influential magazine Punka year later and helped the Ramones foment a seismic shift in a rock n’ roll landscape dominated at the time by overly polished production, corporate packaging, and stagnate playlists. A mere 18 months after the aforementioned CBGB appearance, Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone began recording their eponymously titled debut—the first album to cohesively document and fully articulate the punk rock ethos. Ramones functioned as primitive, back-to-basics, full-tilt rock n’ roll created by social misfits for a worldwide audience of outcasts just waiting for someone to plant their flag. “Hey ho, let’s go!” was all they needed to hear.