DC Punk Explored in Three New History Books

Keep Your Ear to the Ground

By John R. Davis

Davis, a curator of the University of Maryland’s DC punk collection, wrote this intriguing history of the city’s punk zines. It may seem like an arcane topic, but the stories of publications like the Infiltrator, Truly Needy, Thrillseeker, WDC Period, and Metrozine aren’t widely documented, making this a valuable resource—and also just a good read for anyone who cares about the area’s music scene. Some of the zines had brief lives or very limited audiences. (One had a print run of 25 copies.) But all contributed to a sense of community back when the effort of discovering basic information was a big part of the fun.

Descenes and Discords: An Anthology

By Howard Wuelfing

A key zine in Davis’s book is Descenes, which chronicled DC’s early punk and new-wave scene in 1979 and 1980. This new anthology collects all of those issues, along with a later publication called Discords that covered the whole country. Editing both was Wuelfing, then a local musician and today a prominent music publicist. Each issue is reproduced here with the original layouts and time-capsule ads. It’s a familiar mix of interviews, news, and reviews, all delivered with sarcastic humor, punk idealism, and good-natured bile. A thoughtful new Ian MacKaye Q&A opens the book.

Swiz

By Swiz

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the DC hardcore band Swiz was a familiar presence around town, playing shows that were chaotic and exciting, scary and inspiring. The band’s members—plus a few other involved parties—have penned this insider account of Swiz’s rise and demise, with results that are entertaining, revealing, and at times a bit depressing. Featuring photos, show fliers, and other visuals, it captures a particular moment in the city’s punk scene. Anyone who was a regular at the Safari Club will be transported back to that too-fleeting era.

This article appears in the October 2025 issue of Washingtonian.

Rob Brunner

Politics and Culture Editor

Rob Brunner grew up in DC and moved back in 2017 to join Washingtonian. Previously, he was an editor and writer at Fast Company and other publications. He lives with his family in Chevy Chase DC.