Minor Threat
Out Of Step
- Released
- 2008
- Format
- Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, EP, Reissue, Remastered
- Label
- Dischord Records · DISCHORD 10
Rock HardcorePunk
View on Discogs ↗ Related titles
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Fugazi Fugazi The Fugazi EP is what straightedge became after MacKaye dissolved Minor Threat — Out of Step is the founding document, Fugazi is where the project went when it realised the thesis needed complicating. -
Beat Happening Black Candy Dischord and K Records are the two American DIY labels here — both built on the principle that you don't need industry infrastructure to sustain a serious music practice.
Out of Step (1983) is the founding document of straightedge — Ian MacKaye’s declaration, on the title track, of a life built around refusal: no drinking, no smoking, no drugs. The music is fast, short, and precise; Minor Threat at the most compressed end of hardcore’s tempo range, making records that lasted under two minutes and felt complete.
Dischord Records, co-founded by MacKaye, operated on principles the music industry doesn’t usually sustain: $5 at the door, no advertising money, 50/50 profit splits with bands, a catalogue kept in print. The longevity of that model — consistently maintained over three decades — makes it unusual in ways entirely separate from what the music sounds like.