Rites of Spring

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Rites of Spring was an American punk band from Washington, D.C., formed in late 1983. The line-up consisted of singer and guitarist Guy Picciotto, guitarist Eddie Janney, bassist Mike Fellows and drummer Brendan Canty. The name refers to the ballet The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, whose premiere ended in uproar. Picciotto also wanted a rebirth of the local punk scene, which in his view had ground to a halt. In its short existence the band played live only nineteen times and split up in early 1986.

Music and breakthrough

The only album, Rites of Spring, was recorded in February 1985 at Inner Ear Studios and released in June of that year by Dischord Records. Ian MacKaye and Michael Hampton produced it. The band belonged to the Revolution Summer of 1985, a new movement in Washington hardcore. The music is fast and fierce, but also melodic, with more build-up than in ordinary hardcore. What was new lay above all in the lyrics: personal and confessional, about relationships and difficult feelings rather than anger alone.

Influence

For that reason Rites of Spring is considered one of the first bands of emo-hardcore, a label the band itself rejected. Picciotto and Canty went on to found the band Fugazi together with Ian MacKaye. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam also named Rites of Spring as an influence. Anyone who wants to begin the history of sensitive guitar music ends up here, at a short, intense beginning.

Listening

• 
  For Want Of · Rites of Spring, 1985
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1985Rites of Spring

Mentioned in other articles

• Emo GenreEmo began in the mid-1980s in Washington, when bands such as Rites of Spring played hardcore with personal, emotional lyrics: emotional hardcore.

See also

• Emo