Breaking Out of the Waiting Room

“Like its classic predecessor Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming, Brandon Gentry’s Capitol Contingency is a penetrating and crucial history of the massively influential Washington, D.C. punk and indie scene of the ’80s and ’90s. A Fugazi, a Tsunami, and everything in between.” — Elizabeth Nelson, DC-based journalist and contributor to the New York Times, The Ringer, and Pitchfork, among others, and singer-songwriter in the Paranoid Style

“An almost unbelievable bounty of information and inspiration from one of punk’s most influential regional communities. Capitol Contingency is rich with detail and depth, embodying the personality, spark, and creativity of D.C.’s extraordinary punk scene.” — John R. Davis, musician, archivist, and author of Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, DC

“I’ve read more books about bands than I can remember and few have been as engaging as Capitol Contingency. I highly recommend it for any music fan, but especially for those that enjoy bands such as Dismemberment Plan, Fugazi, Jawbox, etc.” — Dan Corbin, Side One Track One

Washington, D.C., 1991 to 1999: punk had fractured, the Internet had not yet engulfed everyday life, and the major-label compact disc marketing machine was riding its greatest and final era of dominance before file-sharing brought it down. Already ground zero for some of the country’s finest hardcore punk and post-punk, the nation’s capital was emerging once again with a sound that answered to no one.

Drawing on firsthand interviews with the artists themselves, the book digs into the crucial albums that defined the era, records by Fugazi, Jawbox, Chisel, Unrest, Velocity Girl, and the Dismemberment Plan, tracing the wealth of smart, inventive rock and pop that poured out of D.C. across the decade.

Ian MacKaye, Ted Leo, Travis Morrison, J. Robbins, Craig Wedren, and others revisit the post-hardcore and indie underground from the inside, sharing the memories and perspectives of the people who built a scene that has come to embody the best of late-century independent American rock.