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State Of Alert (often abbreviated as S.O.A.) were a four-piece hardcore punk band from Washington, DC that were around from 1980 to 1981. They were one of many early hardcore bands to take over the DC scene, which yielded some incredible, ferocious, and raw punk that laid the foundation for the sound we all know and love today. Though the band’s existence was brief, they don’t tend to be overlooked in the pages of history because of how notable the band’s members were. The obvious one is their lead singer, who at the time was Henry Garfield. Post-S.O.A. you might know him better as Henry Rollins, the longest-running singer of Black Flag, and later of the Rollins Band and a billion other non-music projects. Their other members were active in a litany of other projects, particularly The Faith, Embrace, One Last Wish, Iron Cross, and Manifesto.
S.O.A. put out one 7″ during their time, which became the second release ever put out by Dischord Records (with The Teen Idles’ Minor Disturbance being the first). It’s a solid release by a young band and definitely worth checking out out of pure enjoyment, in addition to its obvious importance in the punk rock timeline. They also recorded a demo, which Dischord finally released years later in 2014, and a few compilation tracks that appeared on the classic Flex Your Head. Enjoy.
