“In My Eyes” – Minor Threat
(Words: Ian MacKaye, Music: Minor Threat, available on Complete Discography, Dischord 1988)

As someone who missed out on hardcore (and most of the derivative “-core” bands), it’s easy to dismiss hardcore as either juvenile or primitive.  I’m also tempted to fill this post with backhanded praise by focusing exclusively on “the scene” and thus calling the music an excuse for likeminded kids to come together, meet each other, blow off steam, and sharpen their ideals.  Still, I’m not sure this is fair to either the genre or Minor Threat, a band I’m tempted to declare “the apex of hardcore” only because Complete Discography is the only hardcore I own (not entirely true if you call Husker Du or The Minutemen hardcore, but you catch my drift).  That would just say more about myself than it would about the band, so I’ll leave the citizens (and ex-patriots, as I know a few people who are former hardcore devotees) to elect their own king.

While I can’t claim to know much about hardcore (and know my history of Minor Threat exclusively through Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life – an essential read), I understand Minor Threat’s appeal.  Some might argue that these songs are political mouthpieces, two minute personal statements that planted the seeds of the straight edge movement, but that interpretation short changes the songs.  Looking beneath the tiny production and Ian MacKaye’s manic shouts, there’s a surprising amount of structure.  While it might lack melody, “In My Eyes” breaks itself into sections based on its function.  The song starts with a repeated drum and guitar figure – an overture of sorts for maybe the most ambitious song in their catalog.  Then, after slowing down, the band locks into a slower, relatively quieter section alternating with shout bursts of loudness.  MacKaye uses this section (let’s call it the “verse”) to tell his story, outlining the reasons and excuses people give for drinking and smoking and issuing his passionate replies through screams.  By the end of the verse, MacKaye grows angrier and more pointed, yielding to the breakneck chorus section.  The drums and guitars switch into double time, and as MacKaye repeats the title line, the kids can slam dance.  Still, even within this quiet-loud-quiet dynamic (one that alternative rock would milk in the following decade), there’s more going on than just stepping on a distortion pedal.  The guitars in the verse create a specific type of noise – a sort of lurching, almost menacing sound – rather than just “making noise” (as some imitators might interpret it).  Perhaps this focus on sound and tension becomes easier knowing that MacKaye goes on to form Fugazi, but “In My Eyes” sounds like more than a political slogan and bruises.

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