Something I Learned Today

Punk Rock and Other Assorted Bullshit

Double 0

September 27th, 2005 | Posted by: Eric | Category: 80's Hardcore


I’ve always been fascinated by the split releases that Dischord Records has been putting out for many years (see the Reptile House post for another). During the height of my record collecting days my goal was to own a copy of every half release on Dischord. That never came to fruition, though with the advent of the digital age I’ve been able to track many of the songs down. Which brings us to Double O and their self-titled 7″ EP. Double O formed in 1981, comprised of former Youth Brigade and Red C members. Their lone EP was released in 1983, just as the band split. Alternately referred to as “You’ve Lost” after the first track, this release was a split between Dischord and DC’s R&B records, listed as Dischord 10 1/2. 5 tracks of punchy, mid-tempo hardcore that everyone compares to the Faith, a comparison that is good enough for me. The record is infamous for including synth sounds on “Death of a Friend”, pure heresy at the time. Take a listen:

Double O - You’ve Lost.mp3
Double O - Is It Better.mp3
Double O - Gray to Black.mp3
Double O - Death of A Friend.mp3
Double O - There’s No Reasoning.mp3

Stuff:

  • A double 7″ of the bands demos were released as Double Barrelled years ago. I’ve never heard this to comment on the quality
  • KFTH has a nice Double 0 page
  • Double 0 interviews, etc at DementLieu Punk Archive

    • 4 Comments so far

    1. Avery H. December 31st, 1969 4:00 pm

      First, thanks for posting this. I now have a “listenable” version of this EP. My copy is so old and scratched to shit…I actually attempted to make some MP3’s of it several years ago but the skipping was horrible. I even tried to hold the phono needle down with my thumb while ripping the songs to reduce the skips! It’s funny how your ear gets use to the expected skips in records.

    2. Dave Clifford September 27th, 2005 8:12 pm

      Funny… This record aged very well. I bought it in 1988 after a couple years searching for this supposed holy grail Double O EP. I thought it was alright, but now it’s funny to remember how I thought it was TOO SLOW, with poor vocals and the production was thin (even though at the time I liked stuff like Embrace and Rites of Spring as well). I later sold the record for some insanely high price and forgot about it until now. And now, listening to these songs again, it sounds 100% better to me. Thanks for another great post!

    3. Vom September 28th, 2005 12:16 pm

      I’ve heard the Double Barrelled demos - the sound quality is awful. Some of the songs are good but it’s near-unlistenable. I wouldn’t pay money for that release, you can find it on Soulseek.

    4. Emerson September 29th, 2005 2:20 am

      I had a double-O once but I was very excited at the time.

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