MDC

Cribbing from a press kit is a half-assed way to write about a band, but this press release is from 1982, so please pardon: "MDC is a hardcore political humanist band from San Francisco. Formerly the Stains" -- "Stains" with a big anarchy logo -- "from Austin, Texas, the group changed its name and address in March of this year, and released this record three months later on R Radical Records, the band's label. Millions of Dead Cops is their first album."

That album is one of hardcore's high-water marks, with just over a dozen songs in nearly as many minutes. Chief among its unprecedented punk invective was "John Wayne Was a Nazi," a blast of funky skank. And in 1982, rippin' on the Duke meant you were going to have to fight someone -- not that the band didn't piss enough people off with a name whose initials variously stood for Misguided Devout Christians, Multi-Death Corporation, and Missile Destroyed Civilization. Three-quarters of the band's classic lineup has returned with a solid new album, Magnus Dominus Corpus. Filled with songs like "The Ballad of G.W." and "Girls Like You Make Me Queer," it proves that righteous anger, wiseass humor, and monster drumming are timeless.