Enoch "Skeeter" Thompson grew up in Bailey's Crossroads and got his first guitar as a reward from his baseball coach for pitching a no-hitter in the championship game. From there, he met Franz Stahl at school and his new friend helped him learn how to play that guitar. The two, along with Franz’s older brother Pete Stahl on vocals and Kent Stax on drums formed a band called Scream, inspired by the hardcore sound exploding out of DC, particularly bands like Bad Brains and the Teen Idles....

Vivek Rangarajan is the DJ and host of Death Waves, a call to all metallic heshers, greasy punx, industrial noisemongers, and synthwave junkies, on WGMU radio. D E A T H W A V E S is their mecca, presenting thick slabs of punishing audial assaults back to the roots of degeneracy, while looking towards our future doomsday. Listen live every Wednesday from 10-11:30PM at wgmuradio.com, radioflag.com/stations/iwgmu# and Mason Cable Channel 8.2.

Mark Robinson founded the indie band Unrest with Phil Krauth and Tim Moran while still attending Wakefield High in Arlington, VA. He started the label Teen Beat Records as a kind of lending library for the band's rehearsal tapes, as well as those of his friends' bands. Only one copy of each album existed and his classmates could borrow one for a few days.Their first public release was a compilation cassette called Extremism In the Defense of Liberty is No Vice on February 23, 1985. Bridget...

David Gilligan exploded out of the Reston hardcore scene and brought the principles he learned there of simplicity, honesty, and empowerment to far-flung locales such as a new scene in St. Augustine, Florida, Arizona, and even as a professor at Sterling College. He was the lead singer of three vital bands to the Reston scene: Knothead, Remission, and Avail, but has since grown as a musician, honing his vocals, developing his guitar playing, and even adding harmonica to the mix. Gilligan can...

Chris Henderson was active in the Northern Virginia and DC punk scene from 1987 thru 1999. He photographed over 80 bands, creating thousands of images. Most have never been published, though some grace albums by Scream, United Mutation, and the Suspects. He also published the D.C. Spotlight zine. He even did some background singing on tracks by Scream and Bullhead. The bands he photographed were Scream, Grey Matter, Shudder To Think, Bad Brains, Black Market Baby, Ignition, Fear, Bad...

Late ‘80s Northern Virginia/DC area punk quartet Indian Summer recorded four songs with J. Robbins producing in Baltimore in 1989. Thirty years later, that four song session plus a demo are available on vinyl. Formed by four Virginia teens, Indian Summer was a staple of the Northern Virginia all-ages scene in 1988 and 1989, playing Merrifield Community Hall, Arlington Women’s Hall and many a punk house party, a Positive Force show at d.c. space, and some of the first all-ages matinees at the...

In the spring of 1981, guitarist John Fox started a protest band called Dark Self Image in Fairfax with his brother Jay on bass. In July 1982, the band recorded their first demo at Inner Ear Studios. Mike Brown became the singer and in October, they changed their name to United Mutation. The band was then featured on the record Mixed Nuts Don't Crack, a sampler that established them alongside other bands that would form their Northern Virginia cohort, such as Media Disease and Nuclear...

Keith Robinson never planned to start a band or be a musician, but somehow wound up in the middle of the Reston hardcore scene providing vocals for Psychotic Symptoms. He has vivid memories of playing Jam for Man, and shares those along with other recollections from house parties and garage shows of the time. He also went on to form the short-lived hardcore band Step Aside with Steve Sklarew again on guitar and Carter Blitch on drums. After a successful career working on major motion...

Mike Martzke aka Lil Mike organized, promoted and emcee'd hundreds of concerts and nightclub events for bands including Sublime, Green Day, Fugazi, Rancid and many more. But before all that, he challenged the status quo in Reston with bands like Toolin' for Bovines and Jesus Freak. These early bands laid the groundwork for the Reston hardcore sound to come. And though he loved seeing live shows in DC at the time and had made many connections there, he realized that he might have to leave and...

Chris Condayan aka Chris Suspect was fundamental in reigniting a passion for punk rock and hardcore in the area with his group The Suspects. He also played bass in various Northern Virginia bands such as Lickity Split, Spitfires United and VPR. He formed Torque Records to put out the Suspects first 7”, but then went on to put out almost twenty releases by numerous excellent bands from NOVA like Shoutbus, Positive State, and the Goons. He discovered a passion for photography in 2007, and his...

James Barry started as a metalhead guitar shredder in Reston and became a world-renowned composer in New York, but views it all as music that comes from the same place. He should know, he has a PhD in composition and produced contemporary music concerts in New York City as artistic and managing director of Forecast Music for five seasons. Recently, he has been composing and producing experimental opera with inspiration ranging from Carrie Nation to Colonel Sanders. This is a long way from...

Davis Douglas started playing drums in the early 80s and never stopped. Early band memories include playing the Reston Festival in Lake Anne and Jam for Man with the band Illusion at the Reston Community Center. He went to school for music at James Madison University and currently works as an Account Manager at D'Addario & Company, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of fretted strings. He is the drummer for Face First, Southern Guns and Harper's Ferry.

Julie Jonas discovered chaotic music and her own identity after growing up as one of ten kids in Southern California. She learned to play bass from her two older brothers and studied violin, but really connected to music through the bands playing the Sterling Community Center after moving to Virginia. However, a chance encounter with an old friend at community college led her to managing VFW 9274 and getting younger veterans there by booking metal and hardcore shows. Now, she’s aspiring to...

The Firnats consist of four friends from Reston, VA: Sean Flanagan on guitar and vocals, Griffin Low on bass, Kurtis Kunkel on drums, and Chris Castro on guitar. They formed in late 2015 when Flanagan was still in high school and jamming with his buddy Aaron Pirnat, from which the group gets their name. The Firnats take a lot of inspiration from the alternative bands of the 90's and 2000's such as Weezer, Pavement, Cage the Elephant, and the Strokes. The band has played everywhere from the...

Davis White got started playing live music late but more than made up for it. Once introduced to UK Subs by a neighbor, he bought a drum kit off a co-worker and started the band Media Disease. After appearing on the Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack compilation with the likes of Nuclear Crayons and United Mutation, they put out their first self-titled album in 1982. This then led to an eight month stint in the crossover metal-meets-hardcore band Malefice, also with Mike Clayberg. Soon after, Davis...

Named for a line in Reservoir Dogs, this trio from Arlington, VA with Lilly Menard on bass and vocals, Benjamin Tankersly on guitar and vocals, and Andy Gale on drums made post-punk rock music reminiscent of Sonic Youth and the Smiths. They released only one official cassette EP, Trigger Happy, in 1995 on Victrola Records, the label run by Billups Allen (later called Generalissimo.) Tankersly and Gale later went on to play with Allen in Virginia's answer to the Minutemen, Shoutbus! Meanwhile,...

Ron Winters Jr. formed Branch Manager with Dave Allen on bass and Derrick Decker on drums in 1990. They went on to sign with Dischord Records and become the torchbearers for post-hardcore Reston. They released a self-titled debut in 1995 and Anything Tribal, their second and acclaimed final LP, recorded with the help of Ian Mackaye and Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios, in 1997. Winters discovered a talent for writing young as the son of a schoolteacher. When added to his newfound dexterity...

Soren Bakken played several Jam for Man shows singing and playing guitar with Urban Ethics alongside Dave Lash, Jamie Goode, and Michael Rohlfs. Inspired by post-punk bands such as New Order and early alternative bands like REM, and guided by Manassas band the Throes, they created a sound that was different than anything else coming out of Northern Virginia at the time. Bakken became a sound engineer, but also went on to work with guitarist John Ireland as the bass player of HeLO, which...

Sam Gunderson is one of Reston's original guitar heroes. His knowledge of music and love of grooves allows him to navigate easily between blues, rock, hip-hop, go-go, and more. Gunderson grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Randy Rhoads, while also learning at the feet of other local legends such as Jon Rustad and Mike Davis of The Iceboxers and Joe Lawlor of Egypt. Gunderson jammed with keyboardist David Linsenmayer early on in elementary school, but it wasn't until they...

Pat Kennedy started the band Hostile Environment at age fourteen after first discovering punk rock through bands like Black Flag and Dead Kennedys and then listening to Teen Idles and thinking that he could have a band like that. Hostile Environment skated and played every party they could in Reston. They also put out a demo tape called Rite to Me in 1988. They were one of the first Reston hardcore bands and paved the way for many groups that followed. Then, Pat moved on to playing bass with...

Jeff Berman now lives in Los Angeles and fronts the band Divided Heaven. However, unlike most of our guests, he was born and raised in the Amish country of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he started the rock band The Statiks (yes, with a "k") as a teenager. While still in Philadelphia and later during and after his time at American University, he played in the street punk band The Boils. After meeting Chris Suspect at a weekly soccer game in Washington D.C., he joined the band V.P.R. He toured...

Barry Cover has played drums in a lot of bands, from Northern Virginia to Richmond. He started out playing Jam for Man with a band called Lake Cocytus, moved on to gigs with JarHead at the local spots like Music Store and Dharma Coffee House, then branching out to Asylum, Memory Lane, and the Loft. When he moved to RVA, he was in high demand, joining Wiseacre, Dimestore Hoods, and Wheelbite. Later, he continued his career with Amoeba Men, Immortal Avenger, Municipal Waste, and the Goons....

Ben Mellott runs his own studio, Nothing But Noise in Fairfax, VA, where he has recorded over two hundred bands. He is also a live sound engineer at Farm Brew Live and Cox Farms as well as the Audio Director at Grace Community Church, but before all that he was the bass player for the screamo band Positive State and drummer for Churner. Positive State released one full-length album, The B******t Initiative in 1997. In addition, they put out one 7" called Label Me in 1996 and two split 7"...

Ahmad Johnson grew up in Reston playing music with his family and continued to record songs with his brother, certified gold and platinum producer and engineer Justice Johnson, throughout his two-decade career as P-Soup. Once Ahmad aka Ahmayzin stepped aside from high school football and concentrated on his burgeoning rap career, doors started to open for him. He met successful artists such as Montell Jordan, DMX, Naughty By Nature and Missy Elliot, and released his first solo album, Suburban...