Descenes and Discords: Howard Wuelfing on the Washington DC Punk Scene of the 70s & 80s

Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris

Darrell Craig Harris

Music Interviews, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 107 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Descenes and Discords: An Anthology is the new book release from longtime music publicist, writer, and musician Howard Wuelfing offering a powerful time capsule of the birth and early evolution of punk music through the pages of two influential fanzines: Descenes and Discords. These publications, originally printed and distributed in Washington, D.C. during the late 1970s and early 1980s, captured the raw energy, irreverent spirit, and revolutionary ethos of the underground music scene — the first locally, the second nationally. Published by writer and musician Howard Wuelfing, Descenes was a hyperlocal chronicle of D.C.'s burgeoning punk, hardcore and new wave communities. It featured scene reports, interviews, and passionate live and record reviews of now-legendary acts like Bad Brains, Slickee Boys, and Half Japanese and dozens of others that never gained national recognition. As vital local music scenes sprung up around the country, Discords picked up the baton with a wider lens — covering bands like Black Flag, Pylon, Circle Jerks, Mission of Burma and many more, all with the same DIY authenticity and zero-corporate gloss. About Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris The Music Matters Podcast is hosted by Darrell Craig Harris, a globally published music journalist, professional musician, and Getty Images photographer. Music Matters is now available on Spotify, iTunes, Podbean, and more. Each week, Darrell interviews renowned artists, musicians, music journalists, and insiders from the music industry. Visit us at: www.MusicMattersPodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/musicmattersdh For inquiries, contact: musicmatterspodcastshow@gmail.com Support our mission via PayPal: www.paypal.me/payDarrell

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Music Matters podcast with Daryl Craig Harris,
0:07.1	talking about all things music with celebrities, artists, music business insiders, and more.
0:22.9	Howard Wolfing, how are you doing today?
0:24.1	Doing good.
0:24.7	How are you?
0:25.8	I'm very good.
0:30.8	So we know each other from a few different ways, but I've known you as a publicist because we've worked with some of your clients doing interviews.
0:33.8	But you have quite a history, musician, publicist, writer, and you have a new book
0:40.2	that just came out.
0:41.8	And I'll let you pronounce the name of it, but I think it's DeSines and Discords, which
0:45.8	came out August 19th.
0:47.1	Is that correct?
0:48.7	Yes, DeSines and Discords and Anthology.
0:53.3	Cool.
0:54.0	And so that's an interesting book because it talks about the punk scene of the 1970s and
0:59.5	80s, kind of specifically about Washington, D.C., but way beyond that as well.
1:04.0	Tell us about the book and tell us about how you got involved in that whole scene.
1:09.0	Well, the book is a collection of two fanzines that I produced between 1979 and
1:17.5	1981, and the one D-Cines was specifically addressing the groups playing in Washington, D.C.,
1:26.9	and then Discords, which was eight issues, basically sort of expanded the scope to look at
1:32.6	these sort of underground scenes in cities around the country that, you know, at that point
1:39.7	we're still being overlooked by, you know, most media outlets.
	...

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