Henry Garfield formed State of Alert (S.O.A) in October of 1980 with guitarist Michael Hampton, bassist Wendel Blow, and drummer Simon Jacobsen. The band released 13 songs through Dischord — three on the Flex Your Head compilation record and ten on the No Policy EP, which was Dischord's second-ever release — and performed a total of nine shows before calling it quits in July of 1981.

First Demo 12/29/80 collects the eight songs that S.O.A recorded with Skip Groff — who owned the Rockville, Maryland-based record store Yesterday and Today — at Inner Ear Studio during its first recording session. Two of the tracks ("Disease" and "Stepping Stone Party") were previously released on the Flex Your Head sampler and "Gonna Have to Fight" was included on the No Policy EP. The rest are unreleased versions.

Photo: Susie J. Horgan

Seven months after this recording session, Garfield left Washington, DC and his last name behind, relocating to Los Angeles to become Henry Rollins, lead singer of Black Flag and Rollins Band. Hampton, Blow, and Jacobsen would go on to perform in groups like The Faith, Embrace and Iron Cross among others. First Demo 12/29/80 is out March on 7"+Mp3.

You can pre-order First Demo 12/29/80 here.

Orders are expected to ship by mid-March. Any additional items ordered (including downloads) will be held and processed at the same time as the single.

Tracklist:

1) Public Defender

2) Gonna Have to Fight

3) Gang Fight

4) Disease

5) Draw a Blank

6) War Zone

7) Riot

8) Stepping Stone Party

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