History
Initially, the band organized their own shows at Hard Art, MOTA, dc space, Madam's Organ, and The Bayou in Georgetown.
The Bayou was a music venue and nightclub located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C..
TFI played its first 9:30 Club show on July 9, 1980. The band became a long-term favorite at the club. They were even there when the original 9:30 Club closed its doors at its 930 F Street location to move to its new location at the intersections of 9th Street, V Street, and Vermont Avenue.
The 9:30 Club, originally named Nightclub 9:30, also known simply as the 9:30, is a nightclub and concert venue in Washington, D.C. In 2018 the 9:30 Club was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone Magazine. The club was originally housed in the ground floor rear room of the Atlantic Building at 930 F Street NW, in the city's downtown area, where it opened on May 31, 1980, with a legal standing capacity of only 199 patrons. In 1996, due to its increasing prominence, the club was moved to a roomier space, its current location at 815 V Street NW, where it anchors the eastern end of the U Street Corridor.
TFI was one of six local bands chosen to record the music featured on a two-CD set which memorializes the closing of the original 9:30 Club. The CD set is titled "9:30 Live - A Time, A Place, A Scene". The CDs were recorded live at the 9:30 Club between December 28, 1995, and January 1, 1996. The following TFI songs are on CD 2: "King of Machines", "Chinese Wall", "7 T.V. Me", and "Washingtron".
In addition to the 9:30 Club CD, TFI recorded a '45 (Washingtron b/w Mystery Date) and an album (Mental Decay, 1982) on WASP records. WASP was a local D.C. label. The band favored its indie status and eschewed major labels.
"Washingtron" is arguably TFI's biggest hit to date. It is a song about life in the nation's Capital City. In the early 1980s, "Washingtron" received quite a bit of air play on local radio stations like WHFS. The song had local appeal, with lyrics such as: "I used to work as a waitron in the lounge at the Hiltron. Now I work for my Senatron and I live in Arlingtron." "Arlingtron" is a reference to Arlington, Virginia, a suburb just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The song also contains era-specific references such as "Accu-tron" watches and the film " Tron ".
TFI played at CBGB and The Ritz in New York City, as well as locations in Philadelphia, Richmond, Ohio, and North Carolina. The band knew that they had finally made it when Washingtonian Magazine named them the "worst band" in 1980 — without ever having heard them. This early recognition cemented TFI's status and popularity in the local punk/new wave scene.
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor, known for his pioneering style of country music. First becoming popular in the mid-1980s, Yoakam has recorded more than twenty albums and compilations, charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and sold more than 25 million records. He has recorded five Billboard #1 albums, twelve gold albums, and nine platinum albums, including the triple-platinum This Time.
William Ballard Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his compositions "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with the Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.
Washington, D.C., has been home to many prominent musicians and is particularly known for the musical genres of Jazz, Rhythm & Blues,
bluegrass, and a local funk genre called go-go. The first major musical figure from D.C. was John Philip Sousa, a military brass band composer. Later figures include jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Rouse, Buck Hill, Ron Holloway, Davey Yarborough, Michael A. Thomas, Butch Warren, and DeAndrey Howard; soul musicians, including Billy Stewart, Roberta Flack, Mary Jefferson, R&B Jimj Smooth, Lady Mary, Charles Pitts, Gregory Gaskins and Sir Joe Quarterman.
Gary Ronnie Stewart was a country musician and songwriter known for his distinctive vibrato voice and his Southern rock influenced, outlaw country sound. During the peak of his popularity in the mid-1970s, Time magazine described him as the "king of honkytonk." He is remembered for a series of country chart hits from the mid- to late- 1970s, his biggest hit being "She's Actin' Single ," which topped the U.S. country singles chart in 1975.
The Teen Idles were an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C. in September 1979. Consisting of teenagers Nathan Strejcek, Geordie Grindle, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, the Idles recorded two demo sessions and the 1980 Minor Disturbance EP before breaking up in November 1980. The influential independent record label Dischord Records was originally created with the sole purpose of releasing the Teen Idles Minor Disturbance 7" record. They were an early landmark in the D.C. hardcore movement, and MacKaye and Nelson would later form the seminal punk rock outfit Minor Threat.
Charles Arthur Feathers was an American country music and rockabilly musician.
WHFS was the call sign for three different FM stations in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland markets on various frequencies for nearly 50 years. The first and longest run was a progressive rock station and was usually, and affectionately, referred to as 'HFS. For many local residents, it was the first place to hear such bands as R.E.M., The Specials, Pixies, The Smiths, The Monochrome Set, The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, Stereolab, and New Order.
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" is a 1952 country song written by J. D. "Jay" Miller, and originally recorded by Kitty Wells. It was an answer song to the Hank Thompson hit "The Wild Side of Life."
"Honky Tonk Women" is a 1969 hit song by the Rolling Stones. It was a single-only release, available from 4 July 1969 in the United Kingdom, and a week later in the United States. It topped the charts in both nations.
Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, Texas country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll.
The Dusty Chaps was a honky tonk country swing band based in Tucson, AZ from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s. In 1975 they released their first album Honky Tonk Music on a small Tucson label, Bandoleer Records. The band subsequently signed with Capitol Records and rerecorded Honky Tonk Music with an added track in 1977. They released another album on Capitol, Domino Joe (1978). Band members included Peter Gierlach ; George Hawke ; Pat McAndrew ; Leonardo Lopez ; Steve Solomon ; Bill Emrie (violin); Red Davidson ; and Ted Hockenbury. For some time the Chaps were the house band at Tucson's renowned Stumble Inn as well as the Poco Loco.
Fowl Records was co-founded in 1994 by Jimi Haha from Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Richard James Burgess, the band's manager and Chris Keith, the band's agent as a means to release Jimmie's Chicken Shack's first two independent CDs. Almost immediately it became the top indie label in the Mid-Atlantic region specializing in alternative rock, punk, and jam bands. From 1998 to the closure of the label in 2002 Chris Smoker was the label manager.
Straight edge is a subculture originated from hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk subculture. For some, this extends to refraining from engaging in promiscuous sex, following a vegetarian or vegan diet or not using caffeine or prescription drugs. The term straight edge was adopted from the 1981 song "Straight Edge" by the hardcore punk band Minor Threat.
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1980s.
The Paladins are an American roots rock-rockabilly band from San Diego, California. Founded in the early 1980s by guitarist Dave Gonzalez and his high school friend and double bass player Thomas Yearsley, they have recorded nine studio albums and built a reputation as a hard-working live band.
"I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" is a song written and performed by American country artist Loretta Lynn that was also released as her debut single. The song was among the first to not only be recorded by Lynn, but also to be penned by her. She composed the song while living in the state of Washington, maintaining her role as a housewife and occasional member of a local country music band. The composition was later recorded in California after Lynn was given money by a local businessman, who was impressed by her singing. "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" was then issued as a single under the newly founded and independent Zero Records label in March 1960.
The Insect Surfers are an American band formed in Washington, DC in 1979. The group bills itself "Planet Earth’s Longest-Running Modern Surf Band," and has been based out of Los Angeles, California since 1986. Inspired by the psychedelic surf sounds of the 1960s, their instrumental music is propelled by the energy of the punk movement that surrounded them at birth. Founder David Arnson has been the mainstay of the band's sound through numerous personnel changes over the decades. They are sometimes grouped into the category of "second wave" surf, the first wave being that of the 1960s originators, and the third wave being the scores of bands inspired by mid-1990s interest sparked by the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's movie Pulp Fiction. Insect Surfers have performed shows all over the US and Europe. Their music has appeared in videos and television shows, and along with a score of their own releases they have been featured on dozens of compilations. While only about a third of their music lacked vocals during their DC incarnations, after Arnson relocated to Los Angeles the band shifted focus to perform primarily instrumental tunes.
