Fidelity Jones

I feel like I could spend the rest of my life exploring the Dischord catalogue and never actually getting through it all. Without a doubt, some of the Dischord releases are amongst my absolute favourite records that exist (Dag Nasty, Shudder To Think, Swiz) but there are still great portions that I have completely ignored or not got around to checking out yet (Beefeater, Marginal Man, Circus Lupus). At the rate I am going, I may never get there. But recently I ticked another band (and two catalogue numbers) off the list.

Fidelity Jones was a DC band active for a couple of years around 1989-90 ish. They contained a couple of dudes who were in Beefeater and someone who went on to Holy Rollers. I had heard one song on the 'State Of The Union' compilation LP (which I have always liked) but decided to pick up more because these things were dirt cheap.

The 'Piltdown Lad' LP came out in 1989 as Dischord 41.

I also picked up a 7" which came out in 1990 as Dischord 47.

This band is a great example of late 80s / early 90s Dischord to me. It's not really punk or hardcore in the typical sense. It's more a kidn fo funk with a bit of reggae influence, and reminds me of the band fIREHOSE in places. It probably sounds terrible but is actualy brilliant.

I remember when I was first getting into hardcore back in about 1993 and I ended up with some dude's collection who had a lot of the Dischord bands that I have never really gotten into. Back then I found the cover art and the music didn't really fit with my idea of punk or hardcore. But the older I get, the more I am digging stuff like this.