State of Alert (or S.O.A.) was a punk rock group from Washington DC. They formed in October, 1980, and disbanded in June, 1981 [1] and released one EP on Dischord Records. They are sometimes regarded as one of the earliest groups playing what would later be dubbed hardcore punk.

SOA played a total of nine gigs in and around Washington DC. Rollins later described their performaces: "All of them were eleven to fourteen minutes in duration because the songs were all like forty seconds ... and the rest of the time we were going, 'Are you ready? Are you ready?' Those gigs were poorly played songs in between 'Are you ready?s"

Today, they are remembered primarily as Rollins' first band, before he joined Black Flag and then founded Rollins Band.

After Rollins departure the band Ian Mackaye 's brother Alec Mackaye joined on vocals and the band turned into The Faith which released a split LP with Void and a full length called 'Subject To Change'.

Members of SOA also went on to Iron Cross

Sources

Micahel Azzerad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, 2001, Little, Brown

External Links

S.O.A. Bandpage on Kill From The Heart website