Dag Nasty

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Dag nasty
Genre(s)	Melodic Hardcore Punk rock
Years active	1985-1992, 1994-1995

Dag Nasty was a Washington D.C. hardcore punk band formed in 1985 by Brian Baker (guitar) of Minor Threat, Colin Sears (drums) and Roger Marbury (bass), both of Bloody Mannequin Orchestra, and Shawn Brown later of Swiz and Jesuseater (vocals).

Their style of less aggressive, melodic hardcore was influential to emocore, as well as post-hardcore. Dag Nasty was the first of a new breed of "professional" hardcore bands, that would be the blueprint for the later to come "Warped Tour" styled bands.

Shawn Brown was the first vocalist with whom the band recorded (until recently) previously-unreleased versions of most of the material that later made up their first release, "Can I Say", with former roadie and new singer Dave Smalley of DYS. Just over a year later, the band had a new album titled Wig Out at Denko's, a new bassist named Doug "Fig Nuts" Carrion (then of The Descendents, later of The Kottonmouth Kings and the Humble Gods) and a new vocalist, Peter Cortner (formerly of Lunchbox, currently of The Gerunds) after Smalley left to attend school in Israel.

1988 saw the release of their album Field Day on Giant Records (a sister label to Homestead Records). It was an ambitious album, often generating sharply polarised appraisals from fans: many hated it and many loved it. Field Day attempted to blend pop melodies with hardcore and metal riffs even further than previously attempted on Wig Out. The result was, at times, uneven but helped to usher in a new style of hardcore with more controlled playing, guitar effects, acoustic elements and slower tempos - effectively planting the seeds for "emo". The band split up shortly after touring for Field Day ended.

In 1992, Dag Nasty reformed with Dave Smalley on vocals and released the album Four on the Floor. In 1991, Selfless Records had released 85-86, a collection of early, pre-Can I Say recordings.

In 2002 the band got back together, again with Dave Smalley on the mic, returning the band to a hardcore sound. The result of this reunion was the album Minority of One. To this day they still release records, though Dag Nasty remains more of a side project for its members than a full-time active band. Peter Cortner, who has not been involved with the band directly for years, completed his education as a lawyer, practiced law and recently became a schoolteacher. While strictly as a personal hobby now, Peter has continued to make music under the names GPFA and, more recently, in a collaboration with Philadelphia area musicians entitled The Gerunds. Colin Sears went on to play in The Marshes and later after moving to Portland, Oregon for Handgun Bravado and The Valley Floor. He also works as a city planner for the Portland Development Commission. The other members of the band have remained involved in music.

Brian Baker joined Bad Religion after Brett Gurewitz left to focus on his own record label (Epitaph) and continued to play in the band when Brett rejoined.