In the late summer of 1981, Janelle Brooks started throwing shows in the basement of her parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. Usually these parties would feature five or six bands, who were usually happy to share their gear with each other. Most of their songs were only a minute long, and therefore the sets tended to be really brief. There was a pole in the middle of the carpeted rec-room that everyone danced around, and between bands people hung out all over the house and in the yards. Nobody knew where Janelle's parents were during these throwdowns, but apparently they were ok with it. In September, one of these shows featured the end of three bands: Assault and Battery, Minor Threat, and Red C. Things moved quickly in the punk scene at that point and bands would come and go, so it wasn't a surprise that a new band formed by Pete from Red C along with Mike, Rob and Steve of Assault and Battery played Janelle's next party just three weeks later. Mike's bass drum head had an upside down peace-sign painted on it and the name of the band was Artificial Peace. They were solid and fast and they quickly managed to build one of the largest followings of all of the early bands. They were one of the first DC area bands to play out of town, always making it a point to announce that they were from Bethesda, a city just across the DC line in Maryland. Ian MacKaye recorded a 19-song demo with them at Inner Ear, and three of those songs appear on the 'Flex Your Head' Sampler. They also released a split 7" with The Exiled on the Fountain of Youth label which was released in 1982. Artificial Peace 1981-1982 Steve Polcari - vocals Peter Murray - Guitar Mike Manos - drums Rob Moss - bass