As told by Michael "Stilts" Beck
"You're doing what? Okay, fine, don't answer me, you prick..."
Such was my first reaction upon hearing that my roommate Taylor was starting a band with his buddies George and Dimitri, with George's brother Geoff playing drums. At the time, just after DC United brought home the very first MLS Cup after a hard fought match on a cold, rainy evening in Foxboro, MA. At some point during the match, Taylor and I almost came to blows over something so stupid that neither of us can really remember. I recall him being held by his shoulders and he tried to lash out at me with his boots while I was being held by my waist, attempting to reach him with my fists. We were separated like children and, as such, didn't speak to each other for a few weeks afterwards, even though we lived in the same apartment and worked together every day. The silence was finally broken over this new band he was involved in with Dim and George, and United Firm 121, later shortened to just United 121, was born.
Taking the name from Section 121 of RFK Stadium, our perch for every DC United home game, United 121 soon hammered together a 3-song demo which included "Rich Boys", an early version of "Wisconsin Slum Boys", and the imaginatively named "Anti-Nazi Song", which later became the fan favorite "Patrol". At this point, the band consisted of Taylor on lead vocals, Dimitri on bass, George on rhythm guitar, Geoff on drums, and Chris (who did an impeccable Mickey Fitz impression) on lead guitar. The songs were your basic Oi! fare, borrowing heavily from the likes of the Cockney Rejects and the 4-Skins. Fast and sweet, they were merely a taste of what was to come. Soon after the demo, Chris bailed for one reason or another and I was recruited in his place, but not before the band played its very first show, sans Geoff, opening for the Business and Warzone at the then-named Capitol Ballroom (now known as Nation). Chris played drums in Geoff's stead, and the band staggered its way through five or six songs. It was rough, but it was the start of a resurgence of streetpunk in DC.
After I joined the band, we managed to write a decent amount of new material and rework some of the old. The perennial favorite, "Hooligans", was re-arranged around this time, and it quickly became a fan and band favorite. After creating a stir in Ellicott City at a 4th of July party, with our outdoor set at the annual Devil's Elbow Independence Day Bash leading to the cops showing up for "loud cussing", we somehow managed to get on an all-day punk rock festival in an old theater in Richmond, VA which reeked of piss and other bodily fluids. After finding out we were headlining this train wreck, I slid off to get some new ink while the rest of the boys proceeded to...ahem...squeeze some beer money out of the promoter and get rip-roaring drunk. Our roadie Frank was arrested for tagging a building and by the time show time came around, the band could barely stand up, let alone play. But play we did and we rocked that toilet of a theater.
My original tenure in United 121 was cut short when I moved to Baltimore. The logistics of my getting to practice was a nightmare, so I gracefully bowed out and, ironically, the band took off from then. In a quick series of lineup changes, Donny G replaced a departing Taylor, and DC punk rock icon Kent Stax, of Scream and Suspects fame, replaced Geoff, who was by now finishing high school in Pennsylvania after being kicked out of numerous schools in the DC area. Kent's old Scream bandmate Harley was brought in briefly to take over lead guitar duties, only to be replaced himself by one Richard Gibson, formerly of MFD and Dizzy Dizzy. Richard's insistence on professionalism and quality tightened 121 up even more and they were soon making quite a name for themselves in the few local clubs, most notably Phantasmagoria in Wheaton, MD, which became the epicenter for the DC/MD/VA punk rock scene in the late .90s.
It was only a matter of time before the bug bit me again and, as luck would have it, the band needed my services at a critical time. Due to an obvious misunderstanding with the club management, Dimitri was forcibly removed from Phantasmagoria, leaving the band facing a packed house at their first headlining gig without a bass player. Enter myself. As I had a hand in writing more than half the set at that point, and keeping myself up to date on the rest of the set, I was able, after some heavy negotiations (namely, free beer for me), to pick up the bass and away we went, tearing through what many people remember to be one the best sets the band ever performed. After the gig, I was invited back and the band became a five piece orchestra of Oi!
More stories to come...
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The MP3s
Complete Downloads:
Track listings:
Anthology
- Hooligans (5.14 MB)
- Scum from the Slum (3.97 MB)
- Regrets (5.09 MB)
- Sunburnt (2.64 MB)
- My Escape (3.87 MB)
- Working (3.72 MB)
- Got Guinness? (3.74 MB)
- Patrol (3.14 MB)
- Banned from the Pubs (2.48 MB)
- State of Emergency (2.45 MB)
- My eMpTyV (2.39 MB)
- One Way (5.23 MB)
- Run Boy Run (4.11 MB)
- Dirty Old Men (4.28 MB)
- Erring Ways (4.16 MB)
- Lonely Skin (4.7 MB)
- Broken Teeth (2.11 MB)
- Welcome to the Party (3.51 MB)
- New Minority (3.02 MB)
- All I Got (3.53 MB)
- Blown to Bits (2.35 MB)
- Fear (4.27 MB)
- Got Us Wrong (2.9 MB)
- A Place to Go (2.86 MB)
- Forward Progress (2.71 MB)
- United 121 - Wisconsin Slum Boys (2.04 MB)
- United 121 - Anti-Nazi Song (2.44 MB)
- Out of the Sun (Live at the Black Cat) (3.69 MB)
- Falling Away (Live at the Black Cat) (3.12 MB)
- Ace of Spades (Live at the Black Cat) (4.25 MB)
Sonic Boom Sessions (Unreleased 2003 recordings)
Previous to 10 December, 2005, State of Emergency 2003 and New Minority 2003 were posted as 128k bit rates. They have since been re-uploaded as 320k like all the other mp3s. If you're not sure whether you have the reduced quality 128k or higher quality 320k, the files sizes for 128k will be under 2 megs. The 320k bit rates will be 4 and 5 megs.
- State of Emergency (4.09 MB)
- New Minority (5.04 MB)
- All I Got (5.89 MB)
- Blown to Bits (3.92 MB)
- Burning (5.66 MB)
- Got Us Wrong (4.84 MB)
- Progress (4.52 MB)
- Fear (7.12 MB)
- Place to Go (4.77 MB)
- Broken Teeth (3.39 MB)
- White Lies (4.03 MB)
- Erring Ways (6.86 MB)
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Where Are They Now
Last Line Up
Spitfires United (1999-2003)
- Mikey Stilts (1998-2003)
Brewing beer, living in Baltimore and playing music with The Snallygasters 
- Chris Suspect (1999-2003)
Off twittering somewhere.
- Kent Stax (1998-2003)
Living in NOVA and playing drums for Alleged Bricks and various side projects.
- Tim Fontaine (2002-2003)
Living in NOVA and still singing for Babies With Rabies
- Dan Fontaine (2002-2003)
Living in NOVA and playing guitar for Babies With Rabies
- Will Field (1998-2002)
Living in DC and making fine clothing
- Richard Gibson (1998-1999)
Living in NOVA and still running BarcoRebar
- Jack Rejekt (1999-2002)
Living in NOVA and playing with Thawed Out
United 121 (1997-1999)
- Geoff Knowles (1995-1997)
Living in DC and playing drums for various bands
- Dimitri Medevev (1995-1997)
Playing bass for Iron Cross
- George Knowles (1995-1997)
Currently living in DC but not active with any bands.
- Kent Stax (1997-1998)
Living in NOVA and drumming for various projects.
- Don Goepfert (1998)
Living in NYC and owns his own furniture building business, Assembly Required, Inc.
- Taylor Beck (1995-1998)
Living in FL and attending grad school
- Harley Davidson (1998)
Missing in action
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Merchandise
Inventory available:
- Man's Ruin t-shirts are $13 (post-paid) and are available in S to XXL. E-mail stilts121 at gmail dot com.
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Other Links
Spitfires United on Myspace
Show Listings
