Our occasional series “Secret History” features profiles of classic D.C. albums as a way of looking back at the District’s contributions to music over time. This go ’round, we pay tribute to the Delta 72’s mighty burner The R&B of Membership (Touch and Go, 1996).

The Delta 72 burst out of D.C. in the early ’90s peddling a fiery mix of brash Capitol City hardcore and gritty southern soul, relentlessly distorted guitar rumble and bruising postpunk rhythms bolted to greasy Farfisa organ riffs, blasted harmonica blares, and screaming blues slides. It was an exciting, bracing sound, taking some cues from the sleep-deprived fervor of the Nation of Ulysses and the high calorie blues-punk of Jon Spencer. The Delta 72 filtered R&B through blown amps, youthful exuberance and glowering aggression, shaking assess out of seats and hips out of sockets.

Initially a two-piece, the Delta 72 began with drummer Ben Azzara backing up guitarist/vocalist/harmonica player Gregg Foreman.

“I’m from Philly and I was going to college at Penn State, and it wasn’t really my thing,” Foreman, Cat Power’s current guitarist, told DCist about his decision to move to D.C. in the early ‘90s. “There was so much to do in D.C. that I responded to, like all the Dischord stuff, mainly – Fugazi, Nation of Ulysses. This was sort of a beacon, musically, to me.”

Once in town, it was pretty obvious which neighborhood to settle down in, says Foreman. “[Ben Azzara] had moved to Mount Pleasant, and I was like, ‘Man, I want to move there!’ It just seemed like Mount Pleasant was the place where everyone was living. There was a house down the street that was called The Embassy that some of the guys from Nation of Ulysses lived in, and they had parties. And Pirate House was around the corner, where Fugazi lived, and I got to see Fugazi play in the living room, when they were trying out their new songs. It was an incredible time.”