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 time around, we revisit Hoover’s powerful debut LP, The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 (Dischord, 1994).

Bridging the gap between Slint’s visionary, skeletal dynamism and Fugazi’s full-throated post-hardcore virtuosity, Hoover were a crucial part of D.C.’s early ‘90s indie rock landscape. With Joe McRedmond and Alexander Dunham on guitars and vocals, Fred Erskine on bass, vocals, and trumpet, and Chris Farrall on drums, Hoover’s attack was marked by unbelievably tight rhythms, jazz-like control over meter and time, and a sinister dual guitar interplay, all punctuated by whisper-to-scream vocals and jagged bursts of sonic mayhem. Hoover were masters of their craft, seemingly capable of wringing entire worlds out of their instruments, and then destroying those worlds in a maelstrom of distortion and powerhouse beats.

Furthermore, the band was ground zero for some of the groups that would have a big impact on the sound of indie rock in D.C. and elsewhere during the Clinton years and beyond. Ex-Hoover personnel could be found in June of 44 (Erskine), the Crownhate Ruin (Erskine, McRedmond), Regulator Watts (Dunham), HiM (Erskine), Beauty Pill (Farrall), and more, bringing the wild-eyed focus and technical skill to those outfits that they had honed in Hoover.

Hoover rose from the ashes of several different bands. According to McRedmond, Dunham had been playing in Arizona hardcore group Winds of Change before moving to D.C. in the early ’90s. McRedmond had been playing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s Admiral, and Farrall was drumming for D.C.’s Fine Day. McRedmond, Farrall, and Geoff Farina – future frontman of Boston’s epic Karate and brother of current Even Amy Farina – formed Victor Deluxe in 1991. After a few shows, Farina left for New England, and Nebraska native Erskine replaced him on bass. Finally, Dunham arrived from the Southwest, and the quartet, now named Hoover, was complete.

“So after a couple times of [me, Erskine, and Farrall] practicing while [Dunham] was there, he’d listen and get jealous that he wasn’t in a band,” McRedmond told DCist. “He had his cabinet set up and he would start playing his guitar by himself really loud. And Chris said one of those times, ‘We should ask him to join the band.’ So we asked him and he was, like, ‘Why didn’t you say it a couple weeks ago?’ And he learned those songs we were playing, and it morphed and got darker as we got to know each other better.”