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 week, we talk with members of seminal D.C. indie poppers Black Tambourine about their Complete Recordings (Slumberland, 1999).

Shortly after the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the Clash delivered punk to the masses in jagged bursts of aggression and staccato sloganeering, a new strain of punk-inspired rock ‘n’ roll reared its pointy head. Inspired by punk’s DIY attitude, joyous amateurism and feverish directness, but turned off by its nihilistic posturing and tendencies towards doctrinarism, some bands drew on punk’s energy while embracing the melodicism and effortless cool of the Velvet Underground, Motown and Phil Spector’s shimmering girl group sound. UK post-punk acts like Orange Juice, Primal Scream and the Jesus and Mary Chain churned out aggressively catchy pop, hand-crafted and coated in jangle and feedback, inspiring an early generation of American indie kids to do likewise.

By the late ‘80s, four such kids from Maryland began to record their own indie pop ruckus, giving rise to both a band – Black Tambourine – and an institution – Slumberland Records. Pam Berry, Archie Moore, Brian Nelson and Mike Schulman crafted deliriously fuzzed-out mini-symphonies, and while Black Tambourine’s output was limited to only ten tracks and a handful of live shows, the group’s influence far outlasted its lifetime. Slumberland Records – having relocated with Schulman from Silver Spring to Berkeley, California in the early ‘90s – continues to thrive, boasting a roster of recent it-bands like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Crystal Stilts.