Minor Threat

Minor Threat is a classic and highly influential hardcore band from the Washington DC area, active during some of hardcore's greatest years (80 to 83).  There's already a shitton of things that have already been said about this miraculous group, so I will just tell you my personal experience with their music.  First off, when I originally listened to it I was maybe my last year of high school.

It gave me a really bad headache, I fucking hated it and I was driving at the time, so I didn't feel much like putting up with it.  About a year or so later, it was safe to say that this music has changed the way I see all music in general.  Sound-wise, it sounds terrible.  The guitar distortion combined with the recording quality sounds like chainsaws.  Layer that with a 19 year old kid yelling over it, and it really doesn't sound too good at first.  Or even at the second or third listen.  It took me a while.  All the songs really sounded the same to me early on, but are now so varied and unique.  I love every tune by this band.  (Note: their discography collection doesn't have all of their music.  They also have a demo tape, with different recordings of some songs.  There's also several bootleg live sets out there.)

wikipedia

myspace tribute page

an excellent page with lots of info, old articles, and very insightful interviews with band members (this is a bit better than the wiki page, to be honest)