McGruff The Crime Dog finally gets his hardcore punk tribute album

Believe it or not, a few cool things did emerge from the anti-drug movement of the 1980s. There was that Diff’rent Strokes episode with Nancy Reagan, for instance, and some trippy Rock Against Drugs commercials. In the world of hardcore punk, meanwhile, circa 1981, the short-lived but influential Washington D.C. hardcore punk quintet Minor Threat inspired the entire substance-free “straight edge” movement with their music. Across the pond, almost perfectly concurrent with Minor Threat, a New York advertising firm called Saatchi And Saatchi conceived of McGruff The Crime Dog, a gravel-voiced, trenchcoat-wearing, anthropomorphic bloodhound who warned kids about the danger of booger sugar and sticky icky. Such an alignment of the stars cannot be ignored forever. Three decades plus later, a Boston band called XCrimedogX, featuring Daniel Danger of The Saddest Landscape, has recorded a hardcore punk tribute album in McGruff’s honor entitled 1984-1986.