Punk Lotto Pod: A Punk, Hardcore, and Emo Podcast · Punk Lotto Pod

Soda Pop * Rip Off by Slant 6 (1994)

April 1, 2026·1 hr 19 min·7 clips

The hosts reveal a poll showing most listeners prefer deep-cut punk albums over popular classics.

1. Punk Lotto Pod devotes its 1994 episode to Slant Six's debut album Soda Pop Rip Off on Dischord Records, choosing it over Green Day's Dookie. 2. Hosts Justin Hensley and Dylan Hensley note the episode stems from a listener poll that showed strong preference for lesser-known records, with Dylan admitting he has never listened to Dookie all the way through. 3. The episode's thesis is that Slant Six occupies a unique intersection of garage punk, post-punk, and Riot Grrrl without being reducible to any of those labels, and that this distinctiveness makes it worth recovering. 4. Justin surveys 1994's punk landscape, identifying Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary and Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy as the year's defining emo records, with Jawbox and Shudder to Think both on major labels. 5. Noise rock in 1994 is represented by Shellac's At Action Park, Jesus Lizard's Down, Unsane's Total Destruction, and an early Today Is the Day record called Willpower. 6. The Offspring's Smash and Green Day's Dookie are identified as the year's mainstream punk breakthroughs, with Smash described as 'probably the second most important punk record of the entire year' commercially. 7. Justin notes the Dischord Records 1994 roster beyond Slant Six includes Hoover's The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 and Lungfish's Pass and Stow, but describes the label in this period as allowing Ian MacKaye to 'sign whatever they want' since Fugazi was paying the bills. 8. Slant Six's personnel: Christina Billot on guitar and vocals, Myra Power on bass and vocals, Marge Marshall on drums; produced by Ian MacKaye and engineered by Don Zientara. 9. Christina Billot previously played in Hazmat with Melissa Burkoff and then joined Autoclave, which featured Mary Timoney and played only 15 shows total despite its lasting reputation. 10. Myra Power taught herself bass on a thrift-shop instrument and rehearsed fretless upright bass with members of Circus Lupus before forming Lucky 13 with Chris Bald of Faith and Embrace; Lucky 13's first show was with Bikini Kill on a rooftop. 11. After Autoclave broke up in 1991, Christina sought to make music that was 'less weird and more danceable' with 'normal time signatures'; she was pointed toward Myra, who loved the Ramones, and met her at Dante's restaurant. 12. The band name Slant 6 comes from the Chrysler inline six-cylinder engine produced through the 1960s to 1980s, a name Christina had chosen before she had bandmates. 13. Slant Six's first show happened with Nation of Ulysses member Steve Gambora filling in on drums after a single day of practice; the hosts describe it as 'a mess.' 14. To recruit drummer Rachel Carnes for a Nation of Ulysses support tour, Christina, Myra, and Mike Fellows of Rites of Spring drove from DC to Olympia, Washington in Christina's Datsun, then toured back; Rachel returned to Olympia anyway and later played in Kicking Giant and The Need. 15. After James Canty of Nation of Ulysses briefly played drums, Marge Marshall — who had moved from England to DC — joined after meeting Christina and Myra at a restaurant called Food for Thought. 16. The band shared stages early on with Fugazi, Shudder to Think, and Unrest; their DC connections placed them among players from Nation of Ulysses, Rites of Spring, Circus Lupus, Bikini Kill, and the Embassy punk house scene. 17. Myra Power has a story from working at Food for Thought in which Poison Ivy of The Cramps complimented her outfit and Lux Interior had long, clear fingernails while eating bread. 18. The tone is relaxed and digressive; the hosts wander into debates about Jawbreaker's genre classification, Lungfish's unlistenability, and Green Day's title choices before circling back to the record. 19. Listeners who want deep oral history of DC underground punk, Dischord Records context, and a critical argument for Slant Six as distinct from Riot Grrrl will find this rewarding. 20. Listeners unfamiliar with DC punk, Dischord Records, or the bands Autoclave, Nation of Ulysses, and Circus Lupus will spend much of the episode learning names without a clear map.

As heard by us

A deep-cut 1994 punk conversation that treats label disputes as part of the point.

Punk Lotto Pod uses 1994 as a lens on a mid-90s problem: sorting out what was Riot Grrrl, what was merely adjacent, and what only got pulled under the label later.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you like your punk talk full of deeper cuts, scene sorting, and label chatter.

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