Black Eyes’ lyrics — if you can understand them — are laced with radical politics and a morbid kind of satire.

Ian MacKaye, of Minor Threat and Fugazi fame, produced Black Eyes’ self-titled debut in 2003. It is not hard to see what made him promptly sign the band to his label, Dischord Records.

The notorious Washington, D.C., punk scene has elicited such seminal bands as Rites of Spring, Jawbox and, of course, Fugazi. Black Eyes emanate the same frenzied energy.

Founded in 1980, Dischord started out when Ian MacKaye’s first band realized no label would put out their record. They decided to create their own, and as the D.C. punk scene grew, so did the label. Advertising in zines and through word of mouth, the label eventually became the modern-punk mainstay it is today.

The band depends on the interaction between the two lead singers’ voices, often layering two different refrains at once to achieve a spastic, abrasive effect. A typical Dischord band, Black Eyes’ lyrics — if you can understand them — are laced with radical politics and a morbid kind of satire.

Black Eyes take their dance punk energy, along the lines of Gang of Four and The Rapture, and combine it with raw vocals for an intense effect. The band has two drum kits, and sometimes even three. The sharp drumming is perhaps their defining factor. The vocals, often chanted like taunting on a playground, or simply screamed or spoken, sometimes sound like a violent Tourette’s outburst.

In “Speaking in Tongues,” one vocalist sounds possessed and frantic while the other is more subdued and flat. They work as excellent foils to each other.

“On The Sacred Side” contains the greatest lyrics of the band’s debut. Subtitled “Haiti Cherie” (Cherished Haiti), it is one of the more political songs on the album and follows the theme of imprisonment and conflict. The song cryptically focuses on the white man’s violence and oppressiveness throughout the ages, from the slave trade to religious domination through missionary work.

“If I had legs, I’d get up and move / if I had arms, I’d get up and fight,” states a muffled, cut-up recording in the background. The lack of guitar in this track makes the strong bass and drums even more noticeable and gives the song a brash, deconstructed feel.

The best song on the self-titled album, “Someone Has His Fingers Broken,” is an outstanding post-hardcore piece with howling guitar and strange tea kettle sounding “Oooohs.”

Other songs contain excerpts from poets such as Langston Hughes, Yusef Komunyakaa and Derek Mahon.

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