Frank "Skip" Groff (November 20, 1948 – February 18, 2019) was an American

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

, and owner of Yesterday and Today record store (also known as Y&T) in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

, at the center of much of

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

's punk and alternative music scenes. Groff was born in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

and moved to

Suitland, Maryland Suitland is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, approximately one mile (1.6 km) southeast of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 census, its population was 25,839. Prio ...

, as a child. He attended the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

and was a disc jockey at

WMUC WMUC-FM (90.5 MHz FM) is the student-run non-commercial radio station licensed to the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, broadcasting at 30 watts. It is a freeform radio station staffed entirely by UMD students and voluntee ...

, the campus radio station. Groff operated the independent record label

Limp Records Limp Records was an independent record label in Rockville, Maryland, that operated from 1978 to 1982. Run by Skip Groff out of his Yesterday and Today Records store, Limp was one of the first labels releasing music from the nascent D.C. punk sce ...

from 1978 to 1982. Called "a respected guru" of the DC punk and indie music scene, Groff was a radio DJ for WINX, WAVA, and WPGC, and did promotional work for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, before opening Yesterday and Today in September 1977. Groff was credited with helping

Dischord Records Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idle ...

get started, and his record store was an early retail outlet for their titles. The store, which was named for the Beatles album Yesterday and Today, accumulated over a million 45s. It was frequently the site of record signings and performances by local and visiting bands (such as The Damned), and became a hangout for local musicians and music fans. Howard Wuelfing of the

Slickee Boys The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone and drummer Dan Palenski. The group was named after a GI sl ...

, Nurses, and

Half Japanese Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...

was the store's first employee. When the band

Minor Threat Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Washington, D.C. by vocalist Ian MacKaye and drummer Jeff Nelson. MacKaye and Nelson had played in several other bands together, and recruited bassist Brian Baker and guitaris ...

broke up, its frontman

Ian MacKaye Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye (; born April 16, 1962) is an American musician. Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label and the frontman of hardcore punk ...

worked at the store for five years. Other employees at Yesterday and Today included: Kim Kane of the Slickee Boys, Bert Queiroz and Danny Ingram of Youth Brigade,

Brendan Canty Brendan John Canty (born March 9, 1966, in Teaneck, New Jersey) is an American musician, composer, producer and film maker, best known as the drummer for the band Fugazi. In 2007, ''Stylus Magazine'' ranked Canty at #29 on the list of "50 Gre ...

and

Guy Picciotto Guy Charles Picciotto ( ) (born September 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and producer from Washington, DC. He is best known as the guitarist and vocalist in Fugazi and Rites of Spring. Career Rites of Spring ...

Rites of Spring Rites of Spring was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in late 1983. Along with Embrace, and Beefeater, they were one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement Andersen, Mark; Jenkins, Mark (Soft Skull ...

and

Fugazi Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They are noted for their style-tr ...

Sharon Cheslow Sharon Cheslow (born October 5, 1961) is an American musician, composer, artist, writer, photographer, educator, and archivist. In 1981, she formed Chalk Circle, Washington, D.C.'s first all-female punk band. She has since become an accomplishe ...

of Chalk Circle,

Tommy Keene Tommy Keene (born Thomas Clay Keene; June 30, 1958 – November 22, 2017) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for releasing critically acclaimed rock & roll/power pop songs in the 1980s. He has a longtime cult following among fans of ...

and

Ted Niceley Ted Niceley is an American record producer. He is most known for his production work with Fugazi, Girls Against Boys, Jawbox, Tripping Daisy, and others.Stiff Little Fingers Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the De ...

' Jake Burns), Amanda MacKaye who ran

Slowdime Records Slowdime Records was a record label started in 1996 by Juan Luis Carrera and Amanda MacKaye. The label was originally started, according to a label bio, “with the intent to document the new inclinations and innovations that began to surface wit ...

, and Archie Moore and

Jim Spellman Jim Spellman (born 1968) is an American journalist and musician. Formerly with CNN, Spellman joined CGTN America in 2013. Before that, he also played guitar in the High Back Chairs and Julie Ocean and drums in Velocity Girl Velocity Girl ...

Velocity Girl Velocity Girl was an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in College Park, Maryland, and active in the Washington, D.C., area. The band released three albums before splitting up in 1996. History The band started as the duo of Kelly Riles ...

. Groff met future wife and co-owner Kelly when she was a customer at Yesterday and Today, and their daughter Kirsty was named after British pop star

Kirsty MacColl Kirsty Anna MacColl (10 October 1959 – 18 December 2000) was a British singer and songwriter, daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl. She recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He ...

. The store closed in 2002. Groff produced albums for many of the DC area's punk bands including

the Slickee Boys The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk rock, punk-psychedelic rock, psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone and drummer Dan Palenski. The g ...

, Razz,

Bad Brains Bad Brains are an American rock band formed in Washington, D.C. in 1976. Originally a jazz fusion band under the name Mind Power, they are widely regarded as pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members have objected to the use of this ...

Teen Idles The Teen Idles were an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C. in September 1979. Consisting of teenagers Nathan Strejcek, Geordie Grindle, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, they recorded two demo sessions and the 1980 '' Minor Distur ...

, S.O.A., Dark, Nurses, Youth Brigade,

Black Market Baby Black Market Baby was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C. They were one of the groups that created the original punk rock scene in the Washington area in the 1980s. They were extremely popular locally, and were known to be an excell ...

Velvet Monkeys Donald Gene Fleming (born September 25, 1957) is an American musician and producer. Besides fronting a number of his own bands, ( Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L., and Gumball) Fleming has produced Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees, Teenage Fanclub and H ...

, and Minor Threat. He died at Maryland's

MedStar Montgomery Medical Center MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, formerly known as Montgomery General Hospital, is a large hospital in Olney, Maryland. The hospital is a member of MedStar Health. History In 1909, Dr. Jacob Wheeler Bird arrived in Sandy Spring to begin a me ...

at the age of 70.

References

External links

Yesterday and Today Records

Skip Groff papers, Special Collections in Performing Arts, University of Maryland Libraries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Groff, Skip 1948 births 2019 deaths Record producers from Maryland People from Waltham, Massachusetts People from Rockville, Maryland Record producers from Washington, D.C.