Fugazi: C or D?

Saw that! Watched Brendan Canty playing drums with Lizzi from GangGang Dance & guitarist Dana Vorhees at the Hirshhorn Museum Yoko Ono tribute. Canty & Joe Lally will be backing Daniel Johnston on his upcoming DC gig.

Koolest Wizards jumbotron screengrab of all time? pic.twitter.com/XV6Xt4R8D1

— Chris _ _ Richards (@Chris__Richards) November 10, 2017

Also, had no idea Lally and Canty were in a new band together.

(With Anthony Pirog)

& Rites of Spring really surprised me

Welp, that rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0nFZe_e-qc

new canty/lally/pirog track

Another track here https://themessthetics.bandcamp.com/track/serpent-tongue

Messthetics album release is March 23. Brendan Canty is also gonna be busy touring with MC5 50th anniversary group with Wayne Kramer and others

End hits fucking rules

^otm

all fugazi albums rule

Steady Diet of Nothing doesn't imo but that's about it

No, that one rules, too. A lot.

Steady Diet a lot better than End Hits - the former a much better showcase for the rhythm section, which is the band's strongest point.

(what I mean is the instrumental-side of Fugazi is better in the context of short, tightly wound interplay where the bass/drums are at the forefront - 'jammy' Fugazi isn't the best Fugazi IMO)

i'd call red medicine jammy, end hits i guess is playing-wise but towards much more frictive ends? anyway that era is my favorite of theirs, i think the rhythm section gets plenty of shine and the compositions especially on end hits hit a great balance of punch and spaciousness (both of which iirc steady diet lacks a bit i comparison to their other records variously, though it still rules)

the argument hits that balance the most smoothly and so might be their best (it's a good record to end on as it ties together strands of their previous modes to creates its own). i listen to it less though bc i love their jammy mode

There is a case to be made that The Argument=Red Medicine/End Hits. End Hits is the one I listen to the least, for no good reason.

In On The Kill Taker is the band's most aggro album. "Facet Squared" - an awesome rush, but why even bother with lyrics? Blaaaargh!

...and their best, IMO. Probably their loudest album but also more dynamically nuanced than the earlier stuff. Plus "Sweet and Low" (an example of why I'm iffy about the longer, later material - they perfected the "this is a Fugazi instrumental" here)

"Facet Squared" - an awesome rush, but why even bother with lyrics? Blaaaargh!

ah but Facet Squared includes one of my absolute favourite Ian lines - "We draw lines and we stand behind them / That's why flags are such ugly things"

I love the lyrics to Facet Squared. 'Cool's eternal but it's always dated' has the ring of a stolen revealed truth.

Yeah, but did you catch any of those lyrics without a lyrics sheet?

Steady Diet is the one that most consistently slays from beginning to end imo. Maybe others have higher highs but it's still my favorite to play in the car.

xp "Irony is the refuge of the educated" was a line ahead of its time imo

That and "I hate the sound of guitars" are the fugazi lyrics I think about most

Messthetics LP is awesome, gotta check out more music by this Anthony Pirog guy

Good podcast interview w/Ian about some of the music that mattered to him: http://wypr.org/post/essential-tremors-ian-mackaye

Fugazi rules. my first album of theirs was "Red Medicine" and i was shocked it was only $10. soon enough picked up "Repeater" and listened to those two a lot in my first year of college. kept up with them off an on and always enjoyed their stuff. i remember really liking the "Instrument" movie, which was the last thing i heard of them.

i got to see them play a show in early 2000s. it was of course a great show, and they stopped it midway through to throw out somebody in the audience who was being unduly aggressive. as a small person who always had to be cautious around mosh pits at shows, seeing this in action was very much appreciated!

No one wants to discuss this Mesthetics record, huh? Quit living in the past!

Mostly kidding here. But this record is great and should be getting more attention.

Fuck it, I'm starting a thread

I just didn't think it was that great personally even though it's good to hear Canty + Lally together again.

gotta check out more music by this Anthony Pirog guy

Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/album/62JuK3H7TjIMAKbHPDSoCU

Seriously, though. Please enjoy that.

the best

i want to read this

https://www.amazon.com/Fugazis-Kill-Taker-Joe-Gross-ebook/dp/B07BFGYYG8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Ordered. It should have a sticker on the back that says "$11 postage paid" or something.

Love this album. I will definitely be buying this.

i listened to 13 songs today so many jams....13 jams to be exact

killtaker was my first (but not my last). facet squared is a helluva intro to a band (esp if you're 17 and you only bought it because Eddie Vedder said it was great)

Just started reading this book and I am stoked, but already encountered something that super irked me. He's writing about the failed Albini sessions, and saying how it should have been the perfect pairing, a la (his comparisons) Miles Davis and Rudy Van Gelder (I'd say Teo Macero, but fine) but then also ... Jay Z and "Doctor Dre." First, that he spelled (or someone corrected) it "Doctor." Second, Jay-Z and Dr. Dre barely did anything together, right? Let alone formed some epochal team. Unless I'm reading his reference wrong, and it was supposed to be a dream team, but Miles and Rudy was real, so this one seems like a weird unforced error.

"Doctor Dre" oh man. But it's about what I'd expect from the 33 1/3 series. There are definitely a couple of good entries, but it's strictly amateur hour for the most part.

the perfect pairing, a la (his comparisons) Miles Davis and Rudy Van Gelder (I'd say Teo Macero, but fine)

Yeah, that's an odd one. Miles obviously worked a lot with Van Gelder, but never in Van Gelder's most celebrated studio, and never on any of Miles' most celebrated recordings (not that Walkin' etc. aren't celebrated; just that you don't think "yeah, Miles & Rudy!" on those, whereas you definitely think "yeah, Miles & Teo!" on their records together). John Coltrane and Rudy Van Gelder would've been a better example.

Jay Z and "Doctor Dre."

wtf

Joe should know better (& editor too)

Doctorb Dre

Fugazi and Steve Albini should have been like M&M and Doc Andre!

I'm halfway through the book and I'm mostly just happy I got to live in a world with Fugazi in it, the thrill of learning (pre internet) that there was a new album coming, or tickets on sale for a show. I miss Fugazi. I was talking to someone in New York last week, an indie/punk rock lifer, who had recently talked to Guy, and Guy was basically saying he thought no one was interested in a Fugazi reunion, and my friend was like, of course they fucking are! But Guy thought the only way it would happen is if they made new music, and that seems like hard work. It's worth noting that one major takeaway from a book (much of which is taken from getting the guys in a room and letting them talk) is that they're all (as reported) still really good friends. Just, well, hard to get in a room together.

Missed a chance to see Messthetics in New York, will try for Chicago next week!

Another fascinating, er, facet of the book is how often songs I/many assumed were political were really about relationships or sci-fi concept or something not specific at all. I guess it's just the general intensity of the band.

Oh, the first song, Facet Squared? It's a sort of anagram for Flags are Such Ugly Things. FASUT. Facet.

it's clearly not the case that no-one's interested in a Fugazi reunion but I think they do have the kind of high minded audience who'd get very sniffy if they played shows without writing or recording new stuff

Oh, the first song, Facet Squared? It's a sort of anagram for Flags are Such Ugly Things. FASUT. Facet.

Ha! oh shit!

Facet Squared is one of my favourite 'Gazi lyrics. "We draw lines and we stand behind them / That's why flags are such ugly things"

Some other neat (early) revelations:

Joe Lally refers to "Steady Diet of Nothing" as "Steady Diet of No Reverb."

Brendan Canty is apparently the best all-around musician and was playing guitar and piano longer than he's been playing drums. Like Bill Berry, he would often contribute songs and riff ideas as well.

Fugazi songs are typically constructed from bits of pieces and ideas and riffs and hooks others brought in and deconstructed and refined in the studio and on stage. The lyrics always come last and are designed to fit the final arrangement. "Epic Problem," from the last record, apparently was kicking around for so many years in so many forms that in its honor they let it keep the same temp title it always had.

haha

i am a patient boy…etc

Don Caballero played at my tiny club once back in 1999 or 2000 and when the show was over Damon Che immediately stripped off all of his clothes right there on stage, toweling himself off as people were still filing out.

haha i was once backstage at a fugazi show (friend's band was on dischord) and saw the fabled dryer

hope they had some softener sheets, because i know from playing high school basketball that that shit gets crunchy

Ian probably thinks fabric softener is a bourgeois affectation.

Haha I have a friend, a very fastidious person, well-groomed, stylish, who played many shows with Fugazi over the yrs and if you could see the horror in his eyes when he described the dryer and attendant odor to me, hahaha, best band ever

xps

ring the alarm or you're sold to drying

They just released the Albini demos of In On the Killtaker

Never thought I'd see the day!

No kidding! It sounds much better than the boots, they still made the right decision to re-record the album, the energy is weirdly sluggish in spots, but certain things do sound incredible and it is a fascinating alternate view of the record

"Returning the Screw" here is so good

"cha cha cha cha cha cha champions"

the drums sound so huge on Facet Squared when they kick in

So checking the timelines, Albini did this in October, Rid of Me in Dec 92 and then In Utero in Feb 93, which is a hell of a run (plus probably thirty other sessions as well)

Already and unsurprisingly a smash success -- they've raised $26,000 and counting for the charity at this point.

https://preview.redd.it/anyone-else-here-would-watch-starship-troopers-and-feel-v0-yz12b90rhv7b1.gif?format=png8&s=139c68a4dc2a99f3c12335e3d2c119724da7672d

Approaching $65K now! (At minimum, people could have added more.) Really great to see.

Emailed Mike Plante again about getting a "We are Fugazi" screening in Chicago and he said

the theaters keep kicking it down the road. I'll try Siskel Center again

Geez - Music Box really outta sensible action here ...

Here's a proposal: Hijack what ever control there is of the Congress Theater, have it there, fly in Ex for an opening performance, have Todd Trainer and Bob Weston put together some sort of Spinal Tap/Rush Reunion facsimile Shellac tribute, then project the film. Have ambulances on stand-by for all the 60-yr old spectral projection heart attacks.

Only time I saw Fugazi (+Shellac and the Ex) was at Congress. I think that whole place got shut down for tax evasion or some shit. Also not 60 but I might have an infarction if it happens!

what a way to go, though!

one of the last times I saw Fugazi was the horrifically oversold show at the Rex in east London on the End Hits tour (I think). Shellac opened. There was, as everm bullshit down at the front, and no pit for photographers, so after their three songs and whatever Fugazi allowed the photographers to sit onstage. One of the snapper decided this would afford him teh perfect opportunity for a stagedive, leapt into the audience and then attempted to return to his sweet spot beside the band, only for Bob Weston to accost him and drag him to the front of the stage, where he was vigirously lectured by Ian over his shitty behaviour, stripped of his photo pass and cast back into the maw.

I wonder if any photographer, ever, has taken a picture of a band from midair as they were stage diving?

Mike Plante the guy booking the We Are Fugazi doc says:

Chicago is set for July 15 at Music Box - they should have a ticket link this week

Of course I am out of town that day. Jerks.

Sorry. And I discovered after the fact that there was a recent showing at a Milwaukee Film fest (not that you would drive all the way there for that but maybe)

Dud. Saw them once only, at Leeds Irish Centre back in the day. Ian Mackaye was in a foul mood (it looked to be his default setting, but who knows?) and he spent an inordinate amount of time lecturing the audience on how they should conduct themselves when dancing, and how we (or, more accurately, one drunk chap who it would have been much easier to ignore, but...) shouldn't ask them to play Minor Threat songs. The little music they managed to play in between all the ranting was pretty dull so I cleared off after about half an hour.

https://dischord.com/fugazi_live_series/leeds-england-91290

?

lol

Loving that the sample track of that Leeds show opens with Ian sardonically muttering "a stage dive". Sounds like a cracking version of Greed, tho!

I had a friend who referred to Ian as Sam the Bald Eagle and I've always found that comparison hard to shake.