Fugazi: C or D?

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.

jayz/drdre killtaker session story straight from the source:
http://vishkhanna.com/2015/11/12/ep-223-ian-mackaye-steve-albini-part-i/

Are there any 33 1/3 books primarily written by the people involved?

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!

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, April 25, 2018 8:05 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seriously! If anything, I figured an excess of interest might be an obstacle to a Fugazi reunion (as strange as that sounds), because they'd have to choose between playing a reasonable number of dates at the kinds of mid-sized clubs in which they're comfortable and meeting audience demand.

Of course, I might just be projecting my own (intense) interest in Fugazi onto the general punk rock public. But I'd be willing to bet that a reunited Fugazi could sell out a weekend's worth of dates at, say, First Ave. in Minneapolis, to say nothing of markets like Chicago, New York, and DC. So it would either be that, or playing bigger venues, or turning a lot of people away, and I can imagine them not being enthusiastic about any of those prospects.

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

― thirst trap your hare (DJ Mencap), Thursday, April 26, 2018 5:01 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol people say this all the time and all i remember from the gigs is just rockin out and having so much fucking fun and being so inspired by how good a band could be, those gigs were a blast i wish i could live them all over

and in retrospect now an admiration for the effort that was taken to conduct a career and run and organization in probably the most ethical way possible in the music business

lol people say this all the time and all i remember from the gigs is just rockin out and having so much fucking fun and being so inspired by how good a band could be, those gigs were a blast i wish i could live them all over

memory from my first Fugazi gig (Brixton, 1994/5??): washing my hands after taking a piss and a guy who was absolutely paralytically wasted running into the bathroom, slipping and tumbling into the gutter of the big communal urinal, immersing himself in piss and being pissed on by guys who were then using the urinal and unable to cease their streams. "woah he doesn't seem very straight edge," i thought.

lol omg
i was wasted at every fugazi show i ever went to as i was generally wasted at every show i ever went to then
but not human urinal wasted

My only Fugazi show was one of 2 or 3 sold out gigs at the Congress Theater in Chicago, it seemed like a huuuge crowd at the time.

I must have been at that Brixton gig. Still one of the best live shows I've ever seen. I was probably a little wasted, but I don't *think* I got pissed on.

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.

Per Joe they occasionally get together and prac, though just for themselves

https://pitchfork.com/news/fugazi-play-music-together-in-private-joe-lally-says/

Also the clips I've seen of the opera based on Fugazi stage banter are a fucking mind-blow.

They were a good as hell band

i've been a little surprised that they haven't done occasional one-off benefit shows over the years

Also the thank you note that Fugazi wrote to Steve is attached via magnet on the Electrical Audio fridge (or was last time I was there)

the opera based on Fugazi stage banter

wait what

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/fugazi-returns-through-opera/

The 100-minute performance, created with the band’s approval and endorsement, samples the sounds of “random feedback, aimless drum noodling, pre-show activist speeches, audience hecklers, and the police breaking up gigs” found in the countless hours of archival Fugazi live recordings in existence.

One of the clips heard there was a little peal of guitar feedback and some drum clatter and I was "oh that's Fugazi" in about two seconds

wow, thanks

I got to see them a few times in Chicago, and once I think at Fort Reno in DC, though the fact I can't remember the DC show that well makes me think maybe I didnt and it was someone else. I wish I was 5 years older because I probably would have seen them a lot more.

I must have been at that Brixton gig. Still one of the best live shows I've ever seen. I was probably a little wasted, but I don't *think* I got pissed on.

my other main memory, beyond it being awesome, was of a reveller bounding onstage, and MacKaye grabbing him by the neck, pushing him to the side of the stage, and then walloping him with his guitar.

And SGs have all those pointy bits too.

I'm still not sure Ian did it, or if the passage of time has made me romanticise my memory of it.

The show was fucking amazing, though. Guy was like a ballerina, the Nijinsky of punk rock. So glad I got to see them as many times as I did.

Just sayin' ...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1950118003/fort-reno-concert-series-50th-anniversary-fundrais?ref=project_build

I finished the Gross book last night and it was good. He's a good writer and has a good handle on the subject, Fugazi are, in spite of their rep, a kind of catty/funny band, at least when talking about themselves. I liked how he built up a context for the record and then broke down each song.

I think it could have stood one more editorial pass, it is sort of littered with typos which was kind of annoying. And there was the odd weird line, like the Davis/Van Gelder, Dre/Jay-Z one mentioned earlier which I don't think was a mistake exactly as much as a clumsy analogy. There were a couple things like that that could have used a tweak.

Ian Mackaye and Amy Farina (from Evens, husband & wife) did 2 songs unbilled for free at Fort Reno Park in DC last night as part of the 50th anniversary season of free concerts there (bring food, and dogs but no alcohol...7 to 9:45 pm local bands Monday & Thursdays in July and part of August). They started with a Lungfish cover and then went into another song. Lungfish one was kinda dirge-like but melodic(with mostly just Amy singing), second one was more fast-tempoed (more Ian-like) with Ian's guitar louder, and Amy on lead vocals but Ian chiming in as well vocally.

The Messthetics (w/ Brendan and Joe from Fugazi) were at Fort Reno the week before.

The other night during a World Series game at Fenway Park they played part of Fugazi "Waiting Room" as the umps were waiting for a review of a challenged umpire call. The organist there picks the songs and he has played that one before

I'm intrigued by Brixton venues in the mid 90s.
I thought most of the ones i was familiar with from the 80s had closed down before i left london.
Were Fugazi big enough for the Academy.

Fridge and Mule Club both had ceased to be by the turn of the 90s at least hadn't they?

I swam Fugazi at the Academy in, I think '94. Probably my favourite gig.

Saw the Beta Band at the Fridge in, bloody hell, 2001?

Swam! Christ. Saw, obvs.

Supporting Marillion is what I'm seeing listed.
Odd combination?
Though I think they had a song called fugazi or something similar didn't they?

Tell a lie, 1995: https://www.dischord.com/fugazi_live_series/london-england-51395

xp Or not as the case may be, that was Marillion touring their lp of the title.
I guess London is a lot larger than places i lived later so a band like Fugazi might have just been big enough to headline by the mid 90s.
JUst wasn't thinking of them being taht large since the last place I think I saw them was McGonagles. NOt sure fi i saw them again after that which was the first time I went to Dublin.

I'm not entirely sure Fugazi ever opened for anyone.

you might be right!

Fugazi opening for Marillion would have been the greatest gig ever, obv.

Fugazi were big enough to play the Barrowlands in Glasgow as far back as the Repeater tour, there were four bands (including the mighty Dawson) iirc for £6 and that might have helped somewhat.

Yeah Dawson were pretty great. Saw them somewhere around the turn of the 90s, may have been tied in with the Membranes network.

I saw Fugazi at the Brixton Academy in I think 1992, £5 tickets or something like that as they always kept it affordable. Didn't like them as I recall but hey at least it didn't set me back much.

I also saw Marillion at the same venue on the Fugazi tour lol

That Fugazi/Dawson Barrowlands show was £5 (£3 for the unemployed) and also had Silverfish and Chumbawamba on the bill.

Dawson were great that night.

Time in Glasgow before that was the Mayfair with Dawson and the Stretchheads, which is some bill.

I'm not entirely sure Fugazi ever opened for anyone.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, October 27, 2018 3:13 PM (one hour ago)

https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/kzz9mx/30-years-ago-fugazi-played-their-first-show-as-a-three-piece

heh, debut gig makes sense for sure

Besides being one of the only times that the DC punk legends opened a show

I wonder what the other ones were?

Their second show (first as a 4-piece) was opening for Kingface:
https://i.imgur.com/I02xydI.jpg

Elderly chapel hill/carrboro punkers may recognize the Slush Puppies as Mac Superchunk's pre-WWAX band.