I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: FUGAZI-Repeater + 3 Songs (1990).

This was Fugazi’s debut album and my first exposure to them.  They’d put out some singles before this but I missed them.  Listening to it now, it sounds great, but not revolutionary.  And yet, I remember back then, this was a pretty mind-blowing album.  It’s full of heavy chunky guitars and yet it is underscored by a punk vibe (that comes from the source: Minor Threat).

And yet, despite that pedigree, the album is also quite diverse.  There’s some pleasantly melodic sequences, including the very nice instrumental “Brendan #1.”  There’s some wildly unpreditcable chord sequences and sounds, like the opening fof “Greed.”

Of course before you forget that this is a punk band at heart you get the hardcore chanting of “Sieve-Fisted Find” which sounds like every chanted hardcore record from the 80s (a nice touch).

And yet there’s also great diversity throughout, chugging guitars in “Two Beats Off.”  “The slow, almost jazzy twists and turns of, “Shut the Door.”  And I haven’t even mentioned the two lead-off tracks: “Turnover” and “Repeater” one of the best statements of purpose to open a disc in the 90s.

I have enjoyed other Fugazi releases, but for me this is the one to get.

[READ: April 9, 2010] Keep Your Eyes Open

My brother-in-law Ben got me this book for Christmas a couple of years ago.  It’s primarily a photo collection.  Well, it IS a photo collection, but there’s also an introductory essay that I hadn’t read until the other day.

Glen Friedman has evidently been Fugazi’s official photographer for years (and this is, I gather, his second book of photos).  The book is a good mix of live and “posed” photos.  Obviously, the live ones are more dynamic (and you can really see that way the band is totally immersed in their show).  There’s got to be at least a dozen shots of someone in the band upside down, on his back or in some way not normally upright.

The posed photos are primarily of the band hanging around or preparing for photo-shoots (or, even actual photo shoots).  The band never looks all that different over the years, so these photos are fine, but nothing remarkable.  The more candid shots (and there are plenty when the band’s family members are present) are pretty cool though (I’ve always preferred candid photos).

If you don’t know anything about Fugazi themselves, the opening essay may or may not help matters.  I don’t know a lot about the mythology of the band.  I know basic facts: Ian MacKaye was in Minor Threat and is also the owner of Minor Threat’s label Dischord.  Dischord had signed some great punks bands, including ones with the other three guys of Fugazi.  Hence, they met and decided to form a band.

The key element of Fugazi (and Dischord) is their belief in keeping things affordable.  CDs are always cheap.  Live shows were usually $5 and all ages.  And, in a nutshell, they never sold out.

The essay is by Ian F. Svenonius from Nation of Ulysses, a band I don’t really know.  I assume that (while certainly factual) the style of the essay is something of an inside joke, but maybe I’m wrong.  It is written in such a preposterously academic way (more 25 cent words than I’ve seen in a long time) that it comes across as more comic pretentiousness than actually useful.  It’s especially true when the he talks to three people who are split personalities (or something) of the same guy.

So, the essay had some amusing and valid points to make, but clearly this book is for the photos.  And really it’s for die-hard Fugazi fans.  For while Fugazi is a pretty original band, Friedman isn’t making artistic statements with his pictures, he’s documenting the band.  These photos won’t be in galleries, they’ll be on young punk’s walls.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

You are not what you own.