FUGAZI REVIEWS:
13 Songs (1989)
Repeater (1990)
Steady Diet of Nothing (1991)
In on the Kill Taker (1993)
Red Medicine (1995)
13 Songs (1989)
Album Score: 13
Fugazi, at least in 13 Songs, is a band that I have trouble trying to categorize. That probably shows me how useless it is to try to categorize bands in the first place, but I might try anyway just so you have an idea of what I'm listening to. They were certainly a product of the evolving underground scene where the bands were moving away from the horribly-fast-and-ugly hardcore-punk scene and starting to shift into something slower, moodier, and artsier.
Fugazi were started by Ian MacKaye, former member of the hardcore punk band Minor Threat. He said he was aiming to create “The Stooges but with reggae,” but I can only pretend I understand what he meant by that. If you talk to their diehard fans, they'll say that they started the whole guitar-rock alternative scene in the '90s, and they possibly even had a profound influence in the burgeoning grunge scene. This isn't a grunge album, but it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to see where they're getting that.
13 Songs is actually a compilation of the band's first two EPs, but for the sake of simplicity, I want to call this their first album. It opens with an explosive song, “Waiting Room,” which features a heavy mid-tempo bass groove and some remarkably passionate scream-singing vocals. (Don't be put off about the “scream-singing.” He's not doing it just to sound ugly or loud, but to be dramatic.) They even undergo an unruly 'call and response' style interaction with the back-up singers, which makes it even more entertaining.
Yes, it seems that Fugazi were a band that actually seemed to be concerned with making their music entertaining. I know, that shouldn't be considered unusual goal for most bands, but after listening to some art-rock/post-punk bands from that decade, some of them seemed to have other goals in mind! Some of these songs have, I'm convinced, some of the greatest bass-lines in history. “And the Same” is completely made by that bass and drum groove; I could listen to that forever. But the good singing and the fuzzy fireworks provided by the electric guitarist are just bonuses!
“Burning” not only has a great and elegantly simple bass line, but those lead guitars play these amazing, siren-esque textures that literally feels like it's burning. That's definitely an art-rock song for the ages. “Bad Mouth” is just a great pop song; the guitar textures are bubbly and the vocal melody is catchy as hell. “Margin Walker” is another one of my favorites, and its overly sloppy guitar texture is about the only thing in here that strongly rings of grunge to me.
I didn't get to talk about all the songs I liked on this album, because I liked all of them. Maybe some of them, such as “Bulldog Front” and “Promises” didn't seem quite as special as the songs that surrounded it, but I still really enjoyed listening to those as well. Without a doubt, this is one album that you can buy and expect it to be solid throughout.
Despite this being justly categorized as “underground punk music,” I personally didn't find this difficult to like in the slightest bit, and remember that I'm not always one to scout out these sorts of records on my own free will. 13 Songs is one of those rare albums that I took one listen to and was pretty much hooked on it. They have a knack for catchy melodies, their songs seem passionate and emotional, and (perhaps most importantly) I frequently get a slight jolt of electricity running down my spine as I listen to it. If you're at all inclined to exploring the '80s and '90s underground scene, this is definitely something to check out.
Read the track reviews:
13 Songs
Repeater (1990)
Album Score: 13
This is one angry album, and it's unbridled. I usually find such anger tiresome, but Fugazi somehow managed to create a wholly entertaining album out of it. More than that, it's an album I find worthy of lavishing heaps of praise upon! But before I start doing that, let me express some of the disappointments I have.
I don't like it quite as much as 13 Songs. The vocal melodies don't seem as hooky and playful, and I'm also not getting quite the same amount of awesome, ear-popping bass-lines. (There's the ultimate disappointment!) I have no idea what the general public thinks of Repeater compared to 13 Songs, so it will be interesting to read the response I get to this.
Other than that, this album is fantastic! It is filled to the brim with incredibly driven songs that I have an easy time getting caught up in even though I swear this sort of angry, ugly, guitar-led music continues to not really be my sort of thing. (I'm also still recovering over being a teenager in the '90s and absolutely hating the sort of music my peers were listening to. Naturally, I was a big geek with only one or two real friends. They made a lot of movies about people like me in the '80s except I was in a less cool decade.)
Perhaps I said I don't like the bass guitar as much as I did in 13 Songs, but that doesn't make Joe Lally any less interesting of a bassist. (I spent a whopping 10 seconds to look up his name on Wikipedia, which is proof that I find him interesting.) The bass thumps away perfectly complimenting those drums, which are just about as exciting and air-tight as they could possibly be. It's common for me to only dwell on lead guitars and singers when I review albums, but Fugazi had such a compelling rhythm section that I couldn't help it. They are what makes these ugly and angry songs fun. (Is it alright for me to say these songs are “fun?” I suppose I said the same thing about the Sex Pistols, and nobody raised a big stink over it.)
Naturally, the lead guitarist is excellent at creating those ugly distorted sounds. They are unpleasant to listen to by design, but they're gritty, they never annoy me, and they always seem to be doing something meaningful. So many other bands like this, Fugazi's copycats no doubt, seem to just be filling up space with boring noise. I might have said the vocal melodies didn't quite stick out at me as much as they did in the debut, but all of these songs continue to capture my attention in every respect. Even the ugly lead singing is compelling to me. Most bands that have lead singers who sound like they're projectile vomiting are awful, but Ian MacKaye comes across as nothing less than passionate.
I'll also say that Repeater is one of the more solidly consistent albums I've ever heard, and there's nothing in particular that sticks out at me as a highlight. That almost seems like a flaw to me, because I'm used to writing reviews that concentrates on gushing about individual songs, but I can't seem to do that here. I suppose if I were pressed to come up with a favorite, it would have to be “Shut the Door.” However, I might only be saying that, because I'm pretty sure I heard it somewhere before... that menacing riff sounds like it's been lurking in the back of my brain for quite some time! But I wouldn't be surprised if fans of this album pick something else as a favorite song, or more probably, like all of these songs equally.
If you enjoy heavily driven songs with menacing rhythms and angry vocals, then you can't go wrong with this. Even if you don't like that sort of music, you can't go wrong with this. See, I'm listening to it.
Read the track reviews:
Repeater
Steady Diet of Nothing (1991)
Album Score: 11
As I mentioned at length in my previous two Fugazi reviews, this is a band that I don't usually listen to. However, in spite of that, I really enjoyed those albums; I found them intense, exciting, and wildly entertaining. My reaction to Steady Diet of Nothing, however, is much closer to how I initially suspected I'd react to a Fugazi record: I find it entirely respectable, but I've had a very difficult time getting into it. There are certainly bits and pieces of this that I enjoy unconditionally, but as a whole, I get rather tired of it by the time it's over. Call me an old man if you must.
Fugazi changed their sound from the previous album, which contained mostly mid-tempo songs with guitars that projected a cool feeling. In this album, the guitars are much more hardened and severe, and perhaps I'd even say they were more sweltering. In a big sense, it was great they changed their sound, because I'm sure nobody wanted them to keep rewriting the same album. On the other hand, I'm not too sure I like where they were headed. I described their previous albums as ugly and violent, but those terms are even more applicable to Steady Diet of Nothing, and it starts to inhibit my enjoyment of it.
Since I seem to be in love with this band's bassist (musically, not romantically even though I'm sure he's a nice guy), it's not a huge surprise that my favorite songs on this album are the ones with the strongest bass lines. “Reclamation” has a bass line for the ages; it is bouncy, it is creepy and it is menacing. Of course there's more to that song than the bass. The bass wouldn't have been quite as memorable if it weren't allowed to interchange perfectly with that thumpy drumming and a strangely huge lead guitar sound that's reminiscent of a full scale stringed orchestra.
“Latin Roots” doesn't have that cool, fluid bass that I like, but they put such an extreme amount of fuzz on it that it became powerful enough to play the main riff! (I don't know anything about how they put these songs together, but if that's not the bassist playing the riff, then the bassist wasn't on that song at all.) It's a simple but very catchy riff that contains so much grit and attitude that it smacks me in the face. I also have to appreciate that unusual echoing effect that the drummer incorporated into the mix! I didn't even notice this awesomely echoed drum when I scored the track reviews! So, I suppose that means that this album clearly warrants multiple listens just to sort out everything they did to it! Personally, I spent the better part of an entire day with this album, and it still feels like I have much more to go with it.
By far my biggest nitpick with a few of these songs (i.e., “Exit Only,” “Stacks” and “Polish,”) is that Fugazi had a tendency to put in these *stops* throughout their song in which the instruments would completely cease playing and we'd be subject to a few milliseconds of utter silence. These moments, albeit brief, just make me feel uncomfortable. Sure, Fugazi were a band that didn't want its audience to feel too comfortable, but that practice ends up just sending shivers up my spine.
Easily one of Fugazi's nicest qualities, was that they took extra care to develop each of these songs so that they always seem fresh. Pretty much no song sounds quite the same as it ends as it started, which is an impressive feat since most of these songs are barely over three minutes long. Sure, I get tired of the overall ugliness and intensity of these songs by the end, but at least they all showed that these guys were both formidable songwriters and instrumentalists. Even in the moments in this album when I hadn't been swept up by a riff, I've at least enjoyed listening to them play it; the bass guitar, lead guitar and drummer could sometimes be playing staggeringly different things, but they'd always seem to come together to create a punchy sound. It's quite amazing.
So, all in all, while this might hardly be my favorite Fugazi album, this is a pretty strong 11. Feel free to raise that rating to a 12 if intense and ugly music is your thing.
Read the track reviews:
Steady of Nothing
In on the Kill Taker (1993)
Album Score: 12
It's commendable that Fugazi didn't want to repeat themselves from album-to-album, but they also didn't want to radically change their sound. I claimed that Repeater was a loud, ugly, and violent album. Compared to In on the Kill Taker, however, it's as sweet as a pussy cat. I suppose there was no else to evolve in the art-punk field than to get louder and more violent!
If I were to guess, I would say this album was inspired by a sticky hot summer day. When I listen to it, I can hear these guys sweating buckets. In Repeater, they were too cool for school. Here, they are tortured; I can't even be sure they were enjoying themselves. Since I have a natural reaction against ugly, tormented music, you might expect that I would immediately reject this album. I won't lie to you; that was my immediate reaction to it. After repeated listens, however, I noticed that I was starting to really enjoy it. It might not be pretty, but it's an electrifying and also inventive experience. Their playing throughout this album literally sounds like their instruments were on fire, but they didn't let that be an excuse to stop playing.
There are even a few instances when they experiment briefly with creating quiet and despondent atmospheres, such as that creepy, fuzz-ridden introduction to “23 Beats Off.” Even as I'm listening to such moments, I'm expecting something grisly and violent to pop up very soon. Indeed, if you hang around for a couple seconds, you'll hear Ian MacKaye come in with his horrifying screaming. If you hang on even longer, you'll start to hear them play screechy feedback noises for three straight minutes. However, don't be too afraid of that; as far as screechy feedback noises go, I've suffered through much worse under the direction of Neil Young. Fugazi actually lets their screeches evolve over time, gradually getting more distorted. I'm thankful that they use noise for a reason other than just to be noisy.
This is one of the most energetic albums probably in existence. The most energetic has got to be “Smallpox Champion,” which is easily my favorite song of the album. The tight, fast and thunderous guitars provide the backdrop of Guy Picciotto's loud, tortured but somehow still playful vocals. I can even hear some small and subtle electronic embellishments used. Specifically a beeping sound and a whirly sound. They might have been inessential touches, but they provide memorable decoration. (I also noticed that there's a *stop* in the middle of that song. But unlike such stops in their previous album, this one is much more well-placed and perhaps even necessary.) There's even more vocal goodness from Picciotto in “Walken's Syndrome,” a reference to Christopher Walken's bit part on Annie Hall. There are spots in the song when it sounds like he's screaming into a canyon, and it's very much fun to listen to. That song also happens to be rip-roaring, and also another one of my favorites of the album.
While their instrumentation abilities are undeniably tops, I've been mildly disappointed over the lack of catchy bass-lines in post-Repeater Fugazi records! Listening to their earlier albums, I've grown addicted to them. He plays tightly and rhythmically—he and the drummer compliment each other beautifully—but it's not hook-centric. That said, this album does contain one bass line for the ages, “Sweet and Low.” That also happens to be the most laid-back song of the album, and I've got to say I greatly appreciate that quiet moment before the torment begins again!
The ending song, “Last Chance For a Slow Dance,” is a minor disappointment; it seems like it could have been beefed up a bit. It's slowly paced, the riff isn't very catchy at all, and it seems about a minute too long. But that's still a rather menacing song, and any album should be proud to have a song like that be considered a “minor disappointment.” And I'm not just being soft because I don't want to piss off the fanboys... I genuinely consider this is a really good, solid album.
Even though this isn't the sort of sing-songey stuff I usually go for (Fugazi almost didn't seem interested in creating “songs” for this release), I found this to be an electrifying album filled with menacing atmospheres, scarily overheated performances, and inventive punk rock instrumentation. Steady Diet of Nothing was a similarly steamy and heated album, but In on the Kill Taker frequently makes me want to get up and dance with it until my head falls off. And considering the amount of sheer energy that's in here, it probably will!
Read the track reviews:
In on the Kill Taker
Red Medicine (1995)
Album Score: 12
This has been by far my easiest Fugazi listening experience ever since Repeater. I found that to be surprising because it has been purported by many to be their full-on “experimental” album. Not that the reputation isn't true—this is even more *out there* than their previous two albums. However, nobody told me that Fugazi's experimentation was playful. Whenever I see something described as “experimental,” I automatically assume that a code word for “not very listenable.” However, I found this to be album to be not only listenable, but quite fun.
Get a load of those clicky and squeaky sounds at the beginning of “Latest Disgrace.” I have no idea what that could be, but it's enough to pique my ears. Naturally, the song eventually launches into one of their full-on, fuzz-heavy rockers. Ian MacKaye and his scream singing might have gotten less youthful over the years, but that doesn't mean lost any of his passion. Like in the previous album, Guy Piccioto has a few chances to show off his cleaner and perhaps more stylized chops. He sings on the tight and danceable opener, “Do You Like Me.” It might not be Fugazi's most memorable song on record, but you'd have to be clinically dead if you don't find those tight guitar riffs exciting in any way. I mean, such loud music might not be your thing, but it will still get your blood flowing.
While there were a lot of strong candidates, the covered winner of The Best Song of the Album went to “Bed for the Scraping,” because that's the most intense and energetic song of the lot. That's really saying something, since that's a descriptor that applies to many of these songs. It's so fast-paced and tightly played that it transfers its energy into my legs and makes me wanna get out of this seat and dance. Some might say that MacKaye goes overboard with his scream singing. At one point, he plum gives up yelling out words and just let's out a blood curdling scream. But that's not overboard; such singing perfectly matches the energy projected by the instrumentals. They also brought back one former Fugazi staple for that song, which has made me very excited indeed. Long live catchy bass lines! And, thanks to the stars, that isn't the only catchy bass line of the album.
It's hard to pick a favorite, but maybe I like that snappy line at the beginning of “Target” the most. The bass-line doesn't last for long, but it left such a heavy impression on me that I'm actually a bit surprised it's so brief when I examined the song more closely. However, the bass-line had been sacrificed for a good cause, giving way for an even catchier and bouncier lead guitar riff. The bass doesn't go to sleep, of course; it thumps away contributing to an appealing, low-key rhythm that compliments the drums.
There are a few occasions when they decide to let rip their earsplitting, high-pitched guitars. “By You” starts out as a rather pretty acoustic piece, but it isn't long before one of their heavy grooves pipe up. But then instead of the lead guitar merely playing rhythmically or contributing melody, it's completely freaking out. Its high-pitched squeals are kept in the background for the most part until the end when the weak-of-heart might want to cover their ears! That said, I didn't find the song too difficult.
The only song that made me feel uncomfortable in any extreme way was “Birthday Pony,” and I'm not just talking about the experimental stuff that appears at the beginning, which I found kind of humorous (you'll hear an array of goofy sound effects while someone lumbers around on a piano). What I don't like about the song is that clunky riff. The way it flows, for whatever reason, rubs me the wrong way. I won't deny, however, that the song is boiling with intense energy, and I'm not too surprised that many fans have pinpointed it as one of their favorites.
Even though I've described their experimentalist tendencies in this album as playful, don't be too eager to go out and get it, especially if Fugazi's previous records haven't yet clicked with you. If their earlier albums haven't convinced you to be a Fugazi fan, it is unlikely this one will. On that same note, if you loved their previous albums, then you'll love this one as well. This has got to be one of the most consistently good bands in history.
Read the track reviews:
Red Medicine
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