Fugazi: 13 Songs 1989 + Repeat + 3 Songs 1990

 

Fugazi (/fuˈɡɑːzi/; foo-GAH-zee) is an American punk rock band 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-transcending music, DIY ethical stance, manner of business practice, and contempt for the music industry.
                         

Drummer Brendan Canty, bassist Joe Lally, and guitarists/vocalists Ian MacKaye, and Guy Picciotto

formed Fugazi in 1986. Initially a trio, Picciotto was added to the lineup after the band's first live shows. Prior to forming, the members already had deep roots in the D.C. punk scene. Dischord labelhead MacKaye, who had previously been in the Teen Idles and Minor Threat, had just come from Embrace. For better or worse, Embrace, along with Picciotto and Canty's better Rites of Spring, kick-started the emo subgenre that reached prominence years later.
                     

                
Outside Fugazi, both MacKaye and Picciotto helped other bands with production. MacKaye continued to operate Dischord, and Lally began his own label, Tolotta. Picciotto also ventured into filmmaking.

Though they never officially disbanded, Fugazi remained dormant as the years spun on. MacKaye toured and recorded more with the Evens, his band with Amy Farina.
In 2011, Dischord launched the Fugazi Live Series, an online archive that grew to house recordings of various qualities of every one of the group's more than 1,000 shows. When the series reached its goal of complete documentation of Fugazi's live work, Dischord marked the end of the phase with the 2014 release of First Demo, a remastered issue of the band's previously unreleased ten-song demo recording from 1988.
                           

On February 13, 2019, Louder Sound asked Lally and Canty about the possibility of Fugazi returning, Lally responded "You never want to say never about anything, because how can you say that about the

future? But there does seem to be a lack of time to allow it to happen, because the four of us would have to spend a lot of time together to figure out, 'Should we play old songs?' 'Who are we now?' 'What is it now?' We are not the kind of band to get together and just rehearse two hours of old songs to go out and play it, rake in the dough and come home." Canty added, "If we got back together it would have to be from the spirit of creativity. It would be different if we got back together."
                  

Fugazi has performed numerous worldwide tours and produced six studio albums, a film, and a

comprehensive live series, gaining the band critical acclaim and success around the world.[1] Highly influential on punk and alternative music, the band has been on an indefinite hiatus since 2003.
                   

13 SONGS 1989

                     

Disregarding all the wordiness and adjectives that can be heaped like a pile of horse dung at Disneyland upon great, timeless albums, the importance of this record can perhaps be more suitably measured by

the number of people who remember the first time they heard it. 13 Songs (a combination of the Fugazi and Margin Walker EPs) is usually among the first records that spring to mind when defining alternative rock. Furious, intelligent, artful, and entirely musical, it's a baker's dozen of cannon shots to the gut -- not just a batch of emotionally visceral and defiant songs recorded by angry young men, but something greater.
                       

Nearly every song here reaches an anthemic level without falling prey to pomposity. Most of these

songs are anthems of the self rather than a rallying cry of accusation or unification, with "Waiting Room" and "Suggestion" serving as two examples. The attention-getting drop into silence that occurs at the 22-second mark of the former is instantly memorable. The relentless ska/reggae-inflected drive of the song is equally effective, as Ian MacKaye tells everyone listening to get off their behinds and do what they want.
                 

Fugazi – 13 Songs
Label: Dischord Records – DISCHORD 36, Dischord Records – Dischord 36
Format: CD, Compilation, Reissue, Remastered, MPO $12
Country: USA & Europe
Released: 2003
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk, Post-Hardcore

TRAXS

               

01. Waiting Room    2:54
02. Bulldog Front    2:53
03. Bad Mouth    2:36
04. Burning    2:39
05. Give Me The Cure    2:59
06. Suggestion    4:44
07. Glue Man    4:21
08. Margin Walker    2:30
09. And The Same    3:27
10. Burning Too    2:41
11. Provisional - Guitar [Popsloppy Guitar] – Edward Janney   2:17
12. Lockdown    2:10
13. Promises    4:03

NOTES

                     

Tracks 1 to 7 are taken from the self-titled 'Fugazi' EP (also known as '7 Songs'), which was recorded at Inner Ear Studios, 6/88.
Tracks 8 to 13 are taken from the 'Margin Walker' EP, which was recorded and mixed at Southern Studios, 12/88. Additional recording at Greenhouse Studios.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 97 MB
Flac  Size: 282 MB

REPEATER 1990

                  

Repeater nearly matches the Fugazi and Margin Walker EPs with its musical invention and skill,

spewing out another group of completely invigorating songs, which makes the subject matter and finger-pointing a little easier to swallow. Few rhythm sections of the time had the great interplay of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty. Likewise, the guitar playing and interaction of Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto almost always get overlooked, thanks to all the other subjects brought up when the band is talked about. A guitar magazine even rated Repeater as one of the best guitar records of the '90s, and rightfully so.
                 

Anemic revs spiked by pig squeals (or is it a screeching train?) highlight the title track, one of the band's finest moments. (Don't miss MacKaye's vicious double-tracked vocals, either.) As always,

MacKaye and Picciotto's noise-terrorism-as-guitar-joust avoids flashiness, used as much as rhythm as punctuation device. Sharp, angular, jagged, and precise. Other gnarling highlights include the preachy "Styrofoam," the late-breaking "Sieve-Fisted Find," and the somewhat ironic "Merchandise," which skewers Mr. Business Owner by asking, "What could a businessman ever want more/Than to have us sucking in his store?" Plenty of fans had to suck in someone's store to get this record, after all. [The CD version of Repeater added the 3 Songs 7" as a bonus, titled as Repeater + 3 Songs.]
                        

Fugazi – Repeater + 3 Songs
Label: Dischord Records – DISCHORD 45, Dischord Records – DIS45
Format:    CD, Compilation, Reissue, Repress, MPO $9
Country: US
Released: 1990
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk, Post-Hardcore

TRAXS

                   

01. Turnover    4:16
02. Repeater    3:01
03. Brendan #1    2:32
04. Merchandise    2:59
05. Blueprint    3:52
06. Sieve-Fisted Find    3:24
07. Greed    1:47
08. Two Beats Off    3:28
09. Styrofoam    2:34
10. Reprovisional    2:17
11. Shut The Door    4:49
12. Song #1    2:54
13. Joe #1    3:01
14. Break-In    1:32

MP3 @ 320 Size: 93 MB
Flac  Size: 295 MB