A.C. Plays Guitar!

Fugazi: Need To Know

If you took apart and re-assembled everything Ian Mackaye—lead singer of legendary Washington D.C. hardcore bands Minor Threat, Fugazi and Embrace—had ever done under a different band name with another lead singer, something which would take you a very, very long time, that version of Ian Mackaye might be all the makings of a house-hold Indy-rock hero; but Fugazi, the main-stay of Mackaye’s illustrious career, were anything but a house-hold name, even though they commanded a generation of music, steering clear of the commercial routes which even Hardcore bands had succumbed to.

Fugazi, with its deeply D.I.Y. sensibility, was a labor of love which attracted as much attention for its powerfully unique music as for the band’s strict approach to everything from ticket sales to the selling of band merchandize. Looking for a Fugazi shirt on the net? You’re wasting your time. Mackaye believed—and still believes, adamantly—that the money which flowed through band merchandize sales was the very corruption which all D.I.Y. music should steer well away from. It all began with Dischord—Mackaye’s own label; what started as a small venture, a way to get his music out to the world, quickly grew into one of the most respected record labels in the world.

Fugazi’s music is genuinely hard to describe; it is at times erratic / jerky / smooth / teetering on romantic, and then, out of nowhere, extremely violent—a combination which somehow effortlessly drifts from element to element, as if orchestrated for the sole intention of causing mass confusion. Then you grasp where things are heading, and it changes again just as you get there. All this happens every time you hear a Fugazi song for the very first time. If there’s one thing the band can do it is re-invent: old songs rarely remain the same. There’s a freedom to the groups dynamic that convinces you that every band member’s brain is inter-connected with the next.

I was a complete insomniac last night and decided to go skulking round the world wide web for something to keep me preoccupied, turns out the Heroes Forum is not only a remarkable way to waste time but also fairly amusing!