Fugazi - In On The Kill Taker

My favorite Fugazi album. Lots of winners. My initial reaction was "Great Cop," so I'm going with it.

that's what i just did fwiw

Hard to choose; might go with "Smallpox." They opened some 1993 shows with it and holy shit, what an opener.

it's the first Fugazi i heard, and Last Chance was the first song i heard, so this.
such a great song, though different than what they usually do.

but it could easily go to Rend It, Screw...

i think Kill Taker might be the pick of Picciotto songwriting

PUBLIC WITNESS SEEN IT ALL

"Returning The Screw," dudes

WHY DON'T YOU COME TO MY HOUSE

WHY DON'T YOU DRAG ME RIGHT OUT

I RECOGNIZE THAT NAME!

SHUT UUUUUUP THIS IS MY LAST PICTURE!

smallpox champion--guy was such a rock star on this album

otm

yeah this record is like Guy's MFA poetry/rocking out thesis

he wrote some awesome songs, but this is probabaly his masterpiece imo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZZIwkcxjE

facet squared, such a great opener

this isn't my favorite fugazi record but it's the one that was out when I got into fugazi and when I saw my first fugazi show, so it has a special salience for me. Sounded REALLY different from anything I was listening to at the time and I probably wouldn't have even given it so much of a chance if not for the 'cool friend' I looked up to who was into it.

what is your favorite?

Smallpox or Cassavetes. Definitely Guy's record.

what is your favorite?

― nostormo, Wednesday, March 20, 2013 5:17 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Red Medicine or Steady Diet

tough poll, voted rend it but it could have been like five other songs

even sweet & low, the little throwaway instrumental thing, is great

whats up with Guy Picciotto anyway?
did he retire from music?

there was a great interview with him on the low times podcast last year. he still does music stuff, he was playing with vic chesnutt a lot before he died.

he produced standing on the edge of control for The Gossip, probably made a grip off that if he had points on it

this isn't my favorite fugazi record but it's the one that was out when I got into fugazi and when I saw my first fugazi show, so it has a special salience for me. Sounded REALLY different from anything I was listening to at the time and I probably wouldn't have even given it so much of a chance if not for the 'cool friend' I looked up to who was into it.

i had already owned it for a minute (thanks to trying to emulate a 'cool friend') and still had to tough it through red medicine a few years after that point (again, partly because of a 'cool friend') before i could take pleasure in the music.

sadly i think i may have been haunted by that best buy advertisement in the 90s that was all about how you could get pavement and fugazi albums there. (which sounded awesome to middle-of-nowhere uncool me.)

peer pressure! corporate distribution! way to go fugazi

'Instrument' is my favorite Fugazi song so this is easy enough for me.

This is really tough!

it is really tough

Tempted to pick 23 Beats Off -- that anthemic "A NAME!", great riffs, and it was kind of the song that introduced me to noise experimentation. Plus I love the way it transitions into sweet and low.

this was my first Fugazi album and i couldn't handle their voices at first and enjoyed "Sweet and Low" most

p sure this is their best

When I saw the thread title, without reminding myself what was actually on the album, I thought Smallpox so that.

Ah, In On The Kiltmaker, MacKaye's return to his Scottish folk roots.

Three Fugazi thread revives in one day and I was sure either something horrible had happened or there was a reunion announced or something. I sometimes think a reunion being announced might actually sort of be something horrible happening. Though I'd love to see Guy playing live again - maybe the most fun 'frontman' to see live ever.

This is my favorite Fugazi album too. This is the one they recorded first with Steve Albini and then did over themselves. I've heard bits and pieces of the Albini recording and it's so much less angry and intense and focused than their own version.

But yeah - this is hard

This is the album for me where Fugazi go from being 'great' to 'all-time' - 'Public Witness Program' gets my vote, 'Last Chance for a Slow Dance' deserves a mention too, the main lick/riff in that is so good.

this isn't my favorite fugazi record but it's the one that was out when I got into fugazi and when I saw my first fugazi show, so it has a special salience for me.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 21:12 (Yesterday) Permalink

This for me. I first heard Fugazi a couple of weeks after they came through Mpls tour behind "Steady Diet" so in the year-and-a-half until they came back I had become a pretty rabid fan. "Kill Taker" I managed to secure a "promo" copy, which was a cassette of the album except the cassette only had I think 5 songs on it, do to the older cousin of my girlfriend who managed a record store. Even at the time I remember thinking it was weird they were doing a promo thing like that.

For whatever reason this record never really spoke to me, despite having some great songs the flow of the record and the production always kind of rubbed me wrong, I just don't like how it sounds. I hated "23 Beats Off" at the time and I still think it drags the record down in the middle.

I love the album title so much. It's a perfect little phrase.

Also, please note, I am being hyper-critical of a band I completely love

Man can I vote for the run of "Cassavetes" into "Great Cop" into "Walken Syndrome"?

fuck it surrenderrendititsyours

Smallpox cha cha cha cha cha cha champion

Instrument is massive, too

ha this is where i started to lose interest in fugazi actually, def not a high ranking album for me - maybe ill dig it out and listen to it again, but coming after the eps/repeater and directly after steady diet it just seemed super boring to me - tbh the only song i remember off the top of my head is 23 beats off. i might listen to it again before voting, but this was pretty much where i stopped paying a lot of attention to fugazi honestly

ha I do remember how it was this dividing thing for all the old heads that had been with Fugazi since day one or since Minor Threat or whatever, how Fugazi "wasn't punk anymore" etc. and I was like 14 years old so had no idea what to think about that.

i was going to joke about "let me see if fugazi is on spotify" but uh they are? that seems very odd to me. ill give this a listen and see if ive changed my mind

i think part of it is that i had pretty much fallen out of love with ians voice by this point, and starting off with him in prime bellow mode just made things not work for me. i wanted more long division and less minor threat. guitar parts are great though. also i had jumped off onto a lot of the other dischord stuff and things like nation of ulysses and circus lupus and lungfish were just a lot more interesting than this.

They were such a brilliant guitar band, really. Did two guitarists ever sync up/compliment each other better?

on an initial listen prob rend it or instrument

i might listen to it again before voting, but this was pretty much where i stopped paying a lot of attention to fugazi honestly

― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:39 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you missed some of their best albums!!

For real. The 1993-1998 run was their finest imo.

It's hard to beat "Rend It", though I did pause over "Walken's Syndrome". Definitely Guy's album. "Great Cop" would be dead last on my ballot.

SHOT SHOOTING YOURSELF AGAIN AND FOR WHAT?

the MOJO feature on Fugazi by Paul Brannigan a coupla years back told the Ahmet Ertegun story, it's really great.

This was my first Fugazi album, purchased because Eddie Vedder said in some magazine somewhere that they were amazing. Hated it the first couple of times I played it, and then soon it all made sense, so this was my entry into this whole seething world. Voted 23 Beats Off because the droneout section still sounds completely beautiful to these ears, but it's a fantastic album. I don't think they ever made a bad one - in fact, I think they got better with every subsequent LP.

definitely my favourite fugazi album. everything on here is good to great. and it does feel like guy's album so i will choose rend it over great cop, which i believe i voted for last go around

Voted Smallpox Champion but could have easily made it any track on the record. By far my favourite Fugazi album. I saw them play between Steady Diet and this when they played maybe 6 tracks that ended up on killtaker. Hearing 23 Beats Off at blistering volume was profound and really altered my perception of the band and what they were doing musically.

Per Wikipedia :
By the In on the Kill Taker tour, the group began to sell-out large auditoriums and arenas, as well as receive more lucrative major label offers. During the bands sold-out 3-night stint at New York City's Roseland Ballroom in September 1993, music mogul and Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegün met with the band backstage in an attempt to sign them. Ertegün offered the band "anything you want", their own subsidiary label and more than $10 million just to sign with Atlantic. Fugazi declined the offer

Supposedly MacKaye said "I already have both"

― chr1sb3singer, Monday, March 25, 2013 12:13 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god i always hope that is true, so baller

At the time I remember hearing general stories about him turning down major label deals. I wouldn't have known who Ahmet Ertegun was at the time, and knowing who he is now makes the story a lot more impressive -- it's not like he was just turning down some random A&R shark.

In today's more cynical era, I think people would say he made a wise choice for Fugazi's brand. Fugazi selling to a major would likely kill off a lot of the goodwill they had built up with fans.

I can totally imagine some horrible alternate history where Dischord got sold to a major and the bands kept putting out good music, but they all drowned under the weight of mid-90s horrible kitschy retro ironic spaceman album covers.

In today's more cynical era, I think people would say he made a wise choice for Fugazi's brand. Fugazi selling to a major would likely kill off a lot of the goodwill they had built up with fans.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, March 25, 2013 10:06 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

today's thinkpiece writing internet wags have likely not seen $10 million on the table and walked away from it either, i don't know if i could have.

music videos with lots of grainy sepia tone, disoriented old men in basements, guy's face and hair blown back by supercharged fan

xp

today's thinkpiece writing internet wags have likely not seen $10 million on the table and walked away from it either, i don't know if i could have.

― ums (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, March 25, 2013 11:11 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

true, that's pretty much "fuck this I quit" money

the goodwill they had built up with fans

You have to like a guy who walks past you and your friend (who's a dope wearing an unauthorized Fugazi t-shirt) and says "Nice shirt. Thanks for coming."

I interviewed Ian once for a tiny newspaper I was interning at the summer before college, and he was nice as can be.

The turning down Ertegun story so baller, one version I've heard (I think Glen Friedman mentioned it) is Ertegun also said "the only other band I've ever made this offer to was the Rolling Stones".

I wonder if Ertegun had to pay 5 bucks to get into the show?

I can totally imagine some horrible alternate history where Dischord got sold to a major

Only if in this alternate history Ian MacKaye had nothing whatsoever to do with Dischord. The guy is nice as hell, but make no mistake he is pretty uncompromising and incorruptible in his beliefs.

There was a horrible tour bus accident. He told his friends to close the doors of Dischord upon his death. They disobeyed his wishes.

Joe Lally had gambling debts or a failed restaurant or something...I don't know.

i don't like any of those histories!!

stevie i think the point is that yeah obviously it never would have happened, but imagine if somehow it DID

i mean a LOT of people had mackaye-like 'fiercely independent' reps in the late 80s/early 90s UNTIL they signed

Been listening to this record a whole lot lately.

I wonder what bands got huge offers that we never heard about.

not many that didn't take them, i'd imagine!

Yeah, but I think the thing with MacKaye is that it was never remotely a pose - he's indefatigable and laudably stubborn in a way few of his contemporaries really were.

ok it's cool bro we got it, get off his jock

Hurting 2, I saw you earlier at the Good Humor truck and you were eating your ice cream like a little boy, and I thought: "That guy isn't so tough; he's eating ice cream. What a swell guy!" I saw you eating ice cream, pal. Oh don't you deny it, you were eating an ice cream cone. Oh, you're bad now, but you were eating an ice cream cone, and I saw you. That's the shit you can't hide, you know? You got your fucking shit but you eat ice cream. Everybody knows it; the whole fucking place knows it. Ice cream-eating motherfucker; that's what you are.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

am glad every track got a vote!

glad to see so many votes for sweet and low, even though i didn't vote for it.

really weird that instrument came in last though!

I was the only vote :(

forgot to vote but might have gone with Cassavetes.

the way guy pronounces GENA ROWLANDS gets me every time. i don't know how could i write it down to do it justice on paper but i fucking love him for that.

Weird. If this amazing album has a dud, it's "Great Cop."

ooh, disagree!

Awesome that every song got a vote. I think this is the first poll in which I voted for the winner

I've said it somewhere else on ILX, but Cassavettes reminds me of one of my favorite Fugazi gigs ever. They were playing at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. (site of so many old Academy Awards ceremonies). Dub Narcotic opened, and they were like "I can't believe were playing at the Shrine in Hollywood, California!" and Calvin Johnson goofily re-enacted Tatum O'Neal getting her Paper Moon Oscar, and they were making a big deal of it all. Then when Fugazi came out, they just tore into the most brutal Cassavettes as their opening number, and it said it all with that one tune!

Weird. If this amazing album has a dud, it's "Great Cop."

― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Tuesday, March 26, 2013 10:22 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

RONG RONG RONG

(this album has no duds)

I still don't think I've ever seen a Cassvettes movie, but thanks to Fugazi, I've heard about him a lot!

As an In On The Killtaker fan, where should I start?

Lots of discussion here:

John Cassavetes - C or D

I was joking, sort of. I don't really watch movies these days. But I'm not joking about this: Cassavetes has been in and out of my head the last few days, but every time it gets to the breakdown (about 1:50), it morphs in my head into the fanfare from Parliament's Flashlight.

i watched Minnie and Moskowitz last night, in fact. Weird weird movie.

how's life: I wrote this for Stereogum, which, despite mis-attributing the ice cream cone speech to Ian instead of Guy (oops!), I think holds up.

Short answer: Steady Diet might the closest, sonically, to IOTKT.

Sorry, Jimmywine. My joke, if I had been canny enough to not spread it out across two posts, was "as a fan of In On The Killtaker, where should I start with the films of John Cassavetes?"

Oh. HA! Well, I have no idea. I've never knowingly seen a Cassavetes movie and only know him for his role in Rosemary's Baby and that other song about him (by Le Tigre).

have only seen woman on the verge of a mental breakdown (is that the title?) but it was awesome and i want to see more.

I'm tempted to say Killing Of A Chinese Bookie might be the best Cassavetes entry point.
I started w/ A Woman Under The Influence and my favourite is probably Love Streams but I feel like KOACB might be the least emotionally taxing jump off point. (Which doesn't mean it's slight in any way, just ever so slightly more conventionally paced).

Returning the Screw

re: Jimmywine's best-to-worst list: good stuff on putting The Argument at the top. it took a while for it to get there, but in the last year or so i've kinda taken to it as their definitive statement. so damn good.

woman under the influence is totally the one i saw. husbands is on crackle, i noticed, and i really want to see that. xps