Fugazi – 3 Songs
EP
Dischord, 1989 (Reissue)
Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2014
Price: $1.50
1991 is often used as a touchstone for the birth of
alternative rock out of the drum-machine and hair metal addled 80s. In 1989 DC’s
Fugazi rose from the ashes of Minor Threat and released their first collection
of tracks with the seminal 13 Songs compilation
album, preceding the grunge explosion by two years and illustrating a clear
evolution from the rapid fire hardcore punk to the more artful and post-punk
influenced world of post-hardcore. These early Fugazi tracks have all the edge
of blistering hardcore punk, but there’s more emotion, and there’s a whole hell
of a lot more technical prowess. The 3
Songs EP was tacked onto the end of the band’s first proper LP Repeater, but serves as a bridge between
their earlier 13 Songs material and
shows absolutely no signs of letting up. In my world, Fugazi is just as
important as the Beatles. I’d rather listen to Repeater than The White Album
any day of the week. The stuff that resonates the most isn’t the emotion that
comes through in these songs. It’s not surprising, since this band is
effectively a mash-up of Rites of Spring and Embrace, two bands that
immediately come up anytime anyone wants to talk about Emo (in the legit sense
of the genre, not the weepy music made by tattooed wimps that took over the
genre in the 00s). Guy Picciotto and Ian MacKaye sing with the passion of
religious men. There is a sense of justification in Fugazi’s music that you
don’t really hear too often. This is like the Beethoven of indie rock:
something timeless that people will be calling real music in two-hundred years.
"Song Number One"
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