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The Fugazi, more than just a rock band, were a model for the entire '90s alternative world and continue to be so.
Often courted by major labels, they gave up a mass audience to remain independent and wildly free like their music.
What could you expect from Ian Mackaye, former leader of Minor Threat and that hardcore faction known as straight edge, which preached abstinence from alcohol and drugs. Moral rectitude, affordable concerts, and respect for civil rights have made them a myth for fans (Eddie Vedder is one of their die-hard fans).
This is their third work and perhaps the best. The sound is aggressive, edgy, the dynamism is exaggerated by the singing that seems to run ahead of the music (Walken's syndrome).
The tracks are of Hardcore origin, apart from some quieter episodes, "Last Chance For A Slow Dance," "Sweet And Low," the rest is pure energy, "Great Cop" is devastating, and Ian takes the opportunity to give a piece of his mind to the cops (there are never too many).
The articulation of the tracks is surprisingly complex, which has earned the furious rock of the Washington D.C. band the label of post-hardcore.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Facet Squared (02:42)
Pride no longer has definition
Everybody wears it, it always fits
A state invoked for the lack of position
Strength is the bait that keeps us so busy
If it's perforated, then I tear it to bits
All sense lost in the frenzy
They should never touch the ground
Irony is the refuge of the educated
Always complaining but they never quit
Cool's eternal, but it always dated
They should never touch the ground
It's not worth, it's the investment
That keeps us tied up in all these strings
We draw lines and stand behind them
That's why flags are such ugly things
That they should never touch the ground
02 Public Witness Program (02:04)
The eyes have it and the eyes always will
The eyes have it and they're watching you still
Public witness charter - look out don't touch
Public witness says he's seeing too much
I like to walk around it
And i'm paid to stand around
Public witness seen it all
04 Smallpox Champion (04:01)
Smallpox champion u s of a
Give natives some blankets
Warm like the grave
This is the pattern cut from the cloth
This is the pattern designed to take you right out
This is the frontier with winter's so cold
Greed informs action where action makes bold
To take all the cotton that's cut from the stalk
Weave the disease that's gonna take you right out
What is good for the future what was good for the past -
Won't last
Bury your heart u s of a history rears up to spit in your face
You saw what you wanted
You took what you saw
We know how you got it
Your method equals wipe out
The end of the frontier and all that you own
Under the blankets of all that you've done
Memory serves us to serve you
Yet memory serves us to never let you wipe out
Cha-cha-cha-champion
You'll get yours
Wipe out
05 Rend It (03:48)
Why don't you come to my house
Why don't you drag me right out
Past all the shit that i said i'm saying
Why don't you cut up my mouth
And i don't care what you use
Just don't ask me to choose
I forced a field to allow you
That's not so easy to do
I said I said what I said I want you to help me
Surrender rend it it's yours
Out in the open
We're wide open
Night light comes into my room
Some shade of bruise-colored blue
Moves through my mind like a chemical
Imbalance on schedule
My tasting face to the floor
Passive abject i'm sure
I lick my lips when I need it
Don't want to lick them no more
My love song went wrong
08 Cassavetes (02:30)
Crush my calm you cassavetes
I was sitting tight so quiet quiet
In the dark till the lights came up my heart
Beating like a riot riot
Hollywood are you sitting on a sign
For someone to come on bust a genre
You poor city of shame
Ask me what you're needing
I'll sell you his name
cos he was the one to send it with truth
That's something from someone
And gena rowlands complete control for cassavetes
If it's not for sale you can't buy it buy it
Sad-eyed mogul reaching for your wallet
Like hand to holster why don't you try it try it
Hollywood are you waiting on a sign
For someone to come on bust a genre
You poor city of shame
Ask me what you're needing
I'll front you his name
cos he was the one to send it with truth
that's something from someone and gena rowlands
09 Great Cop (01:52)
Got a lot of questions for me
You got a lot of questions for me
Got your finger pointing at me
Distrusted
I look for wires when I'm talking to you
You'd make a great cop
11 Instrument (03:43)
That one is predetermined
That one, it finds another
This one comes in one window
Sliding out the other
We need an instrument to take a measurement
To find out if loss could weigh
We need to know value
We need to place value
In case it all comes true
Could it be loss could weigh?
It's always they that's dying
But now it's we that's dying
So sooner comes the trying to understand that loss could weigh
We've been dragged through the fire
We bragged about that fire
But suddenly we're tired
Could it be that loss could weigh?
Loss could weigh
12 Last Chance for a Slow Dance (04:38)
Coughing inside your coffin like at the bottom of the sea
Onside you're breathing too numb for asking so i will leave it outside your door
Warning the threat of morning that just extends you another day
Some lights were shining not much for seeing but you'll be leaving the way you came
Shot shooting
Shot shot
Shot shooting yourself again for what
To taste all the waste
Flare flakes a flower a burnt-out shower no one can see you were needing too shy for asking
So I will leave it outside your door pulse stalls uncut
But clotted when you had thought it would force a flow
Some lights were shining
Not much for seeing but you believe in the way you came
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Other reviews
By Blackdog
These gentlemen have preserved a unique, inimitable, morally steadfast artistic integrity for twenty years.
'In On The Kill Taker' is the third great (perhaps very great) album by Fugazi from Washington D.C.
By Kurtd
From that day my life changed, I never gave it back to him, I listened to it for a week straight.
"Got a lot of questions for me... You'd make a great cop" - those lyrics so... so cool, yeah cool like Marco.
