After 11 years, the groundbreaking post-punk band will release unheard material, and a comprehensive archive of live recordings from all over planet Earth.
Grab your shredded jeans and your tattered tees. Fugazi is back. At least, they’re releasing new previously unheard material for the first time since their indefinite hiatus after three sold out nights at the London Forum in November of 2002. After their world tour in support of Red Medicine, Fugazi had started to unwind, and the production of their next and last studio album, The Argument, led the band in complex new directions that had them touching on strange new territory. At this point, in 2001, they were touring less frequently and, performed only 32 shows in 2001 and 2002 respectively. So they had began to wind, yet there was a feeling that unfinished business remained, a feeling that, if Ian MacKaye, Brendan Canty, Joe Lally and Guy Picciotto did not express amongst themselves, industry giants expressed to them in offers to headline huge festivals like Coachella for absurd amounts of money. But in true post-hardcore style, MacKaye has said that Fugazi has “been offered insane amounts of money to play reunions, but it’s not going to be money that brings us back together, we would only play music together if we wanted to play music together and time allowed it.”
So is this new release, the so called First Demo, a collection of the punk band’s initial recordings, which is to be released on November 18 by Dischord, the record company started by MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, a symbol of the band’s movement toward being able to spend time playing music together, and wanting to? Time will tell, as will the publication of a list of tour dates.
There have been previous Fugazi releases without the band getting back together. In October 2012, Chris Lawhorn released an album of 22 instrumental tracks which sample songs from Fugazi’s discography. There was also a collaboration with the hip hop collective Doomtree, which members of Fugazi expressed initial dissatisfaction with, called Wugazi.
From 1987 to 2003, Fugazi played over 1000 concerts, some 800 of which were recorded. The release of First Demo will also usher in the availability of the Fugazi Live series which is a comprehensive archive like project that documents all of Fugazi’s live work. Listening to first cut of ‘Merchandise’, that comes off of ‘First Demo’ is kind of like walking into the kitchen when you didn’t know an apple pie was cooking, and you are struck with pleasant yet unbearable anticipation and you are satiated because you know that what your about to sink your fangs into will be piping hot and delicious. Check out the track below, and for more info, check out other coverage on Fugazi.
Heres the track listing:
01. Waiting Room
02. Merchandise
03. Furniture
04. Song #1
05. The Word
06. Badmouth
07. Break-In
08. Turn Off Your Guns
09. And the Same
10. In Defense of Humans
11. Joe #1
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