Everything about Fugazi totally explained
Fugazi is an
American post-hardcore band that formed in
Washington, D.C. in 1987. The band's continual members were guitarists
Ian MacKaye and
Guy Picciotto (who both shared vocal duties), bassist
Joe Lally and drummer
Brendan Canty. Noted for their ethical stance and manner of business practice, the band experienced commercial success during the 1990s while remaining on their
independent record label,
Dischord Records. Fugazi has been on hiatus since 2002.
History
Formation
After the
hardcore punk group
Minor Threat dissolved, Ian MacKaye (vocals and
guitar) was active with a few short-lived groups, most notably
Embrace. MacKaye decided he wanted a project that was "like the Stooges with reggae," but was wary about forming another band after Embrace's break up. MacKaye recalled, "My interests were not necessarily to be in a band [perse], but to be with people who wanted to play music with me." MacKaye recruited ex-
Dag Nasty drummer Colin Sears and
bass guitarist Joe Lally, and the trio began practicing together in September 1986. After a few months of rehearsals, Sears returned to Dag Nasty and was replaced by Brendan Canty (earlier of
Rites of Spring). One day Canty's Rites of Spring bandmate Guy Picciotto dropped by during a practice session to see how his friend was getting along; he later admitted he secretly harbored the idea of joining the group. But Picciotto was disappointed that there seemed to be no place for him; he said, "It seemed really completed already [.. .] It had a completely different feel from what I'd been doing with Brendan. It seemed just solid and done."
After some uncertainty from Canty about what he wanted to do with his future, the trio regrouped and booked their first show at the Wilson Center in early September of 1987. The group still needed a name, so MacKaye chose the word "fugazi" from Mark Baker's
Nam, a compilation of stories from
Vietnam War veterans, it originally being an acronym for 'Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In'. The band began inviting Picciotto to practices. Inspired by use of a foil in
hip hop, Picciotto sang backup vocals. After his band
Happy Go Licky broke up, he became more involved with Fugazi. MacKaye eventually asked Picciotto to become a full member, which he accepted.
Albums and tours
Fugazi embarked on its first tour in January 1988. In June 1988 the band recorded its debut EP
Fugazi with producer Ted Nicely, and shortly afterwards embarked on an arduous tour of Europe. At the tour's conclusion in December, the band recorded songs for its intended debut album. However, the band was spent from touring and decided that the resulting sessions were unsatisfactory. The tracklist was cut down to an EP and released as
Margin Walker the following year. Upon the band's return from Europe, Picciotto, unsatisfied with merely singing, began playing guitar.
The band's first album,
Repeater, was released in January 1990. The band spent most of the year touring behind
Repeater and routinely sold out 1,000-capacity shows. By summer 1991 the album had sold more than 100,000 copies, a large number for a label that relied on word-of-mouth promotion. While major labels began to court Fugazi, the band decided that Dischord was distributing their records well enough and refused the offers.
For the band's second album
Steady Diet of Nothing (1991), the band once again asked Ted Nicely to produce. Nicely had become a chef and had to reluctantly turn down the job, so the bandmembers decided to produce the record themselves. Fugazi recorded its third album
In on the Kill Taker (1993) with
Steve Albini in Chicago; however, the results were deemed unsatisfactory and the band rerecorded the album with Ted Nicely. Picciotto became the group's second guitarist when he realized MacKaye's typically chunky, low-end riffs and Lally's
dub-influenced basslines allowed him to focus on high-pitched parts. In both vocal and guitar roles, Picciotto assumed the role of a
foil to MacKaye; employing a
Rickenbacker guitar for its scratchy single-coil sound in order to "cut through MacKaye's chunky chording like a laser beam." Picciotto's assumption of guitar duties allowed all four members of the band to jam together and write songs that way, when previously they'd played songs largely as how MacKaye arranged them. When writing songs, the band often rearranges them with different structures and different singers.
The group (MacKaye in particular) also made a point of discouraging violent, unwanted
slam dancing and fistfights, which they saw as relics of the late 1970s/early 1980s
hardcore punk era. Azerrad quotes Mackaye, "See, [slamdancers] have one form of communication: violence ... So to disorient them, you don't give them violence. I'd say, 'Excuse me, sir...'- I mean, it
freaks them out -'Excuse me, sir, would you please cut that crap out?'" (emphasis in original) Azerrad writes, "[Mackaye's] admonitions seemed preachy to some, but most were deeply grateful. And by and large, people would obey - it wasn't cool to disrespect Ian MacKaye." Occasionally, Fugazi would escort an unrepentant slam-dancer from the concert, and give them an envelope containing a $5 refund (they kept a stock of such envelopes in their tour van for these occasions).
Discography
Studio albums
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fugazi'.
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