BY CELESTÉ TABORA | @celestetabora | @helloceleste
Bringing you yesterday's records today!
Throwback Thursday: Fugazi – 13 Songs (1989, Dischord)
I don't know about you, but all the holiday music that gets going this time of year can be intense at times. It's always good to revert to a good, solid record. Not only is Ian Mackaye likely one of the raddest people of our time, and that we should take dance lessons from Guy Picciotto, but may I suggest Fugazi's 13 Songs?
According to Wikipedia, the Fugazi EP was the band's first release. After their first tour in 1988, the band members planned to record a full-length album, but they weren't happy with the result and decided to narrow it down to an EP, resulting in the Margin Walker EP. (Don't you wish more bands would do us a favor and scrap stuff they're not happy with instead of just releasing for releasing's sake? One of the countless ways Fugazi is a superior band compared to most.)
13 Songs is actually the Fugazi EP (tracks 1-7, recorded at Inner Ear in D.C.) and the Margin Walker EP (tracks 8-13, recorded at Southern Studios in London) combined together as one album; it was released in September 1989.
Even with today's technology for recording, I wouldn't change a thing about 13 Songs. The album features a unique brand of heavy melodic post-rock (none of these adjectives do it justice, by the way). The guitar tones are so refined and different in comparison to any counterparts, and the songs' lyrics had weight and meaning at a time when people listened to rock music by Guns N' Roses, Poison, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi (all of whom were in Billboard's Top 100 of 1989. (Today I'm pressed to find anything resembling rock in the Top 100 of 2014.)
It's amazing that, even with current technology giving us an encyclopedia in our pockets, pop songs still reign; mind you, there's nothing wrong with pop songs, and yes, there's a place for it all. But there are some amazing albums that we have no excuse to overlook. I suppose that's what our "throwback Thursday" record reviews are all about. Songs such as "Bad Mouth," "Waiting Room," "Suggestion," and "Promises" are instantly recognizable to any Fugazi fan—and they also catch the attention of my 11-year-old nephew as he jams out to it. As songwriters, Fugazi gives us that balance between heavy, driving music, without being too fast and layered, and gutteral screams and melodies, without being too aloof. Before you wish more bands would sound like this, know that it's not an easy task. People historically have had a hard time categorizing bands such as Fugazi. The music was categorized as punk, then hardcore, then post-rock, and now post-hardcore … At the end of the day, ditch those labels and just enjoy a good record.
If you haven't already, give 13 Songs a listen—it might make you ready for more seasonal holiday music. Listening to "Burning Too" to drown out yet another pop-cover of a Christmas classic personally gives me the strength to stand in line at any shop: "Anytime but now/Anywhere but here/Anyone but me … We are consumed by society/We are obsessed with variety/We are all filled with anxiety that this world would not survive …"
Pro tip: Show someone you really care, and give this or any Fugazi record to someone this holiday.
Fugazi live in the U.K., 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0v5QsFz13Q
Fugazi live in D.C., 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnHuIVRf0Ec
And if you have an hour and 30 minutes, watch this performance from the Axis Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 11, 1989 (I turned 12 the day before and didn't hear about Fugazi until three years later): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCEqhCVwhKI
Listen for free on Rdio: http://www.rdio.com/artist/Fugazi/album/13_Songs/
Buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/13-songs/id49249845
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