I hadn’t realized until this moment that I associate most Fugazi records with specific seasons. “13 Songs” was a winter album. “Repeater” was a summer album. “Steady Diet of Nothing” took me back to winter.That’s appropriate, given that winters where I grew up were long and boorish, a seemingly infinite slog of depression. “Steady Diet”…… Continue reading Discography: Fugazi, Part 3: Steady Diet of Nothing

If I had any doubts about how great Fugazi was, those were removed when I heard the title track on “Repeater.”  The chorus is not remotely something you’d expect from anything resembling a punk band.  And that rhythm section?  Holy cow.  This was a band that clearly knew what they had in Joe Lally and…… Continue reading Discography: Fugazi, Part 2: Repeater

Fugazi was working class punk rock when so many other punk rock bands seemed like they were still living off their parents.For as liberal as they were, Fugazi spoke to my blue collar surroundings and helped me to realize that those to things were not antithetical. You could sit at a crimping machine attaching to…… Continue reading Discography: Fugazi, Part 1: 13 Songs

The first concert I ever attended was at Kent State University. It was a double bill, with Tesla and Great White. Some band called Badlands opened. Shut up. It was the 80’s.I remember that I didn’t wear my glasses because I thought I might lose them and probably because I thought they were severely uncool,…… Continue reading Live! Music!

I don’t mean that the album is transitional, I mean that the album is the perfect encapsulation of being a teenager, perhaps more specifically a white boy not living in a city.I would love to think that my teen years were grunge, but that’s probably more the romanticized view than anything else. The reality is…… Continue reading Faith No More’s “Angel Dust” is Gloriously Adolescent