Monday, June 11, 2007

FUGAZI – RED MEDICINE (DISCHORD)


FUGAZI – RED MEDICINE (DISCHORD)

When Red Medicine hit the shores it was at a time ripe for the picking. This was a post-Kurt world where hardcore was now changing and their true innovators were leaving the grunting apes behind, much like back in the seventies on both sides of the pond.

This was the first Fugazi record I bought on the day of release and naïve as I was I was shocked when the record store only charged me £7. Surely this was some kind of mistake because prior to this I had only heard In On The Killtaker and I was blissfully unaware of the politics of the band, instead rightfully it was the music that grabbed me first and only later would the ethos of the band begin to loom large on my consciousness. As a result of my savings I was then able to return to the other record store and buy my first Ramones record (“It’s Alive”).

Taken from a hardcore stance/perspective Red Medicine is a true achievement. The playing is crisp and the vocals back so much punch, clear and defining running out riddles and rhymes that require and encourage research and revision.

Held within this record are some timely references to the state of the nation of punk and youth culture at the time. A lyric such as “they’re marketing the use of the word generation” from “Target” screams true disgust and despair at the way and manner in which their apparent music world/climate has been co-opted and their audience has been led blind towards such frauds and posers as Bush (“another thousand grudging young millions”).

Red Medicine contains perhaps my favourite Fugazi track in the form of “By You.” With its storming torrent, the slow building cacophony displays for me what is the culmination of their maturity away from their hardcore roots.

Without a doubt this is the best Fugazi record.

Thesaurus moment: completion.

Fugazi
Fugazi interview
Fugazi live
Dischord Records

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