Fugazi's 'Red Medicine'

Records Revisited

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By Tim Jones

When Fugazi started in 1987 in Washington D.C., it was with the vision that the band would be "The Stooges, but with reggae."

Former Minor Threat front man, Ian Mackaye, recruited ex-Rites of Spring drummer Brendan Canty and local bass player Joe Lally to start the band and later, ex-Rites of Spring vocalist, Guy Picciotto, would join the band as a hype man/backup vocalist-- though he eventually picked up the second guitar and shared lead vocals with Mackaye.

This group would go on to record some of the finest music ever to be filed under punk rock, and do it all with an uncompromising ethic. which included never making a single piece of non-music merchandise or promotional material outside of Mackaye's own Dischord Records mail order catalog.

Fugazi earned themselves a reputation as deadly serious, almost humorless people with that commitment. Mackaye would often stop live shows to ask slam dancers to leave and offer them a cash refund of their admission fee.

It wasn't all intense confrontation though, as hilariously documented in the band's tour film, Instrument. During the film, when Mackaye calls out one such ruffian, Picciotto steps in to say "Earlier I saw you eating an ice cream cone by the Good Humor truck! You're bad now, yeah you're bad now, but I saw you eating that ice cream, you ice cream eating motherf-ker!"

The record prior to Red Medicine, In on the Kill Taker, is arguably Fugazi's bleakest release with subject matter ranging from the British Army's usage of biological warfare against American Indians (Smallpox Champion) to a serious look at Christopher Walken's suicidal character in Annie Hall (Walken's Syndrome).

Their reputation probably didn't influence them directly, but Red Medicine represented a major turn in Fugazi's sound, embracing noise and art rock elements while keeping the foundation of fast and loud rock and roll with slight dub influences.

The 1995 album opens with rhythmic, heavily distorted noise from a bass and, probably, Brendan Canty hitting the displaced ship's bell he always kept on his drum kit. This leads directly into "Do You Like Me," a Picciotto-sung number concurrently about a high school crush, Virginia governor George Allen's 1994 attempt to eliminate parole in the state, and Lockheed's 1995 merger with Martin Marietta which shut down several operations in Washington DC. Yeah, it's heady stuff.

The lyrics aren't the only thing that impress on this album, either. On "Bed for the Scraping," Lally turns out one of Fugazi's second most memorable bass line, after the one in "Waiting Room," and the dual guitar leads mark the only time the band ever got moderately showy, with a finger-tapped passage from Picciotto.

The two instrumentals on the record showcase both the old and new sides of the band. "Combination Lock" is standard Fugazi, save for the part involving the Speak and Spell that says, "Excuse me, I forgot my combination."

"Version," on the other hand, is completely new territory. The rhythm is provided by a heavily phased bass line with drums run through reverb and delay effects. The melody is provided by a clarinet playing into a microphone plugged into a guitar amp. Not a single note from a guitar is heard anywhere in the song.

"Target," which follows, "Version," has Picciotto declaring that he "hates the sound of guitars," though the song is built around one of Fugazi's most memorable riffs. Really, I could go on listing memorable features of every song on the record because they're all great. Not a single one warrants a skip.

Over their long career, Fugazi put out six full length albums worth of what is, without hyperbole, some of the best music to come out of punk rock. Heck, the only reason this is about Red Medicine is because it's the first one I put on. All of their albums are just that good. If you haven't already, give this one - or any of them - a listen.

Originally Published: Issue 822 - November 4, 2009

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