Fugazi Remasters

I own a lot of music. More music than most people could probably keep up with. My database shows that I've got over 1,700 CDs, 1,100 7 inches and 900 LPs (not to mention the 650 albums that I've downloaded but have not purchased yet). Yeah, I've got enough music to go years without repeat listens. I'm extremely lucky to be able to listen to music for much of my day. I can use my iPod throughout the day at work, and my wife is extremely gracious in letting me play pretty much what I want when I'm at home. If I didn't have all this time available to listen to music, I don't know how I'd be able to keep up. Still, because of the sheer volume of music that I own, some albums can fall off my radar and not get listened to for years.

Fugazi is a fine example of this neglect. Man, I can't remember the last time I listened to this band. Feels like it has been ten years since I last gave them a spin. I'm not sure what triggered me to pull them off the shelf again, but it most likely could have been the recent Dischord remasters that made me pay attention to their earlier records again.

The truth is, I never owned copies of their first couple of records. Instead, I've relied on a burned CD copy that I must have recorded from the copy my brother owned. I don't think that the recent Dischord remasters of 7 Songs and Margin Walker are all that new (remastered in 2009?), but I figured that it was time. Shit got too arty for me by the end of their career, but I had forgotten how much fun those early records were.

Regardless of whatever happened to Ian's face for the cover of Margin Walker, Fugazi was at the top of their game up through Repeater...and while I can hang with them for Steady Diet of Nothing and In On The Kill Taker, they can't come close to the greatness of those first few records.