Gross - Fugazis In on the Kill Taker

IN ON THE KILL TAKER

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THIS IS A EViL WiCKedNess Place THAY HAVE DiD SO MiNNY THIN

TO ME FROM HATE CRUEL HATRED THAY DiD THAns TO MY

HeaRT KNOWing NeitHeR MERCY NOR PiTY. I COULD NOT

HAVE TRide TO GET HELP TO PUT A STOP TO THE StORM

THE ADVeRSARY WORKERS iNiquitY EVildOERS THIS iS Big

BeCAUSE PeOPlE iN HigH Places ARE in on THE KiLL TAKER

an excerpt from the found, handwritten text that inspired the title of
Fugazis In on the Kill Taker (DIS070, 1993)

Im a pop kinda guy, I have a pop sensibility

Ian MacKaye, interview with Kreative
Kontrol podcast, November 2015

We often wrote a song to death

Joe Lally, interview with author,
July 2016

Success, for a Fugazi song, for the people in the band, is if we felt like were pushing the envelope of the writing process, of our writing. I think that about a lot of the songs on this record.

Brendan Canty, interview with author,
February 2016

This is why youre fucked, dude, we dont remember a thing.

Guy Picciotto, interview with the author,
February 2016

In on the Kill Taker

Joe Gross

Contents

Bold new beginnings are an easy sell, as are happy endings. Middles are the toughest part of the story to explain, yet theyre where the real story is, and thats why In on The Kill Taker has always been an easy part of the Fugazi story to overlook. As Joe Gross illuminates all over this revelatory book, its a widely misunderstood album from a widely misunderstood band, and yet its an album that lies right at the heart of their story.

In 1993, this music was difficult, and it still is. Lots of people who thought they understood Fugazi at the time didnt understand this album. In on The Kill Taker is where the bands story became tricky to follow for many curious onlookers who thought of themselves as kindred spirits, or at least fans. The music on this record did not go down easily. It didnt fit into the clearly comprehensible backstory behind the groups early recordsD.C. punk firebrands from broken bands get together and find a new sound.

The eruption of Waiting Room, from their EP, settled into a less dramatic grooveit turned into the grind of a long-running, hard-working band, adult musicians who have figured out what theyre doing and dont pretend it happens by accident. In on the Kill Taker even made the chartsthe first Fugazi album to make a bow on the Billboard Top 200which was only one of the many baffling things about it. Its music that asked nothing from the audience yet demanded everything.

Fugazi were not playing anybody elses game at this point. So In on The Kill Taker was where some people lost the plot and settled on the caricature of Fugazi as the Band That Says No, which ignores the point of this music, which is everything they said Yes to, and the sonic language they had to construct to articulate the Yes that felt real to them. Decades after they started, and years after they disbanded, Fugazi remain a band that strangers around the world have heard themselves in, or projected their own issues onto, or have (rightly or wrongly) used as a compass to measure the straightness of their edges. But confusing as this album seemed to the world at large in 1993, this book reveals why its such a crucial part of what Fugazi achieved.

Joe Gross lets the four members of that band tell the storymostly with all of them sitting in the same room, conversing and arguing and listening to each other in real time. The story that emerges in this book shows why In on The Kill Taker still resonates. Fugazi made a noise that lasted longer than they hoped or imagined it would. So almost any fan will begin this book thinking they already know the story. It turns out the story is a lot more complicated than that.

Rob Sheffield is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and the author of Love is A Mixtape , Dreaming the Beatles, and others.

Rob Sheffield

This is not Lollapalooza

Terry Gross: A lot of people think of punk as having ended a few years ago, and yet youre still playing music that comes out of that tradition.

Guy Picciotto: Yeah, were like the Shakers. Were doing the forgotten dance.

Fugazis Guy Picciotto from Fresh Air on NPR, 1992

Man alive, neither of you have any idea how forgotten a dance can get.

***

On the evening of August 9, 1993, about an hour and change before sunset, several hundred peoplemaybe even a thousand, nobody seems to have kept counttook the subway or bus or walked to Fort Reno Park, an expanse of grass and trees in the well-to-do Tenleytown neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Most but not all of those in attendance were high school-aged or in college or had recently graduated. Most but not all were white and middle class. Most but not all were probably very happy that Bill Clinton took the White House and some were probably looking forward to holding his feet to the fire over various progressive issues. Some thought about politics all day, every day. Some probably didnt much care about politics at all. There were a fair number of flannel shirts tied around waists. There were jean shorts and band shirts. There were a whole lot of Doc Martens on the feet both male and female.