Record Review: Fugazi : Red Medicine

I haven’t posted in a while and it’s 100% tied to the crippling sadness of the start of Trump v2.

The return of the king mixed with my traditional late winter blues has ruined my energy drive and it’s been hard to push forward.  About a week ago, I decided to let myself veg out and succumb to the laziness.  I dug around for something to watch and found the film Instrument on the Night Flight app. 

I have a VHS copy of this movie somewhere buried in storage but have not watched it since it was released.  I remember thinking it was cool but looking back, I was 19, an idiot, and absolutely did not appreciate it for how valuable it was. 

I, like I’m sure many of us, took Fugazi for granted.

Now that they’ve been gone for so long and we are in a space where their message is more important than ever, it made sense to look to them for inspiration.

With fresh eyes, I found a new level of appreciation for them.  So much live footage of a band absolutely giving it their absolute all in each and every performance.  They never cheated on us once.  I’m not sure we ever really deserved them.

What really hit me hard was when my wife – who does not come from the punk rock world (although was really into industrial music, so she can appreciate rabid fandom of unpopular music) sat down and immediately appreciated what was happening. 

Specifically, during the final scene, an absolutely killer performance of Glueman, as Guy is writhing on the floor while Ian creates an absolute wall of noise over the tightest drum and bass groove, she grabbed my arm. 

She could tell how real it was. 

It was then confirmed as during the end credits I told her that we had in fact spent time with the band, at Steve’s memorial, where we sat at a table together the last morning of the procession.  I didn’t have to say much more because she knew what their presence felt like, as we shared a table together during the final day, during which many incredibly emotional moments burst.  She and I could both sense how real it was, how in a world right now where we are subjected to nonstop gaslighting and phony confidence the real thing still exists.  Thankfully it has nothing to do with Faith No More.

In addition to appreciating the honesty of the band, something else is made very clear in that documentary.  While I enjoy each Fugazi album, the band was at their absolute peak when they were recording and performing Red Medicine.  In addition to being the first Fugazi album I ever purchased, it has remained my favorite album of theirs since. 

This album came out when I was 14 and could not have been a more perfect “get me from conference quarterfinals to championships” punk rock course.  I remember buying the cassette at Best Buy, the same one where I purchased my first Jesus Lizard tape (Down) around the same time. 

For the record I also purchased Testament’s “Practice What you Preach” from there due to my love of their instrumental track “confusion fusion” which was the perfect “get me from the play in game” to Breadwinner’s six consecutive championships.

At 14 I don’t know if I had heard an opening to an album like Do You Like Me, the distorted lo fi mess.  Was the beginning of the trend that lasted until maybe the early 2000s where you went from lofi to hi fi on your first track? May have to rank those at some point, thinking of death cab and braid in the later 90s.  However, even in this, Fugazi is way ahead of the curve, they’re not using it to fake you in asserting more power to the actual song, but instead creating a comparison of them fucking around, having a blast going past where they would honestly allow themselves to go.  Some of this is again documented in Instrument showing them record a lot of the lofi sequences, they are just having a blast getting goofy, gawrsh.

To someone who was expecting absolute insanity (think what a 14 year old boy wants, the stupidity of hardcore and technical prowess) Do You Like Me is the perfect opening.  Is that fucking guitar even distorted?  Have I mentioned how great this record sounds?  We are only one song in and Don Zientara is just absolutely killing it by capturing the drums in a very stereo sound, the bass tone that ONLY sounds good with fugazi and then the guitars so bright and clear and biting.  Bed For the Scraping, track two, confirms the work by Z as the guitars really just kill it with the perfect vocal mix with one of Ian MacKaye’s strongest yelling performances going back to the Teen Idles.  The yells.  That was what I remember really hitting me.  You get more in Latest Disgrace, possibly the most Fugaziest song of all time.  It has it all.  Birthday Pony brings back the lo fi fun and then leads into the rhythm section finally really leaning into groove that isn’t necccesarily reggae minded.  I’m not sure if they’ve done it before.  It’s almost, almost, I can’t believe it, but it might be funk.

Forensic Scene was my favorite song at 14.  Fuck, it might be my favorite song at 44.  Each song after song proves how powerful a simple really sweet guitar riff over a tight rhythm section can make things so easy for you.  That bell too.  Tasty drum fills, never not for the song.  Combination Lock is the always required instrumental and leans into the funk and provides an intermission for what is about to happen.  

Fell, Destroyed has always felt like the sequel to Forensic Scene.  I think this was the first time I heard anything that I would later refer to as Slint-like.  And while I love Spiderland so much, this is probably a more perfect union of those ideas.

As I wrote that last sentence I had a real guy behind the guy moment and heard it all read in Carrie Bradshaw voice and realized I am completely off the rails.  That is ok.  We may not make it another six months, folks.

_{Editors Note: Folks, I wrote this a week ago and after today, we may not make it another six days.}

By You is the side B opener and might be the closest thing to a sequel they made for Glueman, with Joe Lally providing super groove over two guitars just absolutely freaking the fuck out with no end in sight. 

It took me about 2 years to figure this one out and once I did, it changed everything for me.  2:05 to 2:19 on a loop from then, to now, it’s still the best thing you can hear/see.  The cheat code to my heart.  The ending, did this happen before Luah? Luah doesn’t go this far. 

Why do we have to stop?

That is the ending of this song. This is them saying fuck you, this is fun, we don’t have to stop.

It took too long for me to understand that and essentially turn my life around. Glad I finally did.

Version floats in like a dream letting you catch your breath from that ending and again prep you for what is about to hit you.  

The trifecta of Target, Back to Base and Downed City might be their best 3 song run in sequencing. 

Target nice and clean so the vocals can cut through easier, warning everyone of that era of ABSOLUTELY WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, within 5 years it was so obvious.  Nobody listened. 

Back to Base is maybe their only attempt at somewhat mathy rock.  Again, almost Drive Like Jehu esque, and again, done just a bit better because they are fucking perfect.  Every fucking decision is correct for the song.  It’s like watching a true genius poker player in a tournament where you have to sit back and laugh at how they know exactly what to do in each spot. 

How can you beat this? 

Downed City let’s Guy respond to Ian’s previous song and he makes an impassioned case, just absolutely unhinged vocals over anthemic rock, literally one riff over and over forever until the chorus once again reveals some odd meter riffage.  Have I not noticed this before or was it a one album thing?  Gonna have to investigate that.  

Long Distance Runner is fugazi covering Poptones by PiL and I can’t think of a better way to end an album, can you?  

God fucking bless this album.  A masterpiece.

FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!