FUGAZI RULES

A short week, Friday arrives and I go see Jack at his bookstore/gallery/coffee shop, Mutiny Now! to say hello and find out what's happening in the neighborhood.  Although I vowed to reduce unnecessary spending in 2012, I fell in love with his latest piece of art, hung up on the wall only a day earlier.  As I finished paying and I was attempting to figure out how I would carry the painting back to the office on bicycle, he got a phone call telling him the time had come to put their aged dog Pinky to sleep.  Saddened by the news, he locked up the store and departed.

More pictures from last weekend, including a shot of the only real "skiing" I did the whole time at the cabin.

Out there all alone
A place where no one listens
Stands against the world

Late Friday starts off with the second of three nights Fugazi performed at Irving Plaza, on April 4, 1995. "Fugazi have been around since 1988, currently on hiatus, and they rock. They have a very cool attitude to the business of music, sticking to their indie label when majors came-a-courting, as they felt they were selling enough albums without having money to promote them, and also treat their fans with great respect. They've always tried to keep tickets prices at a reasonable cost, $5 in the US, and have a no 'slam-dance' policy, a relic from the punk/hardcore days, 'cos these people just get in the way of an enjoyable gig."

Send them to invade
Armed boys in camouflage
Shoot at the shadows

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?378h41zyw3hq9fk

Canned speeches promise
Claim to be the masters, at
Not telling the truth

The first show up Saturday night was Nirvana on November 26, 1989 at Bloom in Mezzago, Italy. After "School," Chad had problems with the snare drum, prompting Krist and Kurt to improvise a jam and then jam on Led Zeppelin's "Dazed And Confused" with some vocals by Krist. "Ah, guess the snare drum broke." "I'm gonna fix it!" Another great show in a small venue before an Italian audience. "Por favor espanol?"

Their lying exposed
People who have grown tired
The party's over

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?nzmnynuumnt

Think like an arrow

They see light in the darkness

Kamikaze dreams

Here's Fugazi again, the third night at Irving Plaza back on April 5, 1995.  Another superb recording and performance by the band.  I ran across a poster of the bands performance at the Ogden Theater here in Denver.  I must have been asleep in 1995.

On April 8, 1995 the New York Times wrote:

With integrity as important to alternative-rock as heartbreak is to country music, Fugazi should be king. The hard-core rock band, which grew out of the ashes of the influential Washington, D.C., band Minor Threat, sells concert tickets for no more than $5 (a third of what bands of their stature usually charge), refuses to make videos, declines to sell T-shirts and other merchandise at its performances, has not signed with a major record label, sells its self-pressed CD's for less than $9 and performs only at all-ages shows. At its sold-out performances at Irving Plaza on Tuesday and Wednesday, the band showed that even with a punk revival in full swing, it isn't afraid to chastise the fans to their faces ("Sir, do us a favor and don't roll on people's heads," the singer and guitarist Ian MacKaye said to one crowd-surfer on Tuesday) or to break down the boundaries of hard core.

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?u6ley5k9aq3c4nd

Public Image Limited at the Coachella Music Festival on April 16, 2010.  I was there in the crowd.  After a fabulous show by Echo and the Bunnymen, followed by Vampire Weekend, I was blown away when John Lydon and his band were the last guys to take the stage that evening and upped the ante with their hypnotic performance.

This is an excellent audience recording from another source.  See my earlier post of this concert, along with my recording of the event:
http://whatatemper.blogspot.com/2010/04/time-to-take-your-pil.html

I still get a thrill from this recording when at the very start of the show he calls out "Turn up the volume Walter!"

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dtqxjyyme5m

"Hey Ho Let's Go" Monday night with a cigar after dark.  This bootleg was recorded at the Palladium in New York City on January 7, 1978 and has amazing sound quality. Originally recorded for a King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show and taken from a decent stereo board mix, this set chronicles The Ramones at their peak before an adoring home audience. The group had just returned from a triumphant European tour during which It's Alive had been recorded at the Rainbow Theatre on New Year's Eve just a week before. Tommy Ramone is the drummer on this recording. He left the band soon afterwards, although he continued to work with them as a producer and manager. This is his last album as the Ramones' drummer.
Here's a comment left by someone on another site that was offering the recording for sale:

Blazing through twenty-three cuts in under an hour, Live, January 7, 1978 at The Palladium, NYC documents The Ramones at the peak of their powers. Ask me who the greatest Rock and Roll band that ever took the stage, eight days of the week I’ll tell you it was The Ramones. Their peak as a live act - the late seventies through to the mid-eighties - scale heights most bands are not able to dream of reaching. This album is so penetrating it rips a hole through my skull every time. It’s similar to the It's Alive LP, recorded a week previous - excluding ‘Judy is a Punk’, the set list is identical – but the performance may be a tad more intense. I know, that doesn’t sound possible…

The Ramones are probably the most definitive Rock and Roll band the world will ever have the pleasure of knowing. So enjoy. This is all we have left.

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gb2w56hqdy63rwc