Intro
01 Oct 2021 marks the release of the highly-anticipated two-volume benefit comp Silence is a Dangerous Sound – A Tribute to Fugazi. The Fugazi-sanctioned collection is released by Scottish DIY label Ripcord Records on double CD or digital download, and 100% of the proceeds will go to Tribe Animal Sanctuary Scotland.
Fugazi arguably ranks up there as one of the most influential “punk” bands of all time. They've definitely left their mark and influence on countless acts across multiple genres. With that in mind, four TGEFM staffers and a guest contributor, all big Fugazi fans, listened to the tribute and have engaged in a track-by-track commentary. This is the third and final of three parts to be published today, covering tracks 34-43, as well as each of our final comments.
Disk 2 (cont.)
Track 34: Heart Attack Man “Bulldog Front”
Julie River – I'm not a big fan of Heart Attack Man, but this is a pretty good cover. I feel like this is another one where not much is changed from the original, but the more modern production really breathes new life into the song.
Gregnaha – Formally this is the same but the guitar parts and harmonies are extremely different than the original. It doesn't too a ton for me but it's a good cover
Jim – HAM is a known quantity. They do a respectable job on this cover. Nothing earth shattering. One thing I love about these cover comps is that you get someone singing things a little more clearly and you learn the lyrics. I'm not one to google lyrics. I thought he was saying “We go down your waterfall.”
Track 35: Sounds of Swami “Merchandise”
Jeff Sorley – I've come around to this being my favorite song on the album. Why? Probably because outside of the debut s/t (aka 7 Songs), “Merchandise” is likely one of my favorite songs, and one of their most important songs. Sounds of Swami does a good enough job covering it, although I would've like to hear some more flourishes on the drums to make it a bit more unique. It's just a good song all around and this cover proves that it sounds good no matter who plays it.
Greg – I'm really responding to your point that this sounds good no matter who covers it and I totally agree. I've heard Ian talk about how for 13 Songs and at least a portion of Repeater he was primarily writing songs by himself and teaching them to the band, before they moved to a collective improvisation approach. That reminds me of why the early songs are so easy and fun to cover, and the later songs are so fucking hard to get correct.
Julie – I've listened to this song so many times now just trying to think of something to say about it and I'm at a loss for words, not because of how amazing it is, but because of how lukewarm I am about this cover. I get what you're saying, it's a good song to begin with and it's hard to ruin that. But it also doesn't give me any reason to listen to this one instead of the original. This cover just fails to really justify its own existence.
JIm – Classic Fugazi tune. Tough one to take on. They don't broach any new ground. Stick with the original.
Jeff – Ouch. (laughter)
Well, I'm the editor, so I'm right. (laughter)
Track 36: S.T. Manville “Long Division”
Greg – An inventive take on the song – and is a really nice palate cleanser in the context of this entire compilation
Julie – This one is quite incredible. Soft yet moody, brooding, and gorgeous. And I agree with it being a palette cleanser. This was a very pleasant surprise.
Jeff – This is another one that has definitely been made their own. S.T. Manville turns this into a one-musician tour de force.
Jim -I knew they would sneak some Folk in here! Not my style.
Track 37: BODEGA “Provisional”
Greg – It's a bold move to have covers of Provisional and Reprovisional on the same comp. Strange choice to have them come in this order though. I like this almost Velvet Underground approach to it, but I would have liked to have this come directly before the Teenage Halloween track.
Julie – I feel like the original sounds like the closest Fugazi has ever come to writing a Pixies song while the cover sounds more like The Velvet Underground if they were more into marijuana than heroin. Maybe just a hint of Jane's Addiction too. The original and the cover both succeed but for very different reasons, and I really like that.
Jim – Downtempo, reverbed and distorted. Not a bad place to start. The vocals are close enough to Guy's that it's not a jarring departure like some of the others. I like the extended interlude jam, reminds me of Built to Spill. I'd check out other stuff from Bodega.
Track 38: Braidedveins “Oh”
Greg – If you're going to cover a song like Oh, you either need to know how to groove like Fugazi, or you have to make the song undeniably your own, Braidedveins does a great job of reclaiming the song in their own style. I like all the effects and attention to recording detail. The drum and guitar effects get a little played toward the end of the second verse and I would have liked to hear them try something else. In the same way, I would have liked an equally inventive approach to the vocal delivery – although there is a really cool backing vocal moment in that second verse. The breakdown before “thank you sir may I have another” doesn't pay off in the way I would have wanted it to, since it's pretty much at the same energy level as the rest of the song.
Julie – I know I promised to stop being the queen of mean so I will refrain from making any comments about the band name Braidedveins. But I thought this was an okay cover at best. I really didn't like how passionlessly they delivered the “thank you sir may I have another.” (she's trying, people. she really is! – ed.)
Track 39: STORM{O} “Break”
Greg – I'm all about this track. Break is one of the best Fugazi tracks and this approach to it kind of illustrates how versatile the source material can be. I'm thinking about how I once saw RX Bandits cover this song and seamlessly transition into one of their own tunes. It made just as much sense as this approach does and I love that
Jeff – I like this one a lot, too. It's only a bit faster than the original, but I think it comes across as more urgent. A good cover.
Julie – I had never heard of this band before but I had little doubt that a group who collectively agreed to call themselves STORM{O} would be the right band to turn a really weird Fugazi track even weirder.
Jeff – You mean that in a good way, right? (laughter)
Track 40: Wojtek “Fell, Destroyed”
Jeff – (note- pronounced 'Voy-tek”) I'd like to start by saying that, in my travels, I've seen this name spelled something, like, 12 different ways. (laughter)
Jim – Death metal! Awesome! This will shake people out of their comfort zones! Bears little resemblance to the original, which is good. Wojtek, who knew.
Greg – This is one of my favorite Fugazi songs and I'm honestly really pleased to see Wojtek make no attempts to try and emulate the original. The original track is one of the more abstract and strange entries on Red Medicine – this noisy hardcore approach is extremely different, but you can still kind of draw line from Fugazi to this style of punk rock. All to just reiterate how massive this band's influence is.
Julie – I feel like the college-aged version of me would have pretended to understand the appeal of a cover like this, but I'm too old at this point to pretend I get it. This sounds like it certainly takes a lot of skill, and to each their own if this is your kinda thing, but this is an end of the hardcore spectrum that just isn't for me. Can I listen to some Fat Wreck bands again?
Track 41: West Thebarton “Margin Walker”
Greg – Primarily just a straight ahead cover but the vocal approach and the specific energy of the band puts a nice spin on the song.
Tyler Barrett – I agree, I don't know anything about this band but it just feels like a very sincere and enthusiastic re-creation. I felt like the production left a little to be desired but I do like the guitar tone and the borderline Blood Brothers-y vocals.
Jim – These guys lucked out. I don't know who they know, but they got Fugazi's best song in my opinion. Stick with the original. I don't love that they don't take the chorus up an octave like the original. Half-hearted at best.
Julie – I'm so glad that I always try to think up what I'm going to say before I read the previous comments because, unprompted, I also thought of The Blood Brothers like Tyler did. I mean it's far less screamy, which makes it a little less fun than the Blood Brothers, but it has the snotty pop-punk side of the Blood Brothers.
Track 42: Snapped Ankles “Give Me The Cure”
Greg – This is the kind of inventiveness and weirdness I want from more of this comp. This reminds me of the great Three One G Queen tribute comp. I love this delayed-out dub style approach. Totally inventive take (and a funny little intro at the beginning too). Having the whole band kick in towards the end and resemble a bit more of the original song is a really nice touch. A+.
Jeff – This makes me think a lot of the S.T. Manville cover. It's recognizable as the same song, but has this kind of free-form feel to it. The drums are a kick to listen to.
I would've liked the “Ian backing vocals” in the cover to be a bit more powerful, as they're a great part of the original. We can't have everything, I guess.
Julie – Greg, I remember that Three One G Queen tribute and I loved it for the Blood Brothers cover of “Under Pressure,” which was easily the highlight, and the ridiculous Melt Banana cover of “We Will Rock You.” And then of course the Locust covering “Killer Queen” in a way that makes you say “I'm just going to have to take your word for it that this is a cover of the song you said it is but okay!”
Okay, that aside, I wasn't a fan of this cover for one very big reason and that's the added lyrics at the beginning of the song. Not only did they add lyrics, the added lyrics are a bit pretentious and immediately turned me off to a cover that I might have otherwise enjoyed.
Jim – Arthouse spoken word? I feel like I should be snapping my fingers at this. I'll give them credit for taking the song in a new direction. It doesn't stand on its own. I wouldn't listen to it for pleasure, only as a curiosity. Kudos for taking chances/sticking to their beliefs.
Track 43: Before Stories “Dear Justice Letter”
Jeff – I really, really wanted to like this song, but just… don't. I think with any tribute album, one of the main things that needs to be done is to have both a strong opening and closing track. Either way you cut it, either just looking at Volume 2 or the tribute as a whole, Before Stories' entry just isn't it.
I mean, I get the Before Stories kind of loosey-goosey approach to songs– they shoot from the hip, but come from the heart– yet, even knowing that, this submission seems a bit too disjointed. I might have appreciated it more if it was sandwiched in the middle somewhere, but I expected to have my mind blown on the final track, and was left sorely disappointed.
Jim– WTF. How did this sneak on here? Couldn't we have ended at 20? Not my thing.
Greg – Not enough is different about this cover to justify it and it leaves it really lacking. It's tough covering a band with musicianship as strong as Fugazi. You either need to re-tailor the song to your abilities, or cash a really big check to match the original, and Before Stories don't really do either.
Tyler – Agree with everything already stated. Very challenging song, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole (and wouldn't trust Ten Foot Pole with it either, for that matter). But like Jeff said, I kind of get the impression from the cover that I'd like Before Stories, they just didn't nail this attempt.
Julie – I hate to agree with the crowd, I am a punk after all, but this is mostly just the original with more obnoxious vocals and a weird hip-hop section that doesn't quite fit. What they did change didn't feel like it was really honoring the original.
Final Thoughts
Greg – As a Fugazi superfan I'm pretty much always skeptical of Fugazi covers. There's a lot of good material on this comp. I think the most successful tracks are the ones that either take the song in a totally new direction while still referencing the original, OR dig really hard into the original to kind of find what the magic of the song originally was. There's a couple covers throughout this that feel perhaps a little phoned in, and if ever there was a band that didn't phone anything in, it was Fugazi. There's also a couple tracks on here by bands that maybe had never really engaged with Fugazi before, and I think the approach shows. The whole comp is worth a listen for Fugazi fans, but I don't think there's a whole lot here that really contributes to the larger discussion about this band.
Jeff – Overall I think this is a great comp and it is a lot more hit than miss. It proves the point that Fugazi has a lasting influence on so many different bands and artists, and only cements their status in music history.
I also want to applaud Ripcord Records for pulling this out of the hat. It's no mean feat for a small, DIY label to get all of this together (and get the blessings of Fugazi to do it in the first place)! It is a cheap comp with the proceeds going to a great cause. Even those most casual of Fugazi fans should pick up a copy. (and, no, I'm not being paid to say that!)
Jim – If this comp has done anything for me, it made me want to dig back into some old Fugazi. I'm a huge fan of Repeater and 13 Songs. I'd need to revisit Red Medicine, The Argument, and Steady Diet of Nothing. I've listened to a lot of comps, I'm a fan. I had a great Ramones comp, Pygmy Love Circus did an amazing rendition of Beat on the Brat. Who could forget the Grateful Dead comp from the 90's. Jane's Addiction covered Ripple, and they honestly did it better than the Dead. The concept of covering another artist is nuanced. Some artists try to stay faithful to the source material while still “making it their own.” Other artists completely consume the song, digest it, and regurgitate it in a new form. The third approach is some combination of the two, which typically involves the artist playing the song in their “style.” A comp really needs all these elements in order to keep the listener interested. I don't want every song to be a down tempo synthed-out version, and I don't want every song to be a faithful screamo version, or faithful folk version. I thought this comp had it all, some faithful versions, some whacked-out versions. I wouldn't say it was all killer, but 80% of the bands hit the mark, while some exceeded expectations.
Julie – I do love Fugazi, I really do, but probably not as much as everyone else here. I know 13 Songs and The Argument very well but I'm somewhat hazy on everything in between. Of all of Ian MacKaye's projects Fugazi is probably my least favorite. I'm a much bigger fan of Minor Threat, The Evens, and his new project Coriky, or as I like to call them, The Evens With a Bass Player. For Guy Picciotto I tend to prefer Rites of Spring. I still do love Fugazi, though, just a little bit less.I think there's a lot of words you can use to describe Fugazi: unique, intelligent, talented, original. But two words you would never really use to refer to them are “whimsical” and “fun.” Fugazi can be a bit dry, however good they are, let's admit it. The best moments on this album pair the songs with the perfect band to not only keep the artistic spirit of Fugazi in the song, but to also add in that fun and whimsy that the Fugazi originals never had. The worst of them simply play the original almost note for note, adding nothing to the mix. There's a mixed bag of good and bad with a lot in between, but, when this album hits instead of misses, the songs are completely transformed, and a lot of them are as good as if not better than the originals.
Tyler – I like the variety of artists on this, ranging from acoustic soloists and dream pop to hardcore, metalcore, and Fat Wreck bands. To me, that's the beauty of Fugazi, and why it's so cool to see how different bands can interpret and adapt their favorites. At the same time, we're talking about one of the most critically-lauded and revered independent bands of all time, whose artistry and aesthetic is incomparable. Pretty much no one can do a Fugazi song justice and that's a tough pill to swallow in the context of a two-disc comp. So I took it with a grain of salt and found it to be a mostly enjoyable listen. It introduced me to new acts and reminded me of all the reasons to love Fugazi (which includes that they're basically inimitable).
And that's the end of part 2 of our track-by-track coverage. Be sure to check out part 1, and part 2.