| 13 Songs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | September 1, 1989 | |||
| Recorded |
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| Studio | Inner Ear Studios (Arlington, Virginia) Southern Studios (London, England) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:10 | |||
| Label | Dischord | |||
| Producer | Ted Niceley, John Loder | |||
| Fugazi chronology | ||||
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13 Songs is a compilation album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released on September 1, 1989 by Dischord Records. The album consists of all the songs from the band's first two EPs, Fugazi and Margin Walker .
The EPs compiled were Fugazi (1988), which was recorded at Inner Ear Studios in June 1988 with Ted Niceley & Don Zientara, and Margin Walker (1989), which was recorded in December 1988 at Southern Studios in London with John Loder handling production duties.
The EPs had been on Ian MacKaye's Dischord Records as numbers 30 and 35, respectively. 13 Songs was number 36. A remastered version was released in February 2003.
13 Songs is Fugazi's most successful release. While certain sources report the album's total worldwide sales as being over 3 million, [1] [2] Alan O'Connor in his 2008 book Punk Record Labels and the Struggle for Autonomy: The Emergence of DIY lists the figure as 750,000 (based on an interview with Dischord Records). [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [4] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [5] |
| The Great Rock Discography | 8/10 [6] |
| MusicHound Rock |  [7] |
| OndaRock | 7.5/10 [8] |
| Robert Christgau |  [9] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [10] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 [11] |
| Uncut | 9/10 [12] |
The album has gone on to receive critical acclaim, despite being a compilation, with many calling it one of the best albums of the post-hardcore genre. Stereogum called it "as auspicious as punk debuts come", further noting that on the album, "most of the Fugazi elements were in place from the jump, albeit in a somewhat less-developed form. If the concept of a punk band writing a song from the perspective of a woman being hooted at by sexist loudmouths seems revolutionary now, imagine what it sounded like in 1988, when the canon of classic punk still consisted largely of songs dealing with beating on brats, lynching landlords, and the ritual impaling of cats." [13] In a 5-star review for Allmusic, Andy Kellman called the album "timeless" and wrote that "the importance of this record can perhaps be more suitably measured by the number of people who remember the first time they heard it. 13 Songs is usually among the first records that spring to mind when defining alternative rock. Furious, intelligent, artful, and entirely musical, it's a baker's dozen of cannon shots to the gut -- not just a batch of emotionally visceral and defiant songs recorded by angry young men, but something greater." [4] Consequence of Sound called it "a solid classic, instantly grabbing the ear with a timeless quality that you just don’t find every day. [...] I know this music is over 20 years old, but it sounds like it’s pouring out of someone’s garage down the street. You can’t fake this kind of timeless authenticity, though God knows many have tried." [14] According to Popmatters, the album (along with Repeater ) "remain the band's most widely successful and consistently praised work. 13 Songs, for instance, has sold over three million copies -- all without radio singles, music videos, or any of the tools of corporate publicity that help musicians reach that stratospheric level of success." [2]
In 2005, 13 Songs was ranked 29 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005". [15] NME ranked it #284 in their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2014. [16] Paste ranked it at #57 on their list of "The 80 Best Albums of the 1980s". [17] In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked it 35th on their list of the "40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time". [18]
According to Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill: "13 Songs is to underground music what Led Zeppelin IV is to suburban potheads." [19] According to Conrad Keely of ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the album along with Unwound's Fake Train "epitomized America's disaffected, self-hating white middle-class guilt victims screaming about the fact that they have nothing to do with their time other than be bored, nothing to speak out against other than their own ennui and unwarranted discontent. And although that might sound like a criticism or an indictment, the fact is that this sentiment existed, it was shared by a lot of us, and it found its voice in albums like [13 Songs]." [20] "Looking back upon the arc of alternative rock, punk and indie throughout the decade," writes Treble, "from Nirvana to Jawbox, Shudder to Think, Sunny Day Real Estate, Quicksand and The Afghan Whigs, there’s a line that traces back to the jittery funk and searingly melodic hardcore of Fugazi’s first two EPs, which comprise 13 Songs." [21] Both Jack Johnson [22] and Eddie Vedder have named 13 Songs as one of their favorite albums of all time. [23] Rise Against cited the album as one of their 12 key influences, alongside works by Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys and Jawbreaker. [24]
| No. | Title | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Waiting Room" | MacKaye | 2:53 |
| 2. | "Bulldog Front" | Picciotto | 2:53 |
| 3. | "Bad Mouth" | MacKaye | 2:35 |
| 4. | "Burning" | Picciotto | 2:39 |
| 5. | "Give Me the Cure" | Picciotto | 2:58 |
| 6. | "Suggestion" | MacKaye | 4:44 |
| 7. | "Glue Man" | Picciotto | 4:23 |
| 8. | "Margin Walker" | Picciotto | 2:30 |
| 9. | "And the Same" | MacKaye | 3:27 |
| 10. | "Burning Too" | MacKaye | 2:50 |
| 11. | "Provisional" | Picciotto | 2:17 |
| 12. | "Lockdown" | Picciotto | 2:10 |
| 13. | "Promises" | MacKaye | 4:02 |
Minor Threat is a compilation album by the American hardcore punk band Minor Threat. It was released in March 1984 through Dischord Records. The compilation consisted of the group's first and second extended plays, Minor Threat and In My Eyes. The 1984 Minor Threat LP featured the same cover as the 1981 Minor Threat EP, depicting vocalist Ian MacKaye's younger brother Alec. The image has been imitated by punk bands such as Rancid on their album ...And Out Come the Wolves and in the Major Threat ad campaign by Nike.
Out of Step is the only studio album by American hardcore punk band Minor Threat. It was released on 45 RPM vinyl in April 1983 through Dischord Records. Although Out of Step has only been released on CD in limited quantities, it has been repressed on vinyl as recently as 2010. All tracks from the album are available on Minor Threat's 1989 compilation album Complete Discography.
Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release Minor Disturbance by their band the Teen Idles. With other independent American labels such as Twin/Tone, Touch and Go Records, and SST Records, Dischord helped to spearhead the nationwide network of underground bands that formed the 1980s indie rock scene. These labels presided over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging.
Fugazi was an American punk rock band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consisted of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They were noted for their style-transcending music, DIY ethical stance, manner of business practice, and contempt for the music industry.
The Argument is the sixth and most recent studio album from the post-hardcore band Fugazi released on October 16, 2001, through Dischord Records. It was recorded at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA and the Dischord House between January and April 2001. It was the band's last release before going on hiatus in 2003, until the release of First Demo over thirteen years later.
Embrace is the debut record and the only release by the American post-hardcore band Embrace.
End Hits is the fifth studio album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released on April 28, 1998, by Dischord Records. It was recorded at Inner Ear Studios from March 1997 to September 1997 and produced by the band and Don Zientara, and saw the band continuing with and expanding upon the in-studio experimentation of their previous album Red Medicine (1995). Due to the title, rumors began circulating at the time that it was to be their last release.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period. The genre also began to incorporate more dense, complex, and atmospheric instrumentals with bands like Slint and Unwound, and also experienced some crossover from indie rock with bands like The Dismemberment Plan. In the early- and mid-2000s, post-hardcore achieved mainstream success with the popularity of bands like At the Drive-In, My Chemical Romance, Dance Gavin Dance, AFI, Underoath, Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, the Used, Saosin, Alexisonfire, and Senses Fail. In the 2010s, bands like Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil achieved mainstream success under the post-hardcore label. Meanwhile, bands like Title Fight and La Dispute experienced underground popularity playing music that bore a closer resemblance to the post-hardcore bands of the 1980s and 1990s.
Repeater is the full-length debut studio album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It was released on April 19, 1990, as Repeater on LP, and in May 1990 on CD bundled with the 3 Songs EP as Repeater + 3 Songs. It was recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, and produced and engineered by Don Zientara and Ted Niceley.
Washington, D.C. hardcore, commonly referred to as D.C. hardcore, sometimes styled in writing as harDCore, is the hardcore punk scene of Washington, D.C. Emerging in late 1979, it is considered one of the first and most influential punk scenes in the United States.
In on the Kill Taker is the third full-length studio album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It was released on June 30, 1993, through Dischord Records and was recorded at Inner Ear Studios and produced by Ted Niceley and Don Zientara. In on the Kill Taker captured the aggressiveness of the band's earlier releases while displaying a more diverse range of influences.
Red Medicine is the fourth studio album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released on June 12, 1995, by Dischord Records. It is the band's most commercially successful album, peaking at number 126 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number 18 on the UK Albums Chart.
For Your Own Special Sweetheart is the third album by Washington D.C. post-hardcore band, Jawbox. It was produced by Ted Niceley, best known for his work with Fugazi. This would be the band's major label debut, as they had left Dischord Records to sign with Atlantic Records. It is also the first album to feature Zachary Barocas on drums, as he replaced original drummer Adam Wade two years prior. The album was not much of a commercial success, despite being well received by critics.
Margin Walker is the second EP by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It was originally released in June 1989 on vinyl and again in the same year on the compilation release 13 Songs along with the debut EP Fugazi. The 12" vinyl went out of print, but was remastered and reissued by Dischord Records in October 2009.
The Evens is the self-titled debut album from The Evens, a duo formed by Ian MacKaye on baritone guitar and Amy Farina on drums. Consisting of songs that the pair had been writing since August 2001, the songs would be performed live several times and even demoed before being recorded at Inner Ear Studios with Don Zientara during the summer of 2004. A reaction against what MacKaye had perceived to be the commercialization of rock music driven by the industry's "idea of youth", the album's "post-post-hardcore" sound is more stripped-down, minimal and personal in comparison to his work with Fugazi. The more direct and politically-charged lyrics, penned by both members, deal mainly with "the loss of community and the struggle to recapture it", though some of them feature romantic themes as well.
The discography of Fugazi, an American post-hardcore band, consists of six studio albums, four EPs, a compilation album, a soundtrack album, a demo and a series of hundreds of live recordings. All of the band's releases have been published by Dischord Records, the independent record label co-owned and operated by Fugazi singer and guitarist Ian MacKaye.
First Demo is a demo album from the post-hardcore band Fugazi released on November 18, 2014 through Dischord Records. It was recorded at Don Zientara's Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA and the Dischord House in 1988. It is the band's first studio release in over thirteen years, since the release of The Argument in October 2001. First Demo was released on LP, CD and Digital Download.
"Waiting Room" is a song by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. The song was first released as the opening track to their debut EP, and was later compiled on their widely acclaimed and commercially successful compilation 13 Songs. Featuring stylistic influences from funk, hip-hop and reggae, the song typifies Fugazi's signature style of post-hardcore and would go on to become one of their most popular and widely covered songs despite never being released as a single.
"I'm So Tired" is a song by the American punk rock band Fugazi. Released on their 1999 album Instrument Soundtrack, the song is a piano ballad played and sung by vocalist Ian MacKaye, a departure from the band's typical post-hardcore output.
Holy Rollers was an American punk band that formed in 1988 in Washington, D.C. The band initially was composed of guitarist/vocalist Marc Lambiotte, bassist/vocalist Joe Aronstamn, and drummer/vocalist Max Micozzi. Band members alternated lead vocals and Holy Rollers were the first D.C. punk band to incorporate three-part harmonies. Music historians and authors Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins described the band's sound as "kinetic punk-funk" with "passionate, message-driven songs." Holy Rollers were a part of new trend in post-hardcore artistic diversity that developed within the D.C. punk scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. They released three albums on Dischord Records, an American punk label that Noisey described as "one of the most respected and revered [record labels], punk or otherwise, in the world." As AllMusic declared, "[w]ithout being an arena act or coming off with the aggrandizing air of one, the Holy Rollers still make big music that can inspire and go beyond simple post-hardcore approaches."
