In on the Kill Taker | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 30, 1993 | |||
Recorded | November–December 1992 | |||
Studio | Inner Ear (Arlington, Va.) | |||
Genre | Post-hardcore [1] | |||
Length | 42:13 | |||
Label | Dischord | |||
Producer |
| |||
Fugazi chronology | ||||
|
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.
Due in part to the popularity of alternative rock in the early 1990s, In on the Kill Taker became the group's first album to debut on the Billboard charts and subsequently became the band's breakthrough album. [2]
Fugazi initially recorded material with producer Steve Albini at Chicago Recording Company with the intention of releasing an EP. The sessions produced an album's worth of material, but the band was unhappy with the result and re-recorded the material in Washington D.C., at Inner Ear Studios with producers Don Zientara and Ted Niceley. The original recordings with Albini have since been bootlegged and available on filesharing networks. [3]
The Chicago sessions meant that Fugazi arrived well-prepared for the second recording. According to singer/guitarist Guy Picciotto, “I think we really worked much harder on getting the songs together. We did a lot more pre-session demos, not just with Albini, but also using an 8-track reel-to-reel that we had bought to record our practices. It really changed the way we were able to work out the songs. It also helped us school ourselves a bit on how to engineer a basic recording.” [4] The slightly more "polished" sound of the record was an intentional result of Niceley "reacting to what he [had] heard from the popular bands with the same DNA as Fugazi that were getting heavy airplay" at the time. [5]
The material on In on the Kill Taker retained the band's aggressive and rhythmic style, but displayed more diversity as well. Fugazi downplayed any conscious efforts to make Kill Taker more experimental or diverse. According to Picciotto “I don’t really think of any of the records as being any more experimental than any of the others, because to us they were all experiments,” he said. “We were just trying to figure stuff out and push ourselves further each time. So to my ear every record sounds like a step forward, or sideways, or at least somewhere else from the one before it.” [4] Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone labelled the album "a virtual encyclopedia of punk-derived musical styles" and recognized a large number of influences from bands such as The Ruts, U.K. Subs (for "Facet Squared" and "Public Witness Program"), Sonic Youth (for "Smallpox Champion"), Gang of Four (for "Cassavetes"), Pylon, "early" R.E.M. (for "Sweet and Low"), and even "the speedy hardcore sound" of MacKaye's former band Minor Threat (for "Great Cop"). [6] "23 Beats Off" earned comparisons to an early Wire track "literally stretched and pulled out to nearly seven minutes, [as] MacKaye goes from singing (as best he can) to screaming about a man who was once “at the center of some ticker tape parade,” who turns into “a household name with HIV.”" [5]
Jason Diamond writing for Pitchfork noted that "[l]yrically, it’s also one of the more ambitious albums from the era. While burying any meaning beneath a pile of words like Cobain or bands like Pavement were so fond of doing was certainly du jour, Fugazi liked to mix things up. Picciotto flexed that English degree he got from Georgetown, while MacKaye’s muses were Marx and issues of The Nation ." [5] The open-ended lyrics to the opening track "Facet Squared" "could either be about nationalism or the facades people wear when they go out in public [...]". [5] The Picciotto-written "Smallpox Champion" references the genocides perpetrated by the United States' founding fathers against native Americans. [7] The album's lyrics frequently reference films, in particular the song "Cassavetes" which is a tribute to actor/filmmaker John Cassavetes, as well as a critique of Hollywood culture. [8] The song "Walken's Syndrome" references Woody Allen's film Annie Hall , where Christopher Walken's character feels an urge to crash into oncoming traffic at night. [9]
Filmmaker Jem Cohen, a long-time friend and collaborator of the band, was responsible for some of the album's art design and packaging. Found pieces of text and photographs were used to make up the overall layout. The cover image, showing a burned-out gold Polaroid of the Washington Monument, was found by Cohen in the street. The inner sleeve was a piece that Jeremy Blake, [10] a friend of the band, found tacked to a light post in Chicago. The text on the cover side margin and back cover were also found on the ground in New York City by Cohen and contained the phrase "...so I could have tried to put a stop to the hater, the adversary workers, iniquity evildoers. This is big because people in high places are in on the kill taker". [4]
Released on the 30th of June, 1993, In on the Kill Taker was the band's first album to enter the Billboard 200 , eventually peaking at #153. [11] The album also topped the independent charts of both NME and Melody Maker in the United Kingdom. [12]
By the time the In on the Kill Taker tour was underway, the group began to sell-out large auditoriums and arenas, as well as receive more lucrative major label offers. During the band's sold-out 3-night stint at New York City's Roseland Ballroom in September 1993, music mogul and Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegün met with the band backstage in an attempt to sign them. Ertegün offered the band "anything you want," their own subsidiary label and more than $10 million just to sign with Atlantic. Fugazi declined the offer. [13] The organizers of Lollapalooza also attempted to recruit the band for a headlining slot on its 1993 tour, which the band considered but ultimately turned down due to its tickets being priced at $33. [14] An article by The Washington Post published in August that year noted that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love – "rock's couple of the moment" – had attended a show of theirs in Seattle and even met the band afterwards. It also recounted a similar level of interest from Michael Stipe (who "dance[d] the hokey-pokey in the street in front of the Capitol Theatre with Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty") and Eddie Vedder (who wanted to know where MacKaye and Picciotto lived during a tour of Washington D.C.) as well. [12] A retrospective Pitchfork review from 2018 noted that in the article, "In on the Kill Taker isn’t brought up until somewhere near the bottom of the piece. It was almost like saying that you liked or knew them was like a badge of honor, it absolved you of your own sins. The music was eclipsed by the message." [5]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [9] |
The Great Rock Discography | 7/10 [15] |
Los Angeles Times | [16] |
MusicHound | [17] |
Pitchfork | 8.6/10 [5] |
Q | [18] |
Rolling Stone | [6] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [19] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 [20] |
Uncut | 9/10 [21] |
The record garnered rave reviews from many publications including TIME and Rolling Stone . [2] Rolling Stone writer Matt Diehl wrote that Fugazi had reclaimed the "only band that matters" label from The Clash. [6] In a year-end round-up of the best albums of the year, Brad Tyer of The Houston Press included the album and called the band "[t]he beating heart of punk rock." [22]
However, the album received mixed reviews as well. In an otherwise positive review, Jonathan Gold of Los Angeles Times thought that on the album, "Fugazi works in more or less the same meta-pop ballpark as Sonic Youth," and further stated: "Fugazi hasn't a whimsical bone in its collective body, and the lyrics dance around the gloomiest topics in oblique college-poetry metaphor." [16] Spin was even more dismissive, calling it "Fugazi's most rigid and predictable album yet" despite its "spunky moments", and criticizing their politics as being didactic. [23]
In on the Kill Taker is now widely seen as the band's breakthrough album. Joe Gross, an independent scholar, authored a book about the album as a part of the 33⅓ series of books dedicated to classic & influential albums, published by Continuum in 2018. [24] In its foreword, critic Rob Sheffield called it "a widely misunderstood album from a widely misunderstood band, and yet it's an album that lies right at the heart of their story." [25] Similarly, AllMusic critic Andy Kellman wrote: "It's probably Fugazi's least digestible record from front to back, but each track has its own attractive qualities, even if not immediately perceptible." [9] Writing for The A.V. Club in 2011, Kyle Ryan ranked it the best album of 1993, writing that it "showed Fugazi finding its equilibrium; it wasn’t that the band had outgrown its punk-rock foundation (and the community its members treasured); Fugazi had expanded punk’s palette." [26] In a very positive retrospective review, Jason Diamond writing for Pitchfork compared the impact of the album to Brian Eno's statement regarding The Velvet Underground's first album: "the hundreds of thousands of people who bought In on the Kill Taker or saw the band as they trekked across America, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, that year and beyond, were impacted in some way." [5] In 2021, Uncut wrote that the album "remains one of the finest records of the alternative-rock boom." [21]
Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank |
---|---|---|---|
LAS Magazine | US | 90 Albums of the 90s | 1[ citation needed ] |
Pitchfork | US | Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s (original) | 24 [27] |
Magnet | US | 10th Anniversary Issue, Top 60 Albums 1993-2003 | 35[ citation needed ] |
LA Weekly | US | Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records | 4 [28] |
Kerrang! | UK | 100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die | 81 [29] |
Terrorizer | UK | 100 Most Important Albums Of The Nineties | - [30] |
Rockdelux | Spain | 300 Best Albums, 1984–2014 | 191 [31] |
Thursday singer Geoff Rickly has stated that his In on the Kill Taker is his favorite Fugazi album. [32] "Public Witness Program" has been covered by Screw 32. [33] It is also the name of a band from Norway. [34] The band Cassavetes took its name from the song of the same name on this album, [35] as did the band Great Cop. [36] Plunderphonics musician Chris Lawhorn used 11 tracks from this album for his album Fugazi Edits. [37] [38] Greg Saunier and André de Ridder along with Stargaze "re-composed" the album in its entirety under the title Instruments, which was released on Record Store Day, 2019. [39] [40] Daniel P. Carter, [41] Laura Pleasants (Kylesa) [42] and Amen Dunes [43] have all called the album one of their favorites.
All songs by Guy Picciotto, Ian MacKaye, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty.
No. | Title | Lead vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Facet Squared" | MacKaye | 2:42 |
2. | "Public Witness Program" | Picciotto | 2:04 |
3. | "Returning the Screw" | MacKaye | 3:13 |
4. | "Smallpox Champion" | Picciotto | 4:01 |
5. | "Rend It" | Picciotto | 3:48 |
6. | "23 Beats Off" | MacKaye | 6:41 |
7. | "Sweet and Low" | 3:36 | |
8. | "Cassavetes" | Picciotto | 2:30 |
9. | "Great Cop" | MacKaye | 1:52 |
10. | "Walken's Syndrome" | Picciotto | 3:18 |
11. | "Instrument" | MacKaye | 3:43 |
12. | "Last Chance for a Slow Dance" | Picciotto | 4:38 |
Technical
Year | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|
1993 | Billboard 200 | 153 [11] |
1993 | UK Albums Chart | 24 [44] |
Out of Step is the third EP by American hardcore punk band Minor Threat. It was released on 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.
Fugazi was an American post-hardcore 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.
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.
Rites of Spring was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in late 1983. Along with Embrace, and Beefeater, they were one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement which took place within the Washington, D.C. hardcore punk scene.
Guy Picciotto is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer from Washington, D.C. He is best known as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist in Fugazi and as lead vocalist of Rites of Spring.
The Argument is the sixth and final 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.
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.
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.
Steady Diet of Nothing is the second studio album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi, released in July 1991 by Dischord Records. Although a persistent rumor alleges that the title is an allusion to a quote by the late American stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, the album title predates the Hicks quote by several years and was actually thought up by bassist Joe Lally.
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.
One Last Wish was a short-lived post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C. It was formed in May 1986 by members of Rites of Spring and Embrace, and split up in January 1987.
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.
Instrument Soundtrack is a 1999 soundtrack album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It serves as the soundtrack for the documentary film Instrument, which follows the band.
Instrument is a documentary film directed by Jem Cohen about the band Fugazi. The film takes its title from the Fugazi song of the same name, from their 1993 album, In on the Kill Taker.
Fugazi, also known as the EP 7 Songs, is the debut release by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. As with subsequent release Margin Walker, Guy Picciotto did not contribute guitar to this record; all guitar was performed by Ian MacKaye. It was originally recorded in June 1988 and released in November 1988 on vinyl and again in 1989 on the compilation release 13 Songs along with the following EP Margin Walker. The photo used for the album cover was taken on June 30, 1988 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.
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.
Rites of Spring is the only studio album by American post-hardcore band Rites of Spring. It was recorded at Inner Ear Studios in February 1985 and released on vinyl in June 1985 as Dischord Records #16. The album was produced by Ian MacKaye and contains twelve songs.
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 was 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 as a 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 commercially successful 1989 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.
[At] the top is Fugazi. My favorite of theirs is In on the Kill Taker, even though I got into them on 13 Songs .
Ok, I first bought 'Margin Walker' and that was it for me. Fugazi fan for life. Although my favourite album by them changes regularly, I still find that 'In On The Kill Taker' comes round as the one I listen to most often. I think it's their most aggressive album and it really hits home with me. I bought it on cassette and vinyl the day it came out so that I could listen to it on the way home on my walkman. Don't laugh.