| Instrument | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Jem Cohen |
| Starring | Fugazi (Brendan Canty, Joe Lally, Ian MacKaye, Guy Picciotto) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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 .
Instrument was shot from 1987 through 1998 on super 8, 16mm and video and is composed mainly of footage of concerts, interviews with the band members, practices, tours and time spent in the studio recording their 1995 album, Red Medicine . [1] The film also includes portraits of fans as well as interviews with them at various Fugazi shows around the United States throughout the years.
Notable scenes in the film include Fugazi performing for inmates at Lorton Correctional Facility; singer/guitarist Guy Picciotto's performance in a Philadelphia college gym in 1988, where he stuffs himself through a basketball hoop and performs hanging upside down by his legs (filmed by Todd Crespi); and an interview of Guy Picciotto and Ian MacKaye by an 8th grade girl for a Public-access television cable TV show. [2]
Cohen's relationship with band member Ian MacKaye extends back to the 1970s when the two met in high school in Washington, D.C. [3] When asked what the goal was in making Instrument, Cohen responded:
I did feel that there were a lot of people that either didn't have access to the band or had something of a misconception of what they were like. I wanted to address those issues to some degree, but what I really wanted to do was just capture music-making and try to make something that felt, visually, like music, and something where the music was inextricably tied in with the moving pictures. [4]
One such misconception is shared in a scene where drummer Brendan Canty tells his bandmates how his sister's boyfriend believes that Fugazi lives in a house together without heat and subsisting on a steady diet of nothing but rice. [5] Cohen has also said that "[o]ne of the reasons why I work with Fugazi and they work with me is that we enjoy traveling through this madness. It's what they write songs about and it's what I try to document in my films." [6]
Editing of the film was done by both Cohen and the members of the band over the course of five years. [7]
The Instrument Soundtrack by Fugazi was released in conjunction with the film. It consisted primarily of instrumental and unreleased songs (including many demo cuts from End Hits , their next album after the soundtrack).
Time Out and Variety 's reviews for Instrument were generally positive, although they found it to be a bit lengthy, especially for those who do not find themselves to be fans of the band. [8] [9] However, The AV Club pointed out, "if Instrument is purely self-indulgent, Fugazi is one band that has truly earned that luxury." [10] According to DVD Talk, the film "is like a lot of the band's music; straight-ahead, consistently creative and down-to-earth." [11] In an article by The Washington Post discussing both Instrument and Grant Gee's similar contemporaneous documentary Meeting People Is Easy (on Radiohead), the former was found to be "much more fragmented than the Radiohead film. Then again, it's not meant to be a career overview. [...] And while Radiohead seems to take itself a tad too seriously, Fugazi takes itself just seriously enough, even addressing its hardcore-bred penchant for uncompromising ethical stands on everything from merchandising to community commitment (half the concerts in the film seem to be benefits or demonstrations). While they're thoughtful, they're not particularly self-absorbed and seem to actually enjoy what there is to be enjoyed on the road. And the release in Fugazi's music seems as emotionally cathartic for them as it is for their fans." [12]
The DVD release in 2001 included 30 minutes of extra footage not released on VHS in 1999: three full songs - "Waiting Room", "Turnover" and "Long Division" - from various shows and two short films entitled "Glueman" and "Little Flags".
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.
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.
Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, and has composed numerous film scores. He has been named one of the greatest guitarists by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone.
Guy Charles Picciotto is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer from Washington, D.C.
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.
Blonde Redhead is an American alternative rock band composed of Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace that formed in New York City in 1993. The band's earliest albums were noted for their noise rock influences, though their sound evolved by the early 2000s with the releases of Misery is a Butterfly (2004) and 23 (2007), which both incorporated elements of dream pop, shoegaze and other genres. They have released ten regular studio albums and have toured internationally.
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.
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.
Jem Alan Cohen is an Afghan-born American filmmaker based in New York City. Cohen is especially known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, blending of media formats and collaborations with musicians. He also makes multichannel installations and still photographs and had a photography show at Robert Miller Gallery in 2009. He is the recipient of the Independent Spirit Award for feature filmmaking, and has received grants from the Guggenheim, Creative Capital, Rockefeller and Alpert foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Cohen's films have been broadcast internationally, and are in held the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the ACMI in Melbourne.
"Knives Out" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the second single from their fifth album, Amnesiac (2001). It features lyrics about cannibalism and guitars influenced by the Smiths. "Knives Out" received positive reviews and reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. The music video was directed by Michel Gondry.
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.
Instrument Soundtrack is a 1999 album by American post-hardcore band Fugazi.
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Furniture is the fourth and most recent EP released by American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It was recorded in January and February 2001, the same time that the band was recording their last album, The Argument, and released in October 2001 on 7" and on CD.
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.
White Magic is a psychedelic folk rock group formed in Brooklyn and led by singer/guitarist/pianist/composer Mira Billotte. Billotte performs under this moniker both with accompaniment or solo, using a daf, shruti box, and singing a cappella. Invoking both traditional and experimental folk, White Magic's sound ranges from loud psychedelia to meditative trance.
Instrument may refer to:
Jason Archer and Paul Beck are a team of American music video directors, and animators. They specialize in the animation rotoscoping technique which have been used on their work for the films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Archer and Beck also directed music videos for several performers including David Byrne, Juanes and Molotov. The duo won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2003 for "Frijolero".
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