Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker (33 1/3, 129)

Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker (33 1/3, 129)

<p>By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi released their third full-length album <i>In on the Kill Taker</i>, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD <i>13 songs</i>) and two albums (1990's genre-defining <i>Repeater</i> and 1991's impressionistic follow-up <i>Steady Diet of Nothing</i>) inside of five years, Fugazi was on creative roll, astounding increasingly large audiences as they toured, blasting fist-pumping anthems and jammy noise-workouts that roared into every open underground heart. When the album debuted on the now-SoundScan-driven charts, Fugazi had never been more in the public eye. </p><p>Few knew how difficult it had been to make this popular breakthrough. Disappointed with the sound of the self-produced <i>Steady Diet</i>, the band recorded with legendary engineer Steve Albini, only to scrap the sessions and record at home in D.C. with Ted Niceley, their brilliant, under-known producer. Inadvertently, Fugazi chose an unsure moment to make <i>In on the Kill Taker</i>: as Nirvana and Sonic Youth were yanking the American rock underground into the media glare, and “breaking” punk in every possible meaning of the word. Despite all of this, <i>Kill Taker</i> became an alt-rock classic in spite of itself, even as its defiant, muscular sound stood in stark contrast to everything represented by the mainstreaming of a culture and worldview they held dear. </p><p>This book features new interviews with all four members of Fugazi and members of their creative community.</p>