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Who shaped them

Fugazi

Fugazi

Since 1986 · United States

Fugazi formed in Washington, DC in 1986 when Ian MacKaye, formerly of Minor Threat, joined with Joe Lally and two former members of Rites of Spring, Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty, to build something more dynamic and dub-influenced than the hardcore scene MacKaye had helped invent. Their story

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Who they shaped

Behind them, left to right: The Jesus Lizard.

In front, left to right: Mary Timony, Refused, Blur, La Dispute, Cap'n Jazz, Brand New, Sunny Day Real Estate, Drive Like Jehu, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Get Up Kids, American Football, At The Drive-In. And 6 more: Elliott Smith, Modest Mouse, Far Apart, Bon Iver, Interpol, The Dismemberment Plan.

Not in the photo: . Often assumed; they've said no.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Repeater cover

Start here

Repeater (1990)

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Fugazi's first full-length distilled Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto's dual-vocal, dub-inflected post-hardcore into a manifesto for both the sound and the band's DIY ethics. 'Merchandise' turns anti-consumerist anger into one of the tightest, most controlled songs in the catalog, alternating clenched verses with an explosive chorus. The interplay between MacKaye's rhythm guitar and Picciotto's lead lines already sounds like a conversation rather than an arrangement. It set the template — musically and ethically — for the DC scene's next decade and for post-hardcore far beyond it.

Sleeve notes

Fugazi

Repeater · 1990

Fugazi formed in Washington, DC in 1986 when Ian MacKaye, formerly of Minor Threat, joined with Joe Lally and two former members of Rites of Spring, Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty, to build something more dynamic and dub-influenced than the hardcore scene MacKaye had helped invent. The band's DIY ethics were as central to its identity as its music: five-dollar all-ages shows, no t-shirt price-gouging, refusal of every major-label offer, and a fierce insistence on operating entirely through MacKaye's own label, Dischord Records.

Repeater (1990), their first full-length after a run of early EPs, distilled MacKaye and Picciotto's alternating, conversational vocals and guitars into a genuine manifesto — "Merchandise" turned anti-consumerist anger into one of the tightest songs in the catalog. Steady Diet of Nothing (1991), In on the Kill Taker (1993), and Red Medicine (1995) kept pushing the sound in more exploratory directions before the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2003. Fugazi's influence on post-hardcore and on the possibility of running a serious touring band entirely outside the music industry's normal terms remains foundational.

Since 1986 · United States

Played at

DC Hardcore

Washington DC · 1980–1993

On the bill

MacKaye's band after Minor Threat, formed with Rites of Spring's Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty and carrying Bad Brains' influence forward as the label's longest-running and most enduring act.

The whole scene