From time to time, I receive random "friend requests" on MySpace. Usually it's some band that I don't know who is trying to build up their friends list. While I haven't done this myself, I believe these bands find possible "friends" by searching via musical preferences and pick any/all persons that fit their criteria. Since I want people on my friends list to be people I actually know (or may know through another friend), I usually click 'deny' with these kinds of requests. Well, yesterday I received a friend request from Bring Back Fugazi. Technically, this profile isn't a band or a random person, this profile is set up to, in the words of the mission statement:
The purpose of this is for people to express their complete dissapointment [sic] and devastation during this interim period (which may or may not be permanent) in which Fugazi doesn't exist. For those of us who know, when you see a band like Fugazi they have the potential to degrade almost every other show going experience to negligible (including The Evens, which is of course not a substitute, and was not intended to be). So post your comments, explain how you want them back, how you NEED them at least one more time.
OK, as much as we would like to think we're stockholders with a band because we're fans, we're not. As much as we think that we're raising "awareness," this is not a good move. This is more annoying than good. Ian MacKaye has stated many times about why Fugazi is on hiatus: they're taking care of family members (young and old) and there is a desire to do other things (musical and otherwise). He has never said that Fugazi was finished and I doubt that the band will ever be finished as long as Guy, Ian, Brendan and Joe are alive. They may not be playing together any time soon but when the band's ties are stronger than musical interests, this throws people for a loop.
I'm not holding my breath for a Fugazi "reunion," but if I ever want to hear/view them, I turn to my records/movies collection. Now that Dischord has been remastering their back catalog, I enjoy Fugazi's stuff even more because I can hear more than the previous CD versions. There's something really cool about hearing all the sounds on a remastered version rather than some of them. Dischord is honoring their releases with remastering and I think it's great.
When you play in a band, you never know how long you're going to be together. If you have songs that you want to commit to tape, do your best to represent them when you record them. Whether you like them or not, when you record them and put them out, you are preserving your material for the future. Yes, I hear the "duh" factor too with that last statement but when I see something like Bring Back Fugazi, I don't think I can say it enough.
The purpose of this is for people to express their complete dissapointment [sic] and devastation during this interim period (which may or may not be permanent) in which Fugazi doesn't exist. For those of us who know, when you see a band like Fugazi they have the potential to degrade almost every other show going experience to negligible (including The Evens, which is of course not a substitute, and was not intended to be). So post your comments, explain how you want them back, how you NEED them at least one more time.
OK, as much as we would like to think we're stockholders with a band because we're fans, we're not. As much as we think that we're raising "awareness," this is not a good move. This is more annoying than good. Ian MacKaye has stated many times about why Fugazi is on hiatus: they're taking care of family members (young and old) and there is a desire to do other things (musical and otherwise). He has never said that Fugazi was finished and I doubt that the band will ever be finished as long as Guy, Ian, Brendan and Joe are alive. They may not be playing together any time soon but when the band's ties are stronger than musical interests, this throws people for a loop.
I'm not holding my breath for a Fugazi "reunion," but if I ever want to hear/view them, I turn to my records/movies collection. Now that Dischord has been remastering their back catalog, I enjoy Fugazi's stuff even more because I can hear more than the previous CD versions. There's something really cool about hearing all the sounds on a remastered version rather than some of them. Dischord is honoring their releases with remastering and I think it's great.
When you play in a band, you never know how long you're going to be together. If you have songs that you want to commit to tape, do your best to represent them when you record them. Whether you like them or not, when you record them and put them out, you are preserving your material for the future. Yes, I hear the "duh" factor too with that last statement but when I see something like Bring Back Fugazi, I don't think I can say it enough.
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Think about that next time you're feeling the nerves. Ive never been nervous since.