i hate the sound of guitars

So, yeah, Fugazi Live Series.
Joe Gross’s write up in Spin seemed like a reasonable starting point, but I’m going to go a lot deeper, and I’ll update this post with the results of my explorations.
001 1987.09.03 Washington DC, USA, Wilson Center
I’m going to go against conventional wisdom and say that the band’s first gig is [...]

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Department of cheap shots: Does this sound more like Joy Division circa Closer, or like New Order circa Movement? Okay, I’ll concede some Chameleons UK in the mix, too. But the album cover sure screams “Factory!”:

vs., for instance:

p.s. It’s not bad. Just shameless. And the album cover tends to make me discount the “these folks [...]

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New Order would decidely have struck me as a useful point of reference for Idle Labor even if the cover art didn’t recall Power, Corruption & Lies. As it is, I’m wondering if they want to get threatening letters from some lawyer. Craft Spells’ flowers are less gloomy, of course, and so is their music. [...]

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Sounds like Joy Division for once not because of a gloomy baritone voice, but because bass and guitar parts recall Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner. Also sounds a bit like the instruments were at one of a tunnel, and the recording equipment was at the other. Some of this is hooky and/or pretty enough to [...]

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Bands that basically sound like Mogwai are practically their own genre by now, so presumably you have an opinion on the master template. Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will offers few surprises (and certainly nothing I’d call hardcore). “San Pedro” and “George Square Thatcher Death Party” flirt with conventional rock tempos and drum strucutres; [...]

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The groupthink consensus on Content seems to be something like “not bad, but not as good as Entertainment!*” This seems fundamentally unfair; I think a better question is, “is it as good as Mall** or Shrinkwrapped***?” Content leaves Mall cringing in the gutter, and while Shrinkwrapped had some lovely unruly moments from guitarist Andy Gill, [...]

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