In on the Kill Taker

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.

In on the Kill Taker
Studio album by
Fugazi
ReleasedJune 30, 1993
RecordedNovember–December 1992
StudioInner Ear Studios, Arlington, Virginia
GenrePost-hardcore[1]
Length42:13
LabelDischord
Producer
Fugazi chronology
Steady Diet of Nothing
(1991)		 In on the Kill Taker
(1993)		 Red Medicine
(1995)

Due in part to the popularity of alternative rock in the early 1990s, In on the Kill Taker became the group's first album to debut on the Billboard charts and subsequently became the band's breakthrough album.[2]

Recording

The band had originally recorded songs in Chicago with producer Steve Albini at Chicago Recording Company studios, with the intention of releasing a two or three song EP. However, the group ended up recording a whole album's worth of material, but were ultimately unhappy with the result and re-recorded the entire album in Washington D.C. at Inner Ear Studios with Don Zientara and Ted Niceley handling production duties. The original recordings from the Chicago sessions have since been bootlegged onto filesharing networks.[3]

Despite the sessions in Chicago not entirely working out, it allowed the band to be well-prepared for what would become the album's proper recording sessions. According to singer/guitarist Guy Picciotto, “I think we really worked much harder on getting the songs together. We did a lot more pre-session demos, not just with Albini, but also using an 8-track reel-to-reel that we had bought to record our practices. It really changed the way we were able to work out the songs. It also helped us school ourselves a bit on how to engineer a basic recording.”[4] The slightly more "polished" sound of the record was an intentional result of Niceley "reacting to what he [had] heard from the popular bands with the same DNA as Fugazi that were getting heavy airplay" at the time.[5]

Music and lyrics

The material on In on the Kill Taker retained the band's aggressive and rhythmic style, but displayed more diversity as well. Fugazi downplayed any conscious efforts to make Kill Taker more experimental or diverse. According to Picciotto “I don’t really think of any of the records as being any more experimental than any of the others, because to us they were all experiments,” he said. “We were just trying to figure stuff out and push ourselves further each time. So to my ear every record sounds like a step forward, or sideways, or at least somewhere else from the one before it.”[4] Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone labelled the album "a virtual encyclopedia of punk-derived musical styles" and recognized a large number of influences from bands such as The Ruts, U.K. Subs (for "Facet Squared" and "Public Witness Program"), Sonic Youth (for "Smallpox Champion"), Gang of Four (for "Cassavetes"), Pylon, "early" R.E.M. (for "Sweet and Low"), and even "the speedy hardcore sound" of MacKaye's former band Minor Threat (for "Great Cop").[6] "23 Beats Off" earned comparisons to an early Wire track "literally stretched and pulled out to nearly seven minutes, [as] MacKaye goes from singing (as best he can) to screaming about a man who was once “at the center of some ticker tape parade,” who turns into “a household name with HIV.”"[5]

Jason Diamond writing for Pitchfork noted that "[l]yrically, it’s also one of the more ambitious albums from the era. While burying any meaning beneath a pile of words like Cobain or bands like Pavement were so fond of doing was certainly du jour, Fugazi liked to mix things up. Picciotto flexed that English degree he got from Georgetown, while MacKaye’s muses were Marx and issues of The Nation."[5] The open-ended lyrics to the opening track "Facet Squared" "could either be about nationalism or the facades people wear when they go out in public [...]".[5] The Picciotto-written "Smallpox Champion" references the genocides perpetrated by the United States' founding fathers against native Americans.[7] The album's lyrics frequently reference films, in particular the song "Cassavetes" which is a tribute to actor/filmmaker John Cassavetes, as well as a critique of Hollywood culture.[8] The song "Walken's Syndrome" references Woody Allen's film Annie Hall, where Christopher Walken's character feels an urge to crash into oncoming traffic at night.[9]

Packaging

Filmmaker Jem Cohen, a long-time friend and collaborator of the band, was responsible for some of the album's art design and packaging. Found pieces of text and photographs were used to make up the overall layout. The cover image, showing a burned-out gold Polaroid of the Washington Monument, was found by Cohen in the street. The inner sleeve was a piece that Jeremy Blake,[10] a friend of the band, found tacked to a light post in Chicago. The text on the cover side margin and back cover were also found on the ground in New York City by Cohen and contained the phrase "...so I could have tried to put a stop to the hater, the adversary workers, iniquity evildoers. This is big because people in high places are in on the kill taker".[4]

Release

Released on the 30th of June, 1993, In on the Kill Taker was the band's first album to enter the Billboard 200, eventually peaking at #153.[11] The album also topped the independent charts of both NME and Melody Maker in the United Kingdom.[12]

Tour & popularity

By the time the In on the Kill Taker tour was underway, the group began to sell-out large auditoriums and arenas, as well as receive more lucrative major label offers. During the band's sold-out 3-night stint at New York City's Roseland Ballroom in September 1993, music mogul and Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegün met with the band backstage in an attempt to sign them. Ertegün offered the band "anything you want," their own subsidiary label and more than $10 million just to sign with Atlantic. Fugazi declined the offer.[13] The organizers of Lollapalooza also attempted to recruit the band for a headlining slot on its 1993 tour, which the band considered but ultimately turned down due to its tickets being priced at $33.[14] An article by The Washington Post published in August that year noted that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love - "rock's couple of the moment" - had attended a show of theirs in Seattle and even met the band afterwards. It also recounted a similar level of interest from Michael Stipe (who "dance[d] the hokey-pokey in the street in front of the Capitol Theatre with Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty") and Eddie Vedder (who wanted to know where MacKaye and Picciotto lived during a tour of Washington D.C.) as well.[12] A retrospective Pitchfork review from 2018 noted that in the article, "In on the Kill Taker isn’t brought up until somewhere near the bottom of the piece. It was almost like saying that you liked or knew them was like a badge of honor, it absolved you of your own sins. The music was eclipsed by the message."[5]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
The Great Rock Discography7/10[15]
Los Angeles Times[16]
MusicHound[17]
Music Story[18]
Pitchfork8.6/10[5]
Q[19]
Rolling Stone[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[20]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[21]

The record garnered rave reviews from many publications including TIME and Rolling Stone.[2] Rolling Stone writer Matt Diehl wrote that Fugazi had reclaimed the "only band that matters" label from The Clash.[6] In a year-end round-up of the best albums of the year, Brad Tyer of The Houston Press included the album and called the band "[t]he beating heart of punk rock."[22]

However, the album received mixed reviews as well. In an otherwise positive review, Jonathan Gold of Los Angeles Times thought that on the album, "Fugazi works in more or less the same meta-pop ballpark as Sonic Youth," and further stated: "Fugazi hasn't a whimsical bone in its collective body, and the lyrics dance around the gloomiest topics in oblique college-poetry metaphor."[16] Spin was even more dismissive, calling it "Fugazi's most rigid and predictable album yet" despite its "spunky moments", and criticized their politics as being didactic.[23]

Legacy

Retrospective reviews

In on the Kill Taker is now widely seen as the band's breakthrough album. Joe Gross, an independent scholar, authored a book about the album as a part of the 33⅓ series of books dedicated to classic & influential albums, published by Continuum in 2018.[24] In its foreword, critic Rob Sheffield called it "a widely misunderstood album from a widely misunderstood band, and yet it's an album that lies right at the heart of their story."[25] Similarly, AllMusic critic Andy Kellman wrote: "It's probably Fugazi's least digestible record from front to back, but each track has its own attractive qualities, even if not immediately perceptible."[9] Writing for The A.V. Club in 2011, Kyle Ryan ranked it the best album of 1993, writing that it "showed Fugazi finding its equilibrium; it wasn’t that the band had outgrown its punk-rock foundation (and the community its members treasured); Fugazi had expanded punk’s palette."[26] In a very positive retrospective review, Jason Diamond writing for Pitchfork compared the impact of the album to Brian Eno's statement regarding The Velvet Underground's first album: "the hundreds of thousands of people who bought In on the Kill Taker or saw the band as they trekked across America, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, that year and beyond, were impacted in some way."[5]

Accolades

Acclaimed Music finds the album to be the 22nd and 259th most acclaimed album of 1993 and of the 90s respectively.[27]

Publication Country Accolade Rank
LAS Magazine US 90 Albums of the 90s 1[27]
Pitchfork US Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s (original) 24[28]
Magnet US 10th Anniversary Issue, Top 60 Albums 1993-2003 35[27]
LA Weekly US Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records 4[29]
Kerrang! UK 100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 81[30]
Terrorizer UK 100 Most Important Albums Of The Nineties -[31]
Rockdelux Spain 300 Best Albums from 1984-2014 191[32]

Influence, covers and tributes

"Public Witness Program" has been covered by Screw 32.[33] It is also the name of a band from Norway.[34] The band Cassavetes took its name from the song of the same name on this album,[35] as did the band Great Cop.[36] Plunderphonics musician Chris Lawhorn used 11 tracks from this album for his album Fugazi Edits.[37][38] Greg Saunier and André de Ridder along with Stargaze "re-composed" the album in its entirety under the title Instruments, which was released on Record Store Day, 2019.[39][40] Daniel P. Carter,[41] Laura Pleasants (Kylesa)[42] and Amen Dunes[43] have all called the album one of their favorites.

Track listing

All songs by Guy Picciotto, Ian MacKaye, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty.

No.TitleLead vocalsLength
1."Facet Squared"MacKaye2:42
2."Public Witness Program"Picciotto2:04
3."Returning the Screw"MacKaye3:13
4."Smallpox Champion"Picciotto4:01
5."Rend It"Picciotto3:48
6."23 Beats Off"MacKaye6:41
7."Sweet and Low" 3:36
8."Cassavetes"Picciotto2:30
9."Great Cop"MacKaye1:52
10."Walken's Syndrome"Picciotto3:18
11."Instrument"MacKaye3:43
12."Last Chance for a Slow Dance"Picciotto4:38

Personnel

Technical

Charts

Album
Year Chart Position
1993 Billboard 200 153[11]
1993 UK Albums Chart 24[44]

References
  1. Pell, Nicholas (July 3, 2012). "Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records". LA Weekly. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  2. Perlah, Jeff. "The Independent". Guitar World. March 2002.
  3. Brace, Eric. "Nightwatch". The Washington Post. August 20th, 1999. Retrieved on January 27, 2009.
  4. Gentry, Brendan. "Secret History: Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker". www.dcist.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2017-09-27.
  5. Diamond, Jason (April 30, 2017). "Fugazi: In on the Kill Taker". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  6. Diehl, Matt (September 30, 1993). "In on the Kill Taker". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  7. Corey Beasley (November 23, 2011). "1, 2, 3, Go: The 10 Best Fugazi Songs". Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  8. Gross 2018, p. 111
  9. Kellman, Andy. "In on the Kill Taker – Fugazi". AllMusic. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  10. Gross 2018, p. 79
  11. "In on the Kill Taker - Fugazi". Billboard. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  12. Brace, Eric (August 1, 1993). "PUNK LIVES! WASHINGTON'S FUGAZI CLAIMS IT'S JUST A BAND. SO WHY DO SO MANY KIDS THINK IT'S GOD?" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  13. Freidman 2007, p. 52
  14. Norman 1993
  15. Martin C. Strong (1998). The Great Rock Discography (1st ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN 978-0-86241-827-4.
  16. Gold, Jonathan (July 25, 1993). "PC Punkers Take Opposite Tacks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  17. Gary Graff, ed. (1996). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (1st ed.). London: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-0-7876-1037-1.
  18. "In On the Kill Taker". Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  19. "Fugazi: In on the Kill Taker". Q (83): 92. August 1993.
  20. Wolk 2004, pp. 315–16.
  21. Weisband, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Minutemen". Spin Alternative Record Guide (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  22. Tyer, Brad (December 23, 1993). "End Game". Houston Press.
  23. LLC, SPIN Media (September 21, 1993). "SPIN". SPIN Media LLC – via Google Books.
  24. "Music & Sound Studies Catalogue 2018-2019". Issuu.
  25. Gross, Joe (May 19, 2018). Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781501321412 – via Google Books.
  26. "1993". Music.
  27. "Acclaimed Music". www.acclaimedmusic.net. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  28. "Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s [1999] | Book awards | LibraryThing". www.librarything.com. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  29. Pell, Nicholas (July 3, 2012). "Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records". LA Weekly. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  30. "Rocklist.net...Kerrang! Page 2..." www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  31. "Rocklist.net....Terrorizer Magazine..." www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  32. "Música en la mochila » Blog Archive » Mejores discos durante los 30 años de Rockdelux (1984-2014)". Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  33. "Various Artists: Everybody Wants Somewhere: A Tribute To Fugazi". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  34. "Demo 2014, by Public Witness Program". Public Witness Program. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  35. "The spirit of Fugazi is alive in Philly's Cassavetes and Split Red". The Key. 2014-08-23. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  36. "The Dismemberment Plan / Great Cop, Stereo, 28 November | Gig Review | The Skinny". www.theskinny.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  37. Raymer, Miles. "12 O'Clock Track: Chris Lawhorn, "Floating Boy / Rend It / Downed City / Argument"". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  38. "Chris Lawhorn - Fugazi Edits". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  39. RSD '19 Special Release: Stargaze & Greg Saunier - Instruments [A Track By Track Re-Composition of Fugazi's In On The Killtaker], retrieved 2019-03-08
  40. "Stargaze - Instruments [A Track By Track Re-Composition of Fugazi's 'In On The Killtaker']". Rough Trade. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  41. Andrew Kelham (March 31, 2009). "TOP FIVE: DISCHORD RECORDS". Retrieved April 22, 2020. Ok, I first bought 'Margin Walker' and that was it for me. Fugazi fan for life. Although my favourite album by them changes regularly, I still find that 'In On The Kill Taker' comes round as the one I listen to most often. I think it's their most aggressive album and it really hits home with me. I bought it on cassette and vinyl the day it came out so that I could listen to it on the way home on my walkman. Don't laugh.
  42. Fury, Jeanne (October 13, 2010). "5 Albums That Remind Me of High School by Laura Pleasants (Kylesa)". Decibel. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  43. Arackal, Abhilash (May 22, 2018). "From Dylan to Fugazi: Amen Dunes about the records that left a mark". Nothing but Hope and Passion. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  44. "Fugazi Albums". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 23, 2012.

Bibliography
  • Freidman, Glen E. (2007). Keep Your Eyes Open. New York: Burning Flags Press. ISBN 978-0-9641916-8-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Gross, Joe (2018), In on the Kill Taker, New York/London: Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN 978-1-5013-2139-9
  • Norman, Tony (1993). "The band that won't sell out: Fugazi still plays by its own rules". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Wolk, Douglas (2004). "Fugazi". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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