Fugazi Launches "Live Archive" Today with Downloads of Over 100 Shows

Who says that you can't go home...Fugazi launched its "Live Archive" site today which has 130 shows available as digital downloads. I spent some time this evening reliving my youth and downloading some the Fugazi shows that I attended in the late 80's and early 90's.

Between 1987 and 2003, Fugazi played over 1000 concerts in all 50 states and all over the world. Over 800 of these shows were recorded by the band's sound engineers. The goal of this project is to make each of these recordings available to download for a small fee. We will start with 130 shows and release more monthly until we're done. A searchable archive lists each show along with available photos, flyers and general show info. Each listing with a download offers a streaming preview of material for sound quality as well as the reading and posting of comments on the show and the recording.

The standard suggested download price is $5 a show but we also offer a sliding scale option where you can set your own price, and an All Access site membership.



As Fugazi is likely never getting back together (I remember years back when kids at some of the record fairs would chase Ian MacKaye around asking when Minor Threat was getting back together), this is probably the only chance one has to re-live one of the defining harDCore bands.

Links:
Fugazi Live Archive

The Antikaroshi - "Crushed Neocon" CD Review (Exile on Mainstream Records)

This disc was mailed to me a few months back and somehow it slipped through the cracks...it is somewhat of a scary thought but it looks like I'm slowly getting caught up with my CD review pile. The next big project is to move off of Blogger and over to a real .com site. I've gotten pretty fed up with the limitations of Blogger and this "No more than 2,000 labels" is the last straw.

Crushed Neocons is the debut CD from The Antikaroshi, who are a fairly new three-piece band hailing from Potsdam, Germany. It is hard to put a label on The Antikaroshi as their music sounds like the bastard child of King Crimson and Fugazi (and, somewhat sadly, it is significantly better than many of the recent King Crimson releases). The band shifts styles (while retaining their prog/art-rock core) across this disc and embrace elements of dub, electronica and indie-rock.

Musically, The Antikaroshi have a lot in common with the 80's line-up of King Crimson. Bassist Ntik starts the disc with some stand-out rolling bass lines that could give Tony Levin a run for his money. Thea lays in some guitar/keys that ranges between 'Adrian Belew-style' syncopation (which falls somewhere between "Elephant Talk" and Belew's work with the Talking Heads) and Robert Fripp's big crushing "Red"-style guitar riffs. Crushed Neocons is musically adventurous and one of the most exciting debut CDs that I've heard in a while.

While there is little doubt that The Antikaroshi aren't George Bush fans (in addition to the CD title, there is a picture on the cover of a man who looks suspiciously like Dick Cheney falling over and holding his heart), the emphasis of this disc is on the music. Guitarist/vocalist Thea has an urgent vocal delivery style that is similar to Ian MacKaye but, unlike Fugazi, the vocals are layered beneath the churning rhythms of the band which makes it difficult to discern any lyrical themes.

The Antikaroshi played their first live show two years ago today and hopefully they will make it over to the States one of these days. While waiting for the band 's US tour dates, you can check out five of the nine tracks from Crushed Neocons which are streaming on The Anikaroshi's MySpace page.

Red Collar Announce Ltd. Edition Vinyl Version of "Pilgrim" + "Used Guitars", Live @ Piano's, NYC 7/14/09

DOWNLOAD: Red Collar - "Pilgrim" (MP3)

Durham, NC alt-rock band Red Collar announced that a limited edition red vinyl pressing of their debut release Pilgrim will be coming out soon on Loose Charm Records.

It looks like there will be 300-500 copies pressed on transparent red vinyl.

"All of them will be hand numbered and on nice, red vinyl. All of the sleeves will be screen-printed. The track order was re-worked to give the album more of a Side A/Side B flow and the first 100 copies will be printed with special metallic silver ink. Due to length we couldn’t fit all 11 songs on one record so every copy will also have a download card for all 11 album tracks plus one bonus cover song that we will post more about soon." -- from Red Collar's blog



Links:
Red Collar's Website

Red Collar - Live Video from Show at Piano's, NYC 7/14/09

DOWNLOAD: Red Collar - "Used Guitars" (MP3)

There is a lot to be said for a band that comes on and hits it as hard as Red Collar did at their show at Piano's. I was expecting the show to be somewhat low-key given the early set time (8PM) but, while the band varied the pace, they didn't slow down in intensity during their 40 minute set. Red Collar drew a good-sized crowd and their set left the enthusiastic crowd hoping for more.

A number of reviewers have compared the band to Fugazi but I couldn't hear the basis for this when listening to the band's debut disc Pilgrim (To my ears, Pilgrim sounds like a cross between the Hold Steady and New Model Army). After seeing the band play live, I can now see where the Fugazi comparison came from. Jason Kutchma and Mike Jackson interlock their guitars with both a style and intensity similar to Fugazi's Guy and Ian.



For more info on the band, there was a detailed piece written up in Durham's IndyWeek.com a few months back.

Red Collar's upcoming tour dates




Links:
Red Collar's Website
Red Collar's MySpace Profile

Middle Class Rut Announce Ltd. Edition 7" (Bright Antenna)

DOWNLOAD: Middle Class Rut - Busy Bein' Born (MP3)

Sacramento's Middle Class Rut has been generating a good bit of buzz in the UK after a series of shows in London at the end of last year. For those who haven't heard the band, UK’s XFM DJ Eddy Temple-Morris described them "as a cross between Janes Addiction and Deftones."

MC Rut is releasing a limited edition, hand numbered 7" on the UK Kids/Bright Antenna label on February 10th. Tracks are “Busy Bein’ Born” and “All Walk of Life”.

Frontman Zach Lopez said "Completely ignoring the current state of music has resulted in us creating the songs that we have. This is not something we intentionally set out to do, but have found that there's less and less to learn from new records, and an endless amount to learn from old undiscovered records. Our songs are an honest reflection of where our lives are at the moment. Combining that with our passion to be on stage is what make up MC RUT."

MC Rut is currently touring the UK and here are their upcoming tour dates:
Jan. 26, 2009, Soul Tree - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Cambridge
Jan. 27, 2009, Audio - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Brighton
Jan. 28, 2009, Barfly - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Cardiff, Wales
Jan. 30, 2009, Cavern - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Exeter
Jan. 31, 2009, Academy 2 - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Birmingham
Feb. 01, 2009, King Tuts - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Glasgow, Scotland
Feb. 02, 2009, The Cockpit - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Leeds
Feb. 03, 2009, Academy 2 - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Newcastle
Feb. 04, 2009, Academy 3 - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, Manchester
Feb. 05, 2009, Islington Academy - with INNERPARTYSYSTEM, London

Links:
Middle Class Rut's MySpace Profile