In on the Kill Taker by Joe Gross
Rob Gross's In on the Kill Taker is a great
entry into the 33 1/3 series, one focused on a somewhat under-documented band. I
think that Fugazi and Minor Threat were a part of Our Band Could be Your
Life, and in college, I loved the Instrument documentary by Jem
Cohen. However, that film didn’t give the kind of narrative that this book
provides, detailing Fugazi at the height of their powers. As I was reading this
book, I couldn’t believe that it has been over 20 years since their last album,
2001’s The Argument. This album has always been one of my favorites, and
reading about the creation and meaning behind the songs brought me back a few
years. Beyond the creation of the album, I really loved learning about Fugazi’s
creative process, which I don’t remember being a part of the Our Band
book. I knew that they practiced a lot, but I didn’t know that the band kind of
pre-recorded songs and brought them to practice to gain insight and feedback
from others—to co-create or collaborate. I loved reading about this process,
finding it fascinating to learn more about how they worked together to
construct the lyrics and music for their songs. It also reminded me of some of
the better places where I worked, where as part of a team, I was expected to
bring something to the table to work on with others. Reading this book made me
really mis Fugazi. They were such a great blend of musical styles, ideas, and
protest. It also made me relisten to a lot of their albums, not just this one,
although this one has some classic hype songs to listen to.
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