Out Of The Vaults #8 - Fugazi - Repeater

Each week or so I will ask my wife to dive deep into our CD cabinets (The Vaults) and pull out one of the thousands of  CDs at random. The chosen album will then be given to me and I will  reflect on the disc for awhile in this blog no matter how good, bad, or embarrassing the chosen disc is. Where did I buy it, how old was I,what was my first reaction to hearing the album, do I still listen to it today and anywhere else my stream of conscious takes me in regards to the "Out Of The Vaults" weekly pick.

Out Of The Vaults #8 - Fugazi - Repeater 

When I was in High School I had a bright yellow 1979 Toyota Corolla. On the car's bumper there were two stickers, both black with yellow lettering. The first one read "New Kids Suck", the second said "Fugazi". For years people would ask me at gas stations, in parking lots and even sometimes while driving down Route 29, "What is a 'Fugazi'"?

The first time I ever heard the name Fugazi was on a flier for a show the band was set to play the local Atholton High School when I was 15 years old. Unfortunately it was a year before I bought that yellow car and had no way to get to the show.

The next summer while away at baseball camp in Gettysburg, PA a few of the campers and I slipped away one afternoon to the local town. While there I found an awesome tiny record store. Inside there was a section with punk and hardcore tapes. Among the tapes of Black Flag, The Descendents and other bands I had been listening too there was two cassettes by that band who's name I had seen on the flyer. One was self titled, the other called Margin Walker. I bought both of them. The two tapes were played over and over again during my remaining week at the camp. When I returned home I read the band was ready to release a full album. It's title was Repeater.

On Repeater it is the same sound on those previous two cassettes (now available on on CD as 13 Songs) but it was crisper. Songs like the lead off track "Turnover" and the distorted vocals of the following  title track were perfectly recorded. By the time I reached the instrumental "Brendon #1" at track three Repeater had become my new favorite album. This was even before I reached the loud and anthematic "Merchandise" with it's great chorus of "We owe you nothing. you have no control", two lines a semi-rebellious 16 year old like my self could relate too.

The album also contained a few slower songs in "Blueprint" and "Two Beats Off", each one building with serious intensity. Besides "Merchandise", side two contains two more of my all-time favorite songs in the equally anthematic "Styrofoam" and a rerecording of Margins Walker's "Provisional". This time recorded louder and rechristened "Reprovisional". The anti- domestic violence song "Shut The Door" closes out the perfect album.

But we are not done yet.

Even though the self titled and Margin Walker eps were purchased on cassette my copy of Repeater was on Compact Disc which as a bonus had an earlier 7" called 3 Songs tacked on to the end. On it was the bouncy "Song #1", an instrumental named after the bass player Joe Lally entitled "Joe #1" (the album's "Brendan #1" had been named after the drummer Brendan Canty) and "Break In". All three compliment Repeater perfectly.

The next year I went away to college. When I set up my new dorm room one of the first things to go up was a poster of the cover of Repeater. Soon my new roomate showed up. After we introduced each other  he turned to the poster on the wall and asked, "What's a 'Fugazi'?