Jumping right in today. 40+ hours of on-the-job training’s got me cooked, but something happened today and we’re just gonna kick off with that.

Submissions: PO Box 25717 Chicago IL 60625 USA // [email protected], don’t hold back

FUGAZI Albini Sessions DL (Dischord)

Official, complete surprise release of a grail: a rejected recording session of In on the Kill Taker recorded by Steve Albini in 1992. The idea of this was always going to fade against what transpired (band and engineer both agreed to pass, as it lacks the dynamics of the finished version, too detailed and too exsanguinated for what we know this record to be). Fugazi did not need to sound like a Pegboy record, and everyone involved understood – if there’s one thing they never were, it was dry. If anything this set the pace for them to complete the record we know and enjoy.

I’m done splitting hairs, though. For starters, this was released on a Bandcamp Friday as a benefit for Heather Whinna’s Letters Charity, which she and Steve started long ago, and which gives direct, material support to some of America’s poorest families (currently fundraising for East Oakland, and in 2025 for Chicago and victims of the Altadena fires). Buy a copy for that reason alone, and do it today.

If you’re a fan – and Kill Taker is my favorite record of theirs, we’re not arguing here – you know you need to hear this; it’s been talked about forever, and of course Steve finds elements of Fugazi’s sound, like real guitar separation to hear exactly how crazed Ian gets in some of his guitar parts. Believing in Fugazi means loving this record and jumping at the chance to listen in a different way.

Steve and the members of Shellac believed in Fugazi and it was reciprocated. Fugazi was playing shows in Pittsburgh the same night at the end of September 1995 when I brought Shellac to a big outdoor tent in my college, and Ian asked very intently what they’d need to do to get a show there, as if they regretted paying a room fee and could’ve just set the university on fire instead. We made the Fugazi gig happen, at last, in 1998, and Ian took the door and handed my college radio station all of the presales, effectively canceling the debt we’d gone into with student government to build out our new antenna and transmitter. One week later I saw Fugazi play with Shellac, on my first visit to Chicago at the decrepit Congress Theater (which, breath be held, is being renovated for real this time), and I know that pairing happened more than once. Real recognized real over that week, just as it did when they made this recording. Everything about these events signified change, completion, growth, missions met.

This release does all that again. It cements a legacy for both Steve’s life and work, and the very existence of Fugazi, who are deeply missed as an active performing unit, and who have not been equaled either in sound or stance since their demise over two decades ago. This being out there likely means that a lot of you listened to other Fugazi records today. Merely the notion of there being new, unheard studio product from these guys signals that, even if done, they are collectively all still out there, doing good and raising awareness. The world has been a dogshit mess since they ended it, and with this (and all their live releases) they are still making a difference. Maybe never more so than now. This one gives hope and does more than most records can do. Figure out which side you’re on.

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Go on and subscribe to Heathen D to read the rest, plus all of the reviews in the archive. Yes I gotta fix that top 6 thing; Beehiiv took the interface out of the publishing workflow so it’s stuck there. Whole damn page needs a design refresh when I get a moment!