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Guitars are CRUNCHIER.
Bass not as defined as they're known to sound to my ear.
It's a different sound for them for sure, but not in a bad way. Brighter. Like they recorded with fenders rather than the parks and marshalls.

the thing about this is how fucking good the performances are to my ears. I always marveled when I saw them live how fucking tight they were......this is more evidence of that and part of what made them so important for me. A friend of mine once said when you think of Fugazi, most think of Ian, Guy and the other 2 guys, and holy shit is that misguided. That foundation Joe and Brenden give....damn. A clinic.

Imma listen to the Argument now cuz it's been forever.

The important thing to keep in mind is this isn’t a lost album, it’s a demo session that got out of hand. From memory the original plan was to demo a few tracks in anticipation of doing an album. But they were having such a good time they just kept the tape rolling.

Yeah that's what makes the performances all that more impressive. They pulled this shit off half unprepared.

I don't remember the last time I heard Killtaker (I'm a Red Medicine, End Hits, The Argument guy (ha)), but this fresh listen has been super great after maybe 20 years away. Yeah, the vocals are low which is a touch of a drag, but my whole damn feed has been Fugazi and Steve all goddamn day, and I'm very happy about it. Thanks, gents. What a cool and wonderful thing to do.

Frankie99 wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2026 2:35 pm That foundation Joe and Brenden give....damn. A clinic.

agreed. excellent.

Gramsci wrote: The important thing to keep in mind is this isn’t a lost album, it’s a demo session that got out of hand. From memory the original plan was to demo a few tracks in anticipation of doing an album. But they were having such a good time they just kept the tape rolling.

yes. the fact that they even ended up with anything in the running to be an album is cool, and i would imagine it made In on the Killtaker better than it mighta been otherwise.

Really enjoying it, no surprise since it's all the excellent songwriting on the final version of In on the Kill Taker is there. It sounds a bit more like a Peel Session than anything else, which is great in itself but I can see why Fugazi went to re-record the album.

Bought! LIKE THE ARTWORK! Will listen in depth soon enough.

Glad they did a proper new transfer and mastering of the tapes.

Killtaker is my favourite Fugazi album by a long stretch. It’s kind of “family lore” for me. I remember being in our indie record store with my best friend flipping through the “American Imports” CDs section and we bought it on a whim. The cover was cool and we’d vaguely heard of them. It literally opened massive doors for me. Most of my listening was fairly standard “alternative rock” of the era but this was something entirely different. I’ve heard the crappy leaked versions. This collection is vastly better quality. I doubt we’ll ever see this on vinyl which is a shame. But beggars can’t be choosers.

One thing I noticed is Ian’s songs work much better in this session than Guy’s.

Glorious.

There's a great episode of the Alphabetical Fugazi podcast that Steve was on where he goes into a lot of detail on the recording and how that session went:

https://the-alphabetical-fugazi.pinecas ... eve-albini

Ohhhhhh.. thank you for this.

Needed some sort of exciting, positive thing to happen with all the shit going on lately.