38
by Ranxerox_Archive
I bought the first offerings by each of these bands within days of their release. I followed suit with subsequent offerings until I thought that the output flagged. For instance, after Down I never bought another TJL record, and round about IOTKT or Red Med I began to feel Fugazi was hit or miss. Neither sustained the intensity and freshness of their original work, though Fugazi did experiment more successfully on some of their later releases. If innovation within the worlds made by the respective groups is the measure then Fugazi prolly wins by a noticeable but unimpressive margin.
There is, however, no block of production from Fugazi like the spread from Head through Liar. A comparison based on the Highest heights goes to TJL and it is not that close.
I saw these bands live multiple times (TJL about 10 times between '89 and '96, various venues and locales, Fugazi about 6 times between '89 and about '01 (whenever they last played Emo's, which was a great show), various venues and locales). There is no comparison. Fugazi admittedly puts on a great show, but they started well behind TJL and never made a move to reduce the gap. With Fugazi you got to see a great band play with passion while expressing themselves emotionally and intellectually. With TJL you were thrown into an expressionistic maelstrom rife with carnivalesque debauchery, musically-induced vertigos, and not just a little bit of danger. You could expect to bleed or wear someone else's bodily fluids at a TJL show. Sex was in the air, good sex with sweaty bastards. Not so much the case with Fugazi, which, while not fascist, tended to be pedantic or nanny-like. TJL harkened back to Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis. They had THAT kind of rock. Fugazi did not. No comparison.
TJL were better players and their artistry (choice of cover art, for instance) was well beyond Fugazi. By my lights, Fugazi made you want to be a better person, TJL inspired you to be a more interesting person. I prefer the latter, especially as TJL guys are all nice fellas, especially the wee man.
Finally, Fugazi spawned a plethora of lax copycats and mouthy wannabes. TJL were much more difficult to ape, and their progeny are not so annoying as those spawned by Fugazi.
TJL.
Not close.
Fugazi great.
Not close.