La Dispute, Failure, Tsunami Bomb, Jonah Matranga and Shai Hulud are among the artists paying their respects to Washington DC post-hardcore godfathers Fugazi on a forthcoming tribute album being released by Scottish indie label Ripcord Records.
A mammoth 43-artist compilation, Silence Is A Dangerous Sound: A Tribute To Fugazi is set for release on October 1, but the album can be pre-ordered right now on Bandcamp: all profits from the collection are going to the Tribe Animal Sanctuary.
To give you a taste of what to expect, we have an exclusive preview of the album in the form of Shai Hulud’s interpretation of Great Cop, which originally appeared on Fugazi’s third full-length album, 1993’s In On The Kill Taker.
“I’ve wanted to cover a Fugazi song for decades,” says guitarist Matt Fox. “In fact, we even started recording a cover of [Repeater album track] Blueprint for a split release we did way back in 1998, but our label at the time told us to scrap it because releasing a Fugazi cover without going through the proper channels could cause problems. We didn’t want problems. And certainly not with Fugazi.
We scrapped the cover.
Fast-forward 20-some-odd years, and through an undetermined amount of pre-sorted red tape (courtesy of Ripcord Records), Shai Hulud found itself tracking a Fugazi cover once again, legally this time, and opting for the song Great Cop instead of Blueprint.
“When looking for songs to cover, ultimately, I like to try to find songs I can put my own spin on without dragging the original through the mud. After contemplating with much uncertainty how Shai Hulud might be able to take on both Facet Squared and Margin Walker, my friend, often collaborator, and drummer of The Darling Fire (who contributed a version of Reclamation to this tribute), Steve Kleisath, suggested we cover Great Cop and everything just clicked. The song has speed and aggression which is a great foundation for us to build upon and ramp up, plus, there was plenty of room for us to make some subtle changes and add some melodic bits to boot. Additionally, the inherent sarcasm of the song made it all the more appealing.“
The full track-list for Silence Is A Dangerous Sound is:
CD ONE
1. Authority Zero - Bad Mouth
2. The Darling Fire - Reclamation
3. Dowsing - KYEO
4. Belvedere - Styrofoam
5. The Last Gang - Blueprint
6. Shai Hulud - Great Cop
7. Crazy Arm - Epic Problem
8. Batteries - Target
9. Teenage Halloween - Reprovisional
10. La Dispute - Strangelight
11. Tsunami Bomb - Walken's Syndrome
12. Taking Meds - Burning
13. USA Nails - Caustic Acrostic
14. Haggard Cat - Life and Limb
15. Direct Hit - Burning Too
16. Pet Symmetry - Public Witness Program
17. Glass Bones - Place Position
18. Chamberlain - Runaway Return
19. Viva Belgrado - Repeater
20. Frauds - Cashout
21. Seas, Starry - Brendan #1
22. Couch Slut - Full Disclosure
CD TWO
1. Failure - Waiting Room
2. Nathan Gray - Bed For The Scraping
3. GILT - No Surprise
4. Swain - The Argument
5. The Hostiles - Turnover
6. This Is Hell - Sieve-Fisted Find
7. Into It. Over It. - Instrument
8. LIFE - And The Same
9. Big Ups - Do You Like Me
10. ZAO - Guilford Fall
11. Jonah Matranga - Suggestion
12. Heart Attack Man - Bulldog Front
13. Sounds Of Swami - Merchandise
14. ST Manville - Long Division
15. Bodega - Provisional
16. Braidedveins - Oh
17. Stormo{O} - Break
18. Wojtek - Fell, Destroyed
19. West Thebarton - Margin Walker
20. Snapped Ankles - Give Me The Cure
21. Before Stories - Dear Justice Letter
In the spirit of punk rock community, Fugazi fans might care to check out La Dispute’s cover of Strangelight (from 2001’s The Argument) on the Brooklyn Vegan site, Couch Slut’s cover of Full Disclosure (also from The Argument) on Stereogum and Into It. Over It. covering Instrument (from In On The Killtaker) on Consequence.
