23 Beats Off

Fugazi
In On the Kill Taker

I tried so hard to count the beats in this one to figure out where, exactly, it was 23 beats off. I figured that maybe it was at the end of the song where the feedback comes and the only "normal" music sound you hear is the snare. That's not it. So, for years, I figured the title came from "lazy band syndrome" where they just rearranged a previous title. Here, it would have been Two Beats Off from Repeater.

Then the interwebs came along. And I ignored it. Then the tubes got bigger, and I got an email address. Soon, the "net" was all encompassing, and even noted technophobic bands who all live in a house without electricity and eat only raw rice had their own websites. So did Fugazi. Every band that had ever sold more than 200 records also had a tribute site. It was here that I found a page where fans could give their interpretations of Fugazi's obtuse lyrics. Here I saw, for the first time, the Holy Grail of interpretations.

Y'see, Ian was talking about Magic Johnson (heh, it's a johnson that's magic) contracting AIDS, ostensibly from putting his peener in an infected roadwhore. Michael Jordan, number 23 himself, kept away from the hoo-ers by beating off in his hotel room while on the road. Get it? Further, it was consensus opinion on the site that this was correct.

The lyrics in question:
a name
i recognize that name
it was at the center of some ticker tape parade the lead story,
a fine example
a name,
a name
a name i recognize that name
it was at the center of some magnifying glass the lead story,
a fine example
a name,
a name
he used to pretend he was fighting some war somewhere
now everything depends on fighting some war
he never thought he'd be an exclamation point
a demonstration of his disease
a punctuation mark
a household name with hiv
still, it's just still sound
Yeah, I see that.


Okay, given the timing, I can buy the whole Magic Johnson (heh) angle, but I don't get the Jordan angle. Sure, 23 is his number, but so what? It also belonged to John Williamson, who's dead now. Why can't it be about him? Hell, JW had even had his number retired by this point. This could go on, but I'll end here with a little bit of posturing. Learn the lyrics, sure, but leave the interpretation alone. 'Cuz when you're wrong, you ruin it for everybody and lend the Colbert air of truthiness to the proceedings.


Bonus fun factoid from Wikipedia: IOTKT was the first Fugazi album to chart on Billboard, at 153.

Re-Enact the Crime

Unwound
The Future of What

At least they didn't misspell their own name on the spine of this disc.
After a few days off for bizness and general laziness, I'm back with more fun.

Unwound always had, to me at least, a reputation of being a difficult band. Perhaps this stemmed from them being oddly miscast from the start. The story goes like this: Sonic Youth comes along, does their thing; Fugazi comes next, are misinterpreted as "new Sonic Youth" before music critics get a clue; Unwound shows up on scene, are first called "new Sonic Youth", then, as they release more albums, are called perfect mashup of Fugazi and Sonic Youth; Sonic Youth comparisons go away when Blonde Redhead start releasing discs. Being miscast from the start, the band, which apparently was never really into the whole idea of being accessible, became notoriously prickly. My closest thing to an anecdote I can offer is this- Hit It Or Quit It, one of the great 'zines of the Indie Revolution (such as it was), wanted to interview the band. Unwound agreed to answer questions by fax, and did so exclusively with non-sequitors and crude (but not rude) drawings. Poor Jessica Hopper could not get a straight answer. This is as accessible as they got. As much as any band ever, Unwound just wanted their music to speak for itself.

All of which begs the question-- why? Sure, they eventually grew into releasing great albums (Leaves Turn... and Repetition come to mind), but early releases were hit and miss. This track qualifies as a miss. Hell, most of The Future of What is so bland, it could be unassuming background music at the punk rock Gap. It could be my fault as a listener, of course. This was never an album that got much play. But, in my defense, when you collect music, it's hard to give something initially bland a second try. You could interpret this project as a series of second chances. As such, this song has failed.