Remember when you first heard Fugazi’s Red Medicine and got to “Fell, Destroyed” and thought to yourself, “This doesn’t sound like Ian or Guy. Who’s the guest vocalist?” And you looked at the liner notes to see that it was bassist Joe Lally. Wow. Like me, you’d probably never heard him sing, but he was pretty good. Well, a solo Joe Lally album is pretty similar to that song in many regards. It’s as if the rest of Fugazi said, “Hey Joe, we’re really busy with some other shit. Can you write and arrange all the music for the next album and write the lyrics and we’ll play whatever you decide to set up? This other shit we’re involved with has just got to get done.” “I don’t know guys. That seems like you’re asking for a lot.” “Um, well, how about we’ll let you sing all the songs.” “I’m in!” That may seem like an exaggeration, but it’s not too far from the truth. The music (it’s not like he went R&B or reggae) sounds very similar to Fugazi’s mellower stuff on the last few albums. Ian and Guy even play guitar on a number of songs. What’s wrong, Brendan? You too busy for the pseudo-reunion?
–kurt (Dischord)