In on the Kill Taker

33⅓ Main Series #129

by Joe Gross

By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi released their third full-length album In on the Kill Taker, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD 13 songs) and two albums (1990's genre-defining Repeater and 1991's impressionistic follow-up Steady Diet of Nothing) inside of five years, Fugazi was on creative roll, astounding increasingly large audiences as they toured, blasting fist-pumping anthems and jammy noise-workouts that roared into every open underground heart. When the album debuted on the now-SoundScan-driven charts, Fugazi had never been more in the public eye.



Few knew how difficult it had been to make this popular breakthrough. Disappointed with the sound of the self-produced Steady Diet, the band recorded with legendary engineer Steve Albini, only to scrap the sessions and record at home in D.C. with Ted Niceley, their brilliant, under-known producer. Inadvertently, Fugazi chose an unsure moment to make In on the Kill Taker: as Nirvana and Sonic Youth were yanking the American rock underground into the media glare, and "breaking" punk in every possible meaning of the word. Despite all of this, Kill Taker became an alt-rock classic in spite of itself, even as its defiant, muscular sound stood in stark contrast to everything represented by the mainstreaming of a culture and worldview they held dear.

This book features new interviews with all four members of Fugazi and members of their creative community.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2018

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read - would have rated it more highly if it hadn't been so appallingly copyedited.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this a ton, and some of the history and particularly interview excerpts from the band helped me find ways in to this album. But some of the analysis was a little surface level and, much more egregiously, I think this was the most poorly edited book I’ve ever read - probably at least one or two misspellings or typos on every page, INCLUDING misspelling Ian MacKaye’s last name 3x and referring to his band The Evens as “The Evans.” Come on man. I’m so on board for the 33 1/3 mission of elevating albums like this as deserving of critical/analytical attention, but the lack of even basic copy editing is a bummer and doesn’t help the cause.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

First the negatives. There are quite a few typos in this book, missing words, etc. Sloppy. The writing isn't horrible, but it isn't polished. There are some sentences that are just plain poorly and confusingly constructed. Not sure if an editor ever looked at this.

The positives: It's about Fugazi. Great stories. Great work getting in and talking to the band, and great job researching the history of the band and the songs. The enthusiasm of the author easily overcomes the sloppy editing. A real pleasure for a Fugazi fan to read.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read about the last great Fugazi album. Lots of good info regarding the writing and recording of each song on the album.

[Richard Ladew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book about my favorite Fugazi album.

[Jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book if you love Fugazi. The more you love them, the more solid it will be. Was definitely an interesting read and cool to own this vinyl and the book about it.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Passively had this on my coffee table for a while and finally read today. Definitely a lot of stories I had heard before the Instrument documentary but some new stuff as well. Easy, enjoyable read.

[Dave Gomes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other reviews I have seen, the content, tone, and enthusiasm for the subject matter are great. I did enjoy the anecdotes and the song-by-song breakdown. The complete lack of proofreading was very disappointing, however. A revised edition is highly recommended to take this book from a 2 star to a 4 star.

[Butch Lazorchak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of nice details, makes me want to take a deep dive into the record.

[Alemitrani · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and enjoyable book about an important album by a great band. It features interviews with all four band members and other relevant people who worked with or knew the band. It is fun to read and includes links, citations, and a reference list at the end. While the book is focussed on In On the Killtaker, it also includes sections on what happened before and after that album, plus comments on key Fugazi concerts, related bands and albums. The author is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject matter and it shows. I read the Kindle edition which unfortunately had many typos and errors, several on most pages. This detracted somewhat from what would otherwise have been a perfectly enjoyable experience. This book contains a lot of good material which deserves better proofreading and editing, which hopefully will be done for a future edition. It is still worth reading, especially if you are a fan of the band. The typos will be forgotten but some of the highlights of this book will be memorable. Recommended.

[Luka Pajković · Rating 5 out of 5]

Možda i najbolja knjiga u 33 1/3 seriji koju sam do sad pročitao, unatoč dosta šlampavom pisanju. Da, skoro svaka stranica ima neki typo il recikliranu rečenicu, ali mislim da je to dosta zanemarivo zbog kvalitete sadržaja. Osim što je autor uspio sakupit članove benda za intervju kao i neke ljude usko povezane s bendom, on je i pregledao masivnu arhivu live nastupa Fugazija do te mjere da je očito da čovik voli bend više od svega. Ali ipak, pisanje je dosta objektivno i Gross jasno iznosi povijest benda do albuma, povijest pjesama i njihov utjecaj na kasniji stadij benda i njihovih nastupa. Fora je što je cili dio knjige koji se bavi točno albumom podijeljen po pjesmama, pogotovo jer se uz komentare članova Fugazija može doć do nekih novih saznanja i više cijenit album ko takav. A to je ono što sam najviše izvukao iz čitanja, puno više cijenim album nakon dubljeg uvida u priču oko njega.

4.5 -5/5

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fugazi's third album, In on the Kill Taker is a great great album! Here Fugazi managed to replicate their raw punk sound AND experiment with different genres, thus escaping the emo tag they are known for, still saying that the political edge that comes attached to the band is still there and in full force. ..Kill Taker also has a bit of a back story as it was originally recorded by Steve Albini but both band and producer didn't like the end result.

Joe Gross take on this album is more or less the traditional 33 1/3 treatment. He gives some backstory of the band including the founding of Dischord records, the actual genesis of the album and then a track by track analysis and then what the band members are doing now (as of 2018 Fugazi have entered their 15th year of being in a hiatus)

A good, solid read that will please the long time Fugazi fans and attract some new ones.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Steve Albini's death, my close friend who was the bassist in my highschool punk band texted me a youtube link for the Albini mix of In on the Kill Taker. Music mattered to us a lot in the 90s and the aughts and few if any bands mattered more than Fugazi. I needed to know why they scrapped those recordings so I walked over to the library and picked up this little gem.

I got a whole chapter on the Albini demo. A lot of people seem to complain about some spelling and grammatical errors that slipped by editing, but I wasn't bothered. It's a fun and interesting read. Gross lets the band tell most of the story which is really special because they're principled and thoughtful and funny! The book is a blessed excuse to listen to this album deeply for a few days, which is one of the coolest things about the 33 1/3 series.

[tgreenan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great interviews and interesting historical context on an important band that hasn’t been written about enough, but just at a personal level I didn’t vibe with it much. 2 stars maybe a bit harsh but 3 would be too generous.

The author keeps putting in his view of which songs are good or bad - don’t care, especially about the critical stuff (which I largely disagreed with). Song by song breakdowns - generally good on the lyrics which I have always found obscure, but middling on the music. Sometimes good but the description of chord changes etc I could have done without. And as everyone else has noted, the copy editing is atrocious, probably the worst I’ve ever seen. Typos, and even more annoyingly quite a few confusing sentences.

Worth reading if you are a fan of the band as there’s lots of interesting stuff, but it may annoy you.

[Maud · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t give anything Fugazi related less than 4 stars. This is maybe 3.5. Some great info collected and a lot of work done by someone who is obviously a fan but mostly the bands own words. Maybe a little more synthesis could have been cool, i dunno. My main problem with the book is that it is REALLY Badly edited including repeated sentences and ideas (not in a good way) that I thought MIGHT have been intentional but I think were not (and made the one chapter of numbered paragraphs seem not intentional when it was....) AND some major typos including misspellings of like band members’ names.
OTHERWISE a great, fun book. A song by song breakdown which is nerdy and cute. I kept listening to the songs while reading their respective chapters. Recommended yeah

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the Drive-By Truckers to... Fugazi? Yeah, that's how my music collection works too. Anyway, this might be among my favorites of this entire series, mostly because Gross does a fantastic job writing about a very difficult to write about album from a very difficult to write about band. Fugazi exists almost as more anecdote and legend than mere band at this point, but Gross does a good job of placing them into context and framing this particular record. A lot of writers could have just rested on having the interview with all the members and those in their circle, but Gross puts in a lot of hard work outside of that. Highly recommended as a great example of why this series is so fantastic.

[Winslow Condon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read, and definitely worthwhile if you're already a Fugazi fan, which is where I'm coming from. At its best, this book reads like a convivial conversation, with insightful interviews of band members, producers, and others; at its worst (perhaps fittingly), it's like reading a poorly-crafted zine, with numerous typos, and lots of painfully lame prose. Whereas the best entries in the 33 1/3 series are exciting portals of discovery for those not yet familiar with an album, I would really only recommend Gross' "In on the Kill Taker" for established Fugazi fans.

[Vanyo666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise is to contextualize and situate this album in its context of the post-grunge revolution and how it made Fugazi suddendly popular (not mainstream, but close). The format is mainly a very long interview with the band, contemporary reviews and articles, and a little of what went before and what came after in their career.

I came here for the story of the failed Albini collaboration and it seems what happened is that the guys just had too much fun together (because they were not the piss-and-vinegar curmudgeons they are usually made out to be) and that conspired against good work.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Fugazi, I love the 33 1/3 books, and I love this one most of all. I’ve always thought The Argument is their best album, partly because it’s the only one I properly experienced contemporaneously, but mostly because, well, listen to it. But I must’ve spun Kill Taker 10 or 12 times while reading this book, which is a delight - man, does Joe Gross dig Fugazi - and I have definitely under-appreciated it. What a record. What a book.

(It could definitely have done with a proofreader though. Referring to Ian’s band with his wife, The Evans, made me laugh out loud.)

[Cobertizo · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Cuando mi antigua banda llegó a su fin perdí los papeles y me encontré en un callejón sin salida. Esos tipos me ofrecieron un espacio en la banda. La idea era que yo anduviera a mi aire, en plan rol Flavor Flav, poniendo coros y jodiendo sobre el escenario. Fugazi comenzó como un concepto muy abierto, todo tipo de gente podía salir a escena con ellos a tocar la trompeta, a bailar o tocar la batería"

Guy Picciotto

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better books of the series, assuredly. It's part a revisiting of the era, but also part Please Kill Me, splicing interview segments from the band members into the telling and detailing of the album. To me, this is what the series should be about...I don't need tangents, I want to skinny on the record...but hey, that's just my two cents. This one is on point from start to finish, thus, I give it a 5!

[Scott Butki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have now read about 10 of these 33 1/3 books including Meat Is Murder (the worst of the books I have read), the ones for DJ Shadow, The Replacements' Let It Be, Aphex Twins, etc. This is one of my favorites. I love a book with a good track-by-track analysis and this one gets bonus points because not only did the author interview the band but she got them to talk about each individual song.

This is an excellent work.

[Jake Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meticulously researched and lovingly written portrait of a band, an album and an entire music scene- all in less than 200 pages.
I knew nothing but the bare bones about Fugazi, and this is a good book for fans of the band and neophytes alike.
I learned a lot and it was clearly fun for Joe to write.
A few typos here and there, but that adds to the publishing, IMO.

[Brendan Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about the history of one of the better albums from my favorite band ever. All the members of the band participated and it gave me a newfound love for an album that I already loved a lot. Now if only someone would write a 33 1/3 book about every single Fugazi album I could die happy.

[Mike Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently came into possession of about a dozen books from this series. As many people have noted, there are an astonishing number of typos and a few minor factual errors - possibly averaging one per page.
Still, a decent insight into the creation of a classic album
I'm looking forward to reading more of these, assuming the others have been proofread prior to publication.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better books in the series. An excellent survey of the band, the album, the independent label scene, and what it was like in 1993 when Fugazi released this masterpiece.

Only nit about the book - the typos. Could have used another round of edits.

[Shaun Westphal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes a lot of great information about the band and the record that I had not heard before. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn’t so full of errors. It’s hard to believe someone got paid to edit this thing.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always good to spend time in Fugaziworld, and this is a fine account of the Killtaker album, with plenty of input from the band themselves. It’s let down by an appalling proofreading job, with spelling mistakes and printing errors all over the place, but the core content is strong.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the 33 1/ series and this might be my favorite out of those I've read so far. The author knows the band and includes new interviews with them. I highly recommend reading this with the album handy, so you can play the songs as they are mentioned.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solidly-researched and passionate dive into my favorite Fugazi album, riddled with distracting typos and editorial problems that detracted from its readability. Desperately in need of a second draft.