No scene in Fugazi's upcoming film and home video "Instrument"
seems to sum up the resolutely independent band's intentions for the
project more than an episode filmed in singer/guitarist Ian
MacKaye's grandparents' kitchen.
Drummer Brendan Canty sits across a Formica table from the video
camera, describing a conversation his sister had with a Fugazi fan.
"He thought we all lived in a group house without any heat," Canty
says. Then he bursts out laughing. "Like we didn't need any [heat]."
And that's the crux of perception/reality issue for one of the world's
most popular independent rock bands.
Fugazi may be as well-known for their principles as for their
intricate, post-hardcore punk music. They release their albums on
their own label, put caps on CD and ticket prices, and eschew
mainstream publicity.
That last principle occasionally haunts them. By not yet telling their
own story, Fugazi have allowed myths such as the no-heat rumor to
take root among fans.
"If you don't say anything, then people place your thing on you," says
MacKaye, seated next to Canty at the table.
"But then if you try to steer it all," the singer continues, "you're
manipulating it. So, we [end up] just a bunch of monks eating rice
with no heat." And now MacKaye laughs, too.
The 115 minutes of "Instrument" mark Fugazi's stab at a middle
ground between hyping themselves and letting others define them.
The project will be released on home video March 29 and tour art
houses and college campuses later this year.
Directed by the band with longtime associate Jem Cohen -- whose
recent portfolio includes work with R.E.M. and Elliott Smith --
"Instrument" creates a portrait of Fugazi told in part by themselves
and in part by fans, but mostly through the band's music.
"If I were to make an analogy with music, it's more of a kind of dub
film project, in that it's loose, and it has more to do with different
grooves and different experiences," Cohen said as shooting was
drawing to an end in 1997. "It's not an attempt to tell people the
history of the band and have people talk about how great they are."
Compared with the orderly nature of most music documentaries,
"Instrument" unfolds in crazy-quilt fashion.
The film includes live footage of Fugazi -- MacKaye, Canty,
guitarist/singer Guy Picciotto and bassist Joe Lally -- performing
songs such as "Great Cop" and
href="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get- music/Fugazi/Repeater.ram">"Repeater"
excerpt of studio version). But much of the concert footage, shot on
16 mm and Super 8 film and on videotape, is used as a visual
backdrop for new songs.
MacKaye's restrained dance steps and Picciotto's frenetic,
face-in-the-floor stage grinding are synced to instrumental
explorations and improvisational demos that laid the groundwork
for such songs as "Arpeggiator"
(RealAudio excerpt of later version) from last year's End
Hits.
"The whole idea of being able to link music to images in a way that's
not music video -- which to me is a really dull and bankrupt form,
just making ad spots -- doing something in that line that feels more
interesting because it's extended," Picciotto said last year.
Cohen has filmed the Washington, D.C.-based Fugazi since their
1987 inception, lending "Instrument" a sweep not offered by most
documentaries of working bands.
At times, Fugazi and Cohen let others sketch the image of who
Fugazi are. In one segment, eighth-grader Jamie Valdez interviews
MacKaye and Picciotto for her Maryland middle school's TV show,
"Personal Profiles." One can easily imagine that Valdez's questions
are at least as enlightening as those the band would be posed on a
show such as "Dateline."
Of course, the fact that the band would accept an interview from a
student at Eastern Middle School while turning down such
mainstream outlets as MTV says as much about the group as does
Fugazi's trademark low ticket prices and all-ages shows.
Not all Fugazi's fans seem to care about the band's fierce
independence.
"Instrument" includes scores of interviews and silent fan portraits
shot outside the band's shows. The film contrasts a married couple
who met while analyzing Fugazi lyrics and a woman who brought
her family to a concert after hearing about the band on National
Public Radio with more jaded fans, who dismiss Fugazi's recent
work as insufficiently punk or wish the group would stop lecturing
from the stage.
Images of concert-goers being allowed to watch the group from the
side of the stage are compared with footage of Fugazi calling out the
fans they see as disruptive.
More than anything, "Instrument" documents interaction. The band,
MacKaye explains at one point, aims to look out into the crowd and
see full human beings.
"Heads and bodies are just consumers," he says. "I want to play to
people."
A companion album,Instrument Soundtrack, will be
released April 26 on Dischord Records, the label MacKaye
co-founded in 1980. Of the 18 songs on the disc, six are early and
substantially different versions of songs later released on albums.
New tracks include "Lusty Scripps," "Turkish Disco" and "Me and
Thumbelina."