Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Norma J
I don't think, although I could be wrong, that Fugazi have or would ever be influenced by Sonic Youth.
|
I'm relatively certain that both groups have influenced each other and have a lot of two way respect. Sonic Youth have been more vocal about it (and about Minor Threat influences as well), but then they tend to wear their influences on their sleeves (and record sleeves too!)
Fugazi from the start have been intentionally pretty obscure about everything they do, what it means, and where it comes from. This came in part out of Ian's frustrations with people turning his plainly spoken and highly clear (semantically that is) words in Minor Threat into a religion. So trying to pin down their influences more modern than James Brown in an interview is going to be nigh impossible. However, I think you can pretty clearly hear some alternate tunings used in a melodic fashion on Red Medicine that sure weren't as prevalent on the records before. I've heard Unwound bandied about as a probable influence on Red Medicine more than once, and as somebody who spent many a year in Oly hanging out with those guys (and I do mean guys, because I never knew Sarah, though I lived a block away from Justin and Brandt and worked at Thekla with Vern) I can tell you that Sonic Youth was undeniably Unwound's biggest influence.