thetoolsofwar's Full Review: Complete Discography by Minor Threat
Fugazi fans who don't own this album--buy it yesterday! Ian MacKaye sang for Minor Threat (and other bands) before Fugazi, and IMO Minor Threat was much, much, much better than Fugazi ever has been. This stuff is hardcore punk rock, D.C. straight-edge style. So many bands have been inspired by Minor Threat it's impossible to list them all. This band combined clean, fast guitar and bass riffing with quick, precise drums, and Ian MacKaye's unique vocals into a gestalt that was better than the sum of the parts. This is the album to get because, as the name implies, it's the "Complete Discography." Hard to believe just 26 songs had so much influence, but they did--listen to this album and you'll see why.
OK, for those who haven't heard Fugazi or much punk rock at all...Ian MacKaye has a fairly high-pitched, very unique voice. He ranges from speaking, to singing, to screaming -mostly screaming- on this record. There's distortion on the guitars, but the playing is extremely clean--there are no sloppy mistakes. The bass lines pretty much double the guitar exactly, but without distortion. Most of the songs are short (2-3 minutes) and fast. There's some profanity, but not much. Most of the ideas are positive, like not using drugs/drinking etc. but anti-social in the sense that they go against the grain of the majority. Since this stuff is pretty old in punk-rock time, here's a quote from "Look Back And Laugh":
"I want to tell you a little story
'Cause it makes me warm inside
It's about some friends growing up
And all the things they tried
I'm not talking about staple ****
They went for something more"
If you like Minor Threat, I'd recommend a few other bands: Government Issue, Uniform Choice, Token Entry, Dead Kennedys, Angry Samoans, D.I., SSD, Underdog...there's lots more. If you just like the straight-edge aspect, you'll probably like Youth of Today and Uniform Choice, maybe Earth Crisis and Strife for more recent stuff. There have been so many SxEx bands over the last few years, I'd say just buy an album you like then check their Thanks list for other bands. But get Minor Threat, it was one of the first and one of the best.
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