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Listen to "Caustic Acrostic"
(34 seconds streaming mpeg audio) or download the 152K .aiff file

 

For Further Reading:
1)  Dischord Records-Fugazi's label and official homepage
2)  Fugazi discography

     Radio stations and record companies want hits, but End Hits may well be a rallying cry against the sort of homogenization and complacency required for a hit. Besides, since they are on MacKaye's own Dischord Records, the only demands they must cater to are their own. Fugazi lets the contents of the songs and the progression of the music dictate the style and format of the album, not a marketable or predictable format. "This one's ours, let's take another," MacKaye cries mockingly in "Five Corporations." The same sort of sentiment could easily apply to the dismal state of radio these days and it is precisely this unfortunate scenario that prompts many of Fugazi's efforts.
     A constant drive for inspection and regeneration seems to be Fugazi's main strength. No two albums or songs sound too much like any other in their play list. The individuality of each song and album goes directly against not only the idealized structure of a pop song, but the suburban ideal of humanity, also. The music throws all of the grit of its urban roots right along with the lyrical challenges of MacKaye and Picciotto.
     After years of protest and hard work, Fugazi is as urgent and necessary as ever. Their lyrical complexity, obvious in their first album, 1988's 13 Songs, has now been matched by music that is just as challenging and layered. Life is more complex and more improbable than anything the government or the economy tells us, as Picciotto says in "No Surprise:"

     Like the line from Red Medicine, "if you want to seize the sound / you don't need a reservation," Fugazi challenges the listener to take life in their own hands. On End Hits, the intensity with which Fugazi gives their music to us is matched by the urgency of their pleas. Once control is given up, it is not given back, they tell us. Fugazi may be punk's only chance of remaining a viable mode of cultural expression. Fugazi's music may be our only hope against the perpetuation of radio punk like Green Day and the Offspring and the unthinking frat-boyish angst that they perpetuate. Fugazi wants you to pay attention. "Seize the sound," and End Hits.