Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Vega Vi, co-host of 90.TEEN on KEXP, is "Burning Too" by Fugazi, from the 1989 album 13 Songs on Dischord Records.
We have a responsibility /
To use our abilities to keep this place alive /
Right here right now /
Do it. Now. Do it.
Since forming in 1986, DC punk band Fugazi have become synonymous with DIY ethics and progressive political perspectives.
“I was born in 1962 and I was here in Washington right through the civil rights stuff, the anti-war stuff, gay rights," frontman Ian MacKaye said in a rare interview with Loud & Quiet. “My parents and I went to a church that was radical liberation – very, very left, it had a woman saying mass in 1972, gay marriage in 1974, the Black Panthers spoke there, rock bands played there – it was radical. I was raised in that environment so I thought that’s how society would be. Then the ’70s came along and you had this period of people partying and disco music and such obsolescence, it was such a bummer and I felt so disconnected from it. I was like, ‘where’s the counter-culture?’ It seemed so real to me as a child but as a teenager it was gone.”
MacKaye was able to revitalize a conscientious way of life through music. And while the now-legendary group are reticent when it comes to the meaning behind their lyrics, frontman Ian Mackaye's call to action in today's featured Song of the Day is undeniable.
