Ian MacKaye
I think that the idea of straight edge, the song that I wrote, and the way people have related it it, there's some people who have abused it, they've allowed their fundamentalism to interfere with the real message, which in my mind, was that people should be allowed to live their lives the way they want to.Collection: Song
I'm all for file sharing. That's great - as long as people are prepared for the significant consequences. One is that music will become completely couched in advertising. That's already happened. And another is that people should be prepared to have fun with the past because the only music that can possibly be free is the music that's from the past. It costs money to make music. And if people are prepared to only have the past to listen to, then let it be free.Collection: Fun
Every song I ever wrote, I wrote to be heard. So, if I was given a choice that 50 years from now I could either have a dollar or knowing that some kid was listening to my song, I'd go with the kid listening to my song.Collection: Song
That's a Roman concept where the government can do anything, as long as you give the people "bread and circuses." And I'd say this culture right now is similar, as long as people have money, fun, and food, our government can do heinous, heinous things.Collection: Fun
We play loud electric guitar music, and we'd hope that that doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole.Collection: Mean
I don't think it's an ethical or moral issue, or even that people are stupid, but I do feel like as a culture things are out of balance, perverted, and inverted. Things that are ridiculous are worshipped, and things that are important are ridiculed. I think that's something worth thinking about.Collection: Stupid
American business at this point is really about developing an idea, making it profitable, selling it while it's profitable and then getting out or diversifying. It's just about sucking everything up. My idea was: Enjoy baking, sell your bread, people like it, sell more. Keep the bakery going because you're making good food and people are happy.Collection: Ideas
It's so interesting that humanity has to be defined by emotional strife or something. I don't buy into that.Collection: Emotional
It makes me sad, the way human beings talk smack. It's why I don't like irony. People are too gleeful to put some teeth into something.Collection: People
If people want new music then they are going to have to figure out a way to be patrons of the arts. And they will.Collection: Art
Ultimately, I know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I'm trying to be a construction worker. I'm trying to make things. If people are not interested in that, fine. I just don't give a damn.Collection: People
What does bother me is that I have to spend time and energy dealing with the ramifications of what people do think about me.Collection: Thinking
I always appreciate when people save, and more importantly, share. As we speak, there are people in this world - mostly men - who have giant collections of recordings that no one will ever hear. And the value of that collection is almost defined by the fact that nobody else can hear it.Collection: Men
I feel quite connected to the past, and my memory. Everything that I've ever done I can still relate to, and feel connected to it in a way. There's no part of my life that I look at and go, 'I don't recognize that person at all.Collection: Memories
Record labels have enjoyed a 100-year monopoly of selling plastic and now they're up against a different format.Collection: Years
One aspect of our site that I really appreciate is how I put up as much information as I've been able to keep track of: dates, the venue, the city, the country, the number of people there, the door price, opening bands, that sort of thing. One of the very first comments we had was from a guy who said, "By the way, the opening band in Albany in 1993 was not the Very Nice Neighbors, it was the Very Pleasant Neighbors." That brought a great joy to me.Collection: Country
What people don't understand is that the underground that existed was created in the early 80s and was thriving throughout the 80s. Until the industry showed up it was a pretty significant network. It was all happening, but the smell of money had not wafted up high enough for the industry. It wasn't really until they came descending on Seattle that things really got out of control.Collection: People
I do not consider myself a teddybear. Just to be clear, I don't feel sorry for myself.Collection: Sorry
When you're in a band and write a song on your own, it isn't fully realized until it goes into somebody else's ears.Collection: Song
Why do we celebrate the opening of a bar so much?Collection: Bars
The American underground punk scene, though, is a story worth remembering.Collection: Stories
My humor is very dry. To me it doesn't make sense.Collection: Dry
Structures can be manipulated for ill as well, especially when people are dealing with issues of power, or control, or violence.Collection: Issues
Truth is, right now two bombs could drop out of the sky and blow up this house and whatever building you're in and just obliterate Dischord and Pitchfork. And there'll be some people crying, there'll be some slow singing, but for 99% of the world, it won't even affect the fly on their soup. Most of the world never have, or ever will hear of me, Fugazi, or Pitchfork. Right now, someone just got killed in Ukraine. Do you feel any different?Collection: Blow
1991 for some people was a significant year in terms of punk rock. It was the year "punk broke".Collection: People
The fact that the U.S. government spends millions of dollars to send murderous robot planes into other people's land to murder them, into other countries, that's a problem. That's what people should be concerned about. The fact that other people don't understand me is not a problem. I keep things in perspective.Collection: Country
Bars are meeting places and places to unwind. But at some point, what is culture unwinding from, and why can't they meet anywhere else?Collection: Bars
I obviously use computers. My car is wondrous. My phone is amazing. I've already talked about the music I'm digitizing. Technology is fantastic, of course.Collection: Technology
You can hear a real shift. You listen to the late 80s recordings, you'll hear us engaging with the audience, dealing with the issues surrounding punk shows at the time. Back then, people thought you had to be a skinhead and beat the crap out of everybody when you went to a punk show. Come the early 90s, when you had this so-called grunge stuff and when videos became so dominant, you had this totally huge shift in the culture of shows.Collection: Real
I remember when Martin Luther King was assassinated and riots broke out in the city. We celebrated Palm Sunday on 14th Street. I have a memory of walking down the street with buildings smoldering, and soldiers and cops everywhere. Anyways, it [St. Stephen’s] was a church that really taught me the things I needed to learn to not go to church. But I think it is a church that does great work, I went to a wedding there three days ago.Collection: Kings
The amount of money that people spend on saving stuff, they try to feed you this idea that it's more important.Collection: Ideas
I work at a record label where I have archives. These things [memorabilia] occurred and are important to somebody, and they're important to me. I find the record industry largely repellent. This music, the Teen Idles, all of that stuff, is important to me. I don't have lawyers, an agent or a manager. However I find the music industry largely repellent. I just make records because that's what I love to do. So I think that era, those pieces of media, I keep in my collection.Collection: Thinking
Getting your letters or pictures digitized. I don't think it's that important. The more you spend on your materials, you're given the sense that those things are more important due to the total amount spent. You'd probably be better off giving that money to a soup kitchen.Collection: Thinking
In the late 90s, there was a reverse. Everyone would stand stock still and be so attentive and quiet. But then, it was almost like, "C'mon people! Engage - make a show with us!" You can hear these different eras pass through in the recordings.Collection: People
I'd much rather talk to a 30-year old that survived rough times in their lives [practicing Straight Edge] rather than someone that was harmed by a culture of violence.Collection: Years
I'm not talking about what came later [after the American underground punk scene], indie music, or whatever you want to call it, but the music that came before that - that's an important story. So many interviews with musicians get the time or context wrong. You have these older bands, usually men, who tell stories about "Oh, we got into this huge fight, this guy punched that guy," that's the wrong sort of story. My view of the time is truly pioneering.Collection: Fighting
It's just hard to have a nuanced discussion with like a thousand people, 30 of which are white-power skinheads.Collection: White
It doesn't hurt me on a personal level, but it hurts me on a larger level of like, why are people so stupid? Why do we have to go through these unnecessary exercises. Fight crime, don't fight me. If you really want to make a difference don't fight me or Fugazi.Collection: Hurt
I don't need any more avenues of communication, and frankly I think people are still working out to realize that it's just a tool[social media] rather than something that you have to do or participate in.Collection: Communication
We had punks literally protesting Fugazi. I respect a boycott. I respect a conscionable boycott, but of all bands to boycott? Fight crime. If you really want to get out there, go fight crime.Collection: Fighting
I have a lot of stuff. Slowly I'm getting all my materials organized.Collection: Stuff
I mean, why do people fight over sports? Because of the framework, the schematic of sports, those particular people seize upon these opportunities to be violent. And the number one problem using the same framework would be religion.Collection: Sports
I do remember seeing Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar, one of those. It was a liberation theology venue. Anything radical seemed to be accepted there. I definitely picked up the idea there that you should question authority.Collection: Jesus
When someone writes a really nasty piece about me. I think they're generally untrue because I think I'm a nice person.Collection: Nice
We were not a band that typically would say, "Hello, Whatever Town!"Collection: Hello
The Corcoran show was actually almost a reportage. The exhibit was, in many ways, pretty unique. It was one of the first pieces about DC culture that doesn't include some marble building or the Kennedy Center.Collection: Unique
I put my name on that Occupy Musicians list because someone wrote to me and said, "Would you do this?" I said, "Yeah sure, I support this." What artist wouldn't support that? What's the big deal? But then people wrote to me, "Wow! You're on that list!" And I'm like, "Who isn't on that list?" That would be more shocking.Collection: Artist
People will say "You must miss playing to a thousand people." But I don't. I might miss playing. That's what I would miss, but I don't miss it, because I am playing.Collection: People
All we wanted to do was to make live records all available. For us, the idea is to make it all available and let people decide which ones they like better. It's not for us to decide. We don't care about that. What we're interested in is the idea that we made these recordings, and they're not doing anybody a damn bit of good sitting in a closet.Collection: People