evelynanne's Profile

How Fugazi's "Do You Like Me" Changed My Life

I was 18, living away from my family for the first time in my life and discovering the incredible amount of movies, books, art and music I had not encountered in my somewhat sheltered upbringing.

Tom was one of the few freshman with a car and he was nice enough to give me rides from time to time.  It was a fall afternoon and as we rode in his somewhat beat-up four-door, he put a cassette into the player. 

The sound was totally different from anything I had ever heard.  It was raw and loud and scratchy, but somehow, I liked it.  The repeated lyrics, "Lockhead, Lockhead, Martin Marietta" come on, loud and clear.  I had to ask.

"What the hell is this?"  The answer?

"Fugazi".

About a year before this, I had started buying music on vinyl, mostly because none of my friends did that, and it seemed cool and subversive in the way that I craved at 18.  I promply went to the nearest record store (in a small trailor, just outside of Annapolis) and bought Fugazi's Red Medicine. 

Home with my new prize, I put it on the turntable in my room, plugged in my headphones and laid on the floor.  The opening words to "Do You Like Me" filled my ears and I felt a kind of wonderful release. 

I was about five to 10 years too late to see Fugazi in their heyday and Red Medicine had been released a whole 6 years earlier, but to me the sound was new and fresh, a wonderful sinecure to the John Mayer/O.A.R. frat-boy crap my friends were then listening to.

Fugazi let me feel all the rage and cleverness and beauty that I wanted and finally, I had found a voice for all of that adolescent emotion I had felt for years but could not express.

In the years that would follow I would discover a whole new world of post-punk and indie rock that would absolutely change my world, but it all started with Fugazi, Red Medicine, and "Do You Like Me".

Today, I blog about indie music (easbrain.com) and attend as many small-venue shows as I can.  I don't want to miss the next Ian MacKay or Guy Picciotto when they come along.