My Fugazi collection is complete in that I have all the releases on at least one format, however I'd quite like to have them all on vinyl one day - I started out that way with the self-titled EP and Repeater, but then started buying them on cd for some reason; it was 2005/2006 and LPs weren't as easy to find as cds (even routinely in-print Discord releases, in the UK at least). I keep meaning to buy the albums I only have on cd on vinyl, and I'm sure I will one day, but it's far from a challenge, so I keep putting it off.
I bought End Hits from Damaged Records in the spring of 2007. I was buying an LP every week from Spillers, but felt like I should spread my business more widely, and Damaged seemed like a very complimentary record shop - I could only get punk there, but they always had all the punk records anyone could want. So I would go there once a month and buy an LP and have a nice chat with Welly, the guy who ran it. In April, I bought End Hits.
I've never got along with End Hits as well as I'd have liked to. It's still very much a Fugazi album, but focuses more on the areas I enjoyed less (free-jazz) and less on the areas I enjoyed more (shouty punk). Vocally, few songs have the ferocity of some of the early records, which is a shame. No Surprise is the first really good song on the album for me (mainly because of the guitar riff). I remember hearing a lot about Five Corporations before hearing the song and it's definitely a great song. It's certainly nice to hear Ian's vocals on such a frantic song. Closed Captioned is another highlight, as is Foreman's Dog. Pink Frosty and Recap Modotti, on the other hand, are good examples of the sort of songs here that I'm not fussed by.
End Hits hasn't had the amount of play as it probably should have, but that's a function of it being the era before mp3 download codes and me not having the songs digitally. That, combined with the fact that when I want to listen to Fugazi I tend to pick the self-titled or Repeater, means that I really don't know it as well as I should. Quite a few of the songs are familiar from the Instrument soundtrack, so always make me think I know them better than I do, but I don't know them that well at all. Anyway, a solid Fugazi album, but I doubt it's anyone's favourite.
Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £8 new
Bought: Damaged Records, Cardiff
When: 05/04/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
