Because The Evens weren’t Fugazi, a lot of people in 2005 thought they must be folk. NPR even found ‘lilting melody’ in the albums. But all the usual angular rhythms were there and the protest element was this time directed at the ire-friendly Bush administration. Whatever else they may have been, The Evens weren’t folk.
The combined chorus of Amy Farina’s voice and drums and Ian MacKaye’s guitar was on the surface bright and cheery, resembling a more traditional indie or college rock sound – but still, not folk. Instead of choosing the personal or introspective, MacKaye and Farina continued to make their punk statements about the rights, the limitations and the power of the individual human voice. Harmonies were there, but melodies were often sung in bold unison. On Get Evens MacKaye and Farina used their vocals to fight back with songs like “Everybody knows you are a liar,” which struck at the Capitol from the Capitol; one line proclaimed “This City is Ours;” reminding us that D.C. is also the city of hardcore (or post-post hardcore, as the Washington Post called The Evens – past caring about genre definitions even in 2005, though still recognizing that this was some form of hardcore – not folk).
In this strange context, I learned that Ted Nugent – the conservative bogeyman of the moment — was an influence of MacKaye. Nugent’s clean living, straight edge approach (before MacKaye coined the term) as well as his virtuosic guitar playing are interesting, slightly unexpected points of comparison for the music of Fugazi and The Evens.
Instrument Soundtrack was the last album Fugazi made before MacKaye started The Evens. For some it’s a footnote: a laid back collection of demos and doodles, but for me it was a stripped back affair that – like the long awaited documentary it was made to soundtrack – displayed the anatomy of Fugazi’s dense, well-sprung and off kilter rock ‘n’ roll. At times MacKaye’s later projects – like The Evens and Instrument – remind me of the ideas that an artist finally reveals when they release their sketchbooks to the public. Even if the music becomes less urgent, and we discover incongruous photos of denim-shirted Ted Nugent pasted up in this scrapbook, it seems to take us into the inner workings of an energetic collective of musicians in a way that previous albums only hinted at.
