Instrument Soundtrack

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Wikipedia

Instrument Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Fugazi
ReleasedMarch 23, 1999
RecordedSeptember 1989–March 1997[1]
Studio
Length45:37
LabelDischord
Fugazi chronology
End Hits
(1998)		 Instrument Soundtrack
(1999)		 Furniture
(2001)

Instrument Soundtrack is a 1999 soundtrack album by the American post-hardcore band Fugazi. It serves as the score for Jem Cohen's documentary film Instrument (1999), which follows the band.

Background

Instrument Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to Instrument, a 1999 documentary film about Fugazi directed by Jem Cohen.[2][3] It consists of various instrumental tracks, demo recordings, and "studio outtakes".[2][4] "I'm So Tired", a piano ballad played and sung by Ian MacKaye, was performed on a piano that "just happened to be" in the recording space where the group was working on Red Medicine (1995).[5][6]

Covers

"I'm So Tired" has been covered by Fog Lake,[7] Gengahr,[8] Jennylee,[9] Lala Lala,[10] Ultimate Painting,[11] and Eddie Vedder.[12] The song was also covered by Kiki and Herb in their 2016 cabaret show Kiki & Herb: Seeking Asylum! at Joe's Pub.[13]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStar[14]
The Encyclopedia of Popular MusicStarStar[15]
Pitchfork8.0/10[2]
Punknews.orgStarStarStarStarStar[6]
Rolling StoneStarStarHalf star[4]
Uncut7/10[3]

Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork gave the album a positive review, describing it as "sound[ing] remarkably playful" and concluding: "For all those who worry that the Fugazi story may be coming to an end, both Instrument and its soundtrack show a band still growing and, in some ways, just getting started."[2] Amy Sciarretto of CMJ New Music Report wrote: "Collecting 18 surprisingly ambient, previously unreleased Fugazi demos and practice tapes, [...] Instrument is Fugazi's most focused attempt at mellowness and subtlety."[16] The New Rolling Stone Album Guide called the album "mostly ragged and unformed, but for confirmed Fugaziphiles, it's a solidly interesting peek into the band's creative process."[4]

MacKaye later said of the album:

Instrument is sort of my favorite record, because those were recorded for us. So none of it was for public consumption. So when you listen back, it's just us practicing, us playing together, and it just sounds relaxed.[17]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Fugazi.[1]

Instrument Soundtrack track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Pink Frosty Demo"3:47
2."Lusty Scripps"3:42
3."Arpeggiator Demo"2:54
4."Afterthought"1:28
5."Trio's"2:15
6."Turkish Disco"2:34
7."Me and Thumbelina"0:45
8."Floating Boy Demo"3:35
9."Link Track"1:26
10."Little Debbie"1:49
11."H.B."1:19
12."I'm So Tired"1:59
13."Rend It Demo"3:32
14."Closed Captioned Demo"5:50
15."Guilford Fall Demo"3:29
16."Swingset"1:37
17."Shaken All Over"0:58
18."Slo Crostic"2:41

Notes

  • "Pink Frosty Demo", "Arpeggiator Demo", "Floating Boy Demo", "Rend It Demo", "Closed Captioned Demo", and "Guilford Fall Demo" are demo recordings of tracks originally featured on the band's 1998 album End Hits.
  • "Rend It Demo" is a demo recording of "Rend It", which was originally featured on the band's 1993 album In on the Kill Taker.
  • "Slo Crostic" is a slowed down version of "Caustic Acrostic", which was originally featured on the band's 1998 album End Hits.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[1]

Fugazi

  • Brendan Canty – engineering (1–5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18), drums (1–4, 6–12, 14–16, 18), mixing (2–4, 6, 7, 9–12, 14, 16, 17); guitar, bass (3, 14); melodica (5), vocals (17), graphic concept
  • Joe Lally – bass (1, 2, 4–6, 8–10, 15, 16, 18), engineering (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18), mixing (2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17), graphic concept
  • Ian MacKaye – guitar (1, 2, 5, 6, 8–10, 15–18), engineering (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18), mixing (2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17), keyboards (4), vocals (7, 10, 12, 17), bass (11), piano (12), graphic concept
  • Guy Picciotto – mixing (1–6, 8–10, 13, 14, 16–18), engineering (1–5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18), guitar (1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13–16, 18), clarinet (2, 7), drum machine bass drum (3), vocals (13, 17); bass, dehumidifier percussion (13); thumb piano (17), graphic concept, insert stills

Additional contributors

  • Don Zientara – engineering (9, 17), mixing (9)
  • Jem Cohen – cover stills
  • Jason Farrell – cover help

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Instrument Soundtrack (Media notes). Fugazi. Dischord Records. March 23, 1999.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 DiCrescenzo, Brent (April 27, 1999). "Fugazi: Instrument Soundtrack Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  3. 1 2 Pinnock, Tom (April 2021). Bonner, Michael (ed.). "Storm In the Capitol". Uncut. London. p. 79.
  4. 1 2 3 Welsh, Donald (2004). "Fugazi". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (Completely Revised and Updated 4th ed.). Fireside. p. 315. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Fugazi". Pitchfork. December 31, 2001. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  6. 1 2 Massel, John (May 8, 2018). "Fugazi - Instrument". Punknews.org. Retrieved July 25, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Fog Lake - I'm So Tired (Fugazi Cover)". Birp!. February 3, 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  8. ↑ Day, Laurence (June 4, 2015). "Gengahr share cover of Fugazi's "I'm So Tired"". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  9. ↑ Daly, Rhian (March 6, 2020). "Warpaint's jennylee shares bewitching cover of Fugazi classic 'I'm So Tired'". NME. Retrieved April 22, 2020. I love, admire and respect Fugazi with my whole heart… always have. The sentiment of 'I'm So Tired' is deeply moving and extremely relatable. It was such a pleasure and a pleasant surprise I was able to pull this off. I hope I did it justice, it sure was FUN (and that's the point of it all). Big love and kudos to Fugazi forever.
  10. ↑ "Lala Lala shares a crushed cover of Fugazi's "I'm So Tired"". The Fader. November 21, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  11. ↑ "The Lagniappe Sessions : Ultimate Painting (Cover Fugazi, Times New Viking, Sheryl Crow & More...)". Aquarium Drunkard. December 2, 2014. Archived from the original on December 11, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ Helman, Peter (May 29, 2017). "Eddie Vedder's Amsterdam Tour Opener Was A Subtle Chris Cornell Tribute". Stereogum. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  13. ↑ Stewart, Zachary (May 3, 2016). "Kiki and Herb: Seeking Asylum!". TheaterMania. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  14. ↑ Modell, Josh. "Fugazi - Instrument". AllMusic. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  15. ↑ Larkin, Colin, ed. (2011). "Fugazi". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. pp. 567–568. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  16. ↑ Sciarretto, Amy (May 24, 1999). "Reviews | Fugazi - Instrument (Dischord)". CMJ New Music Report. Vol. 58, no. 9 #619. CMJ. p. 26. ISSN 0890-0795.
  17. ↑ Gross, Joe (2018). Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker. 33⅓. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1501321399.