In on the Kill Taker

Professional reviews
In on the Kill Taker

Studio album by Fugazi
Released	May 1993
Recorded	December 1992
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	42:13
Label	Dischord Records
Producer(s)	Fugazi
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone Sep 30, 1993
Fugazi chronology
Steady Diet of Nothing (1992)	In on the Kill Taker (1993)	Red Medicine (1995)

In on the Kill Taker is the third full-length album by Fugazi, released in 1993.

[edit] General info

The demos the band made at Electrical Audio with Steve Albini have never been officially released but are available on several file sharing programs such as Soulseek. Albini has since commented that his recording is "a much weaker version of the album In on the Kill Taker, which is all anybody really needs to hear. At the time, I was disappointed that the band didn't use any of the Chicago material, but I should have been disappointed that it wasn't up to their standards. The for-real album is better in almost every way, and nobody's heart should get broken over it." Fugazi themselves have also previously commented that they were unhappy with their own performance during the sessions, specifically the vocals.

The title of the album comes from a long, rambling letter Picciotto found in the street. It can be seen in the artwork on the cover, which is manipulated to say In on the Kill Taker. Picciotto - "As for the ...Kill Taker title, it may well have come from that book for all we know - the title was cribbed from the weird handwritten text we used on the back cover. it was found in the street and we have no idea who wrote it or what they were inspired by."

The song "Last Chance for a Slow Dance" is one of the few songs included in its entirety in the 1999 documentary Instrument, directed by Jem Cohen. Also, a demo version of the song "Rend It" can be found on the soundtrack.

When introducing "Rend It" live for the first time it was called "Rend My Body Politic".

"Sweet and Low" is an instrumental track written by Joe Lally. He has since commented that the song is about the end of a personal relationship but he couldn't find the right words to go with the music. Lally - "I wrote the bass line that prompted 'Sweet and Low'. It may be that my significant other had left me at the time. I almost wrote words for that."

The cover is a shot of the Washington Monument in the bands hometown of Washington DC.

The Christopher Walken speech that inspired "Walken's Syndrome" is also sampled in its entirety by a west-coast punk band called Jawbreaker on their 1995 album Dear You. The song is called "Jet Black".

A 2003 article critical of the DC music scene, and Fugazi especially, was featured on the cover of The Washington City Paper entitled "In On the Killjoy"

Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1993	The Billboard 200	153

Discography
Fugazi
Ian MacKaye\|Guy Picciotto \| Joe Lally \| Brendan Canty
Full-lengths: Repeater (1990) \| Steady Diet of Nothing (1991) \| In on the Kill Taker (1993) \| Red Medicine (1995) \| End Hits (1998) \| The Argument (2001)
EPs: Fugazi (1988) \| Margin Walker (1989) \| 3 Songs (1990) \| Furniture + 2 (2001)
Other albums: 13 Songs (1989) \| Instrument Soundtrack (1999) \| Fugazi Live Series (2004)
Related articles
Minor Threat \| Dischord Records \| Hardcore punk \| Post-hardcore \| Washington, D.C.
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