“You’re bad now but you were eating an ice cream cone and I saw you. That’s the shit you can’t hide! Ice cream eating motherfucker. That’s what you are.”

At my first real punk show in the summer of 1991, Fugazi leveled me. I’d never seen a band so intense; so fucking aggressive and massive sounding…but without being macho or even “heavy.” Their careening, dynamic songs blew my little punk rock mind as did the locked-on musicianship and frenetic movements that defined their live shows. And the fact that they’d just called about 50 tough-guy skinheads (who were punchmoshing away everyone’s good time) “ice cream eating motherfuckers” was one of the most audacious and hilarious things I’d ever seen a band do in a live setting. The next day I bought 13 Songs, Repeater +3 Songs, and Steady Diet Of Nothing. I loved (and still love) all of those records, but I felt like none of them quite captured what I’d witnessed.

I saw Fugazi play as much as possible, and growing up outside of Washington, DC meant that I was able to see them a lot. Their shows were always incendiary. I saw them a few more times before In On The Kill Taker came out, and I started recognizing songs that weren’t on the records I already owned. These songs expertly realized every element I loved (and still love) about great punk rock: Driving, punctuated rhythms; howling incandescent melodies, and vocals that immediately communicate the singer’s urgent need to GET THIS SHIT OUT – but executed in a way I just couldn’t fathom back then. I asked the owner of my local record store to find the release date for the next Fugazi record. He did and I was there as soon as I got off of work that day. I bought the record and listened to it non-stop for weeks.

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Halloween is often celebrated with outrageous costumes, vibrant parades and every brand of candy under the sun. In Gainesville, Florida however, Halloween is transformed into a three day weekend holiday where costumes are arbitrary, punk rock bands replace parades and candy is substituted with gallons of beer. This year, No Idea Records celebrated an enormously successful Fest 8; a diverse mix of all types of punk music brought a huge crowd to central Florida this year. Unfortunately, with hundreds of amazing bands playing in the short span of only one weekend, mixed with unfathomable amounts of beer and cheap whiskey, I was not able to see every band I would have liked to, but I was lucky enough to see some incredible sets.

Read more after the jump.

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Happy fuckin’ day! The ‘Org is reporting that Small Brown Bike are back in the game again! While the full extent of their future plans has yet to be revealed, the band’s official site has been updated with a few upcoming show dates for now.

As it is the year 2009, more specifics about the regrouping will also be announced via their newly launched Twitter account, so be sure to follow that guy for your up-to-the-minute SBB needs.