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Nov 17, 2014Still in the salad days, these songs are the sound of the band hitting the ground running. They hold up to any of Fugazi's more realized recordings, sounding fresh and--more importantly--urgent even 26 years later.
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Nov 17, 2014Imperfect, but still as absolutely bloody essential as the best of Fugazi always was.
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Nov 19, 2014First Demo is a remarkably cocksure case study of a landmark act planting its earliest musical seeds.
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Nov 17, 2014First Demo is the closest thing to a new release that we're probably ever going to get. It's also the most interesting insight into the band since the Steve Albini demos for In On The Kill Taker leaked.
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MagnetDec 10, 2014To hear them here, in nascent form, performed by a band that had only played 10 shows in its lifetime, is to hear the nervous current that flowed through Fugazi when it had everything yet to prove, and a lifetime of excellent work ahead of it. Highly recommended. [No. 116, p.56]
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Nov 17, 2014Ultimately, First Demo is far more than a historical curio, it’s the sound of the band in a period of furious creativity and evolution.
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Nov 24, 2014The fidelity is satisfyingly chunky, though, and while you’ll find better takes on, say, 1988’s ‘Fugazi’ EP, the previously unreleased ‘Turn Off Your Guns’ perfectly encapsulates their blend of wiry funk and firecracker dynamics.
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Nov 21, 2014[The minor differences between the early and official takes] are rare, illuminating displays of imperfection from a band that, for the subsequent 15 years, made no false moves.
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Jan 16, 2015First Demo works as a document of a band that was better in its first months starting out than many of its contemporaries ever would hope to be.
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Dec 5, 2014Though a snapshot of a still-embryonic Fugazi, First Demo remains a formidable statement of intent.
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Nov 25, 2014Take this record as your starting point and move forward.
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Nov 19, 2014First Demo reinforces the impression that this particular band never really set a foot wrong; they sound more assured here, with just ten performances under their collective belt, than many bands longer in the tooth do in a lifetime.
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UncutNov 18, 2014First Demo captures the band's first flush of creativity. [Dec 2014, p.91]