AMG Review of End Hits

Andy Kellman
All Music Guide

End Hits is a minor blebby for Fugazi -- there are some great moments, however, so it's nothing to disown the band for. The epileptic "Lust for Life"-style "Five Corporations" has the riffs and rage, with Ian MacKaye taking the music industry to task for being the slow, incestuously festering beast that it is. Though the band seems to lack the stamina for instrumental wowing it once had, the songwriting is still there. On point as always, MacKaye remains lyrically immolated: "Check the math here/Check in ten years/Clusterf*ck theory/Buy them up and shut them down/Then repeat in every town/Every town will be the same." Nigh on two decades of punk army service, MacKaye is still far away from running out of relevant things to say. Other highlights include "Break" and "Place Position." MacKaye and Picciotto's mantra-like barking of "yawn yawn yawn" during the latter could stop you to think, "Wait, that was kind of funny," amidst all the fist-pumping.