“I imagine there’s more unlistened to copies of Killtaker than any other Fugazi album.” Nirvana may have brought 'alternative rock' to the masses, but for Fugazi, America's greatest punk band, the fall-out proved to be “a real nightmare”

In On The Killtaker.

On September 24 and 25, 1993, Washington DC's Fugazi played sold-out shows at New York's 3,200-capacity Roseland Ballroom on their US tour supporting In On The Killtaker, their third full-length studio album, released three months previously. While the very idea of hosting celebratory after-show parties would have been hilarious to the quartet, vocalist/guitarist Ian MacKaye, co-vocalist/guitarist Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty did welcome one famous music industry legend to their dressing room in NYC, Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, the man who signed Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Rolling Stones and more.

This was not purely a social call: the record industry mogul was there to make America's greatest punk band an offer they could not refuse, or more accurately, an offer he sincerely hoped they would not refuse. Ertegun was aware that In On The Killtaker had given Fugazi their first entry on the Billboard 200 chart, and with the might of Atlantic's money and muscle behind them, he enthused, there could be no limit to what they could achieve. 

“Last time I did this was when I offered The Rolling Stones their own record label and $10 million,” he told the four musicians.