In January 1988, having played just 10 shows, Fugazi entered Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia to record their first demo. All four band members had previously recorded at Inner Ear when the studio was located in the basement of owner and engineer Don Zientara's home - with Teen Idles, Minor Threat, One Last Wish, Rites of Spring, Embrace and more - and the sessions were fast and productive, yielding 11 songs.
At the time of the recording, Guy Picciotto was not yet playing guitar alongside Ian MacKaye, and with the band - completed by bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty - evolving fast, and their music still developing, it was decided that rather than releasing the demo on Dischord Records (co-owned by MacKaye and his former Minor Threat bandmate Jeff Nelson), ten of the songs would be dubbed onto cassettes and given away free at future shows, with fans encouraged to share the recordings.
Eight of the ten songs on the cassette had been performed at Fugazi's very first show, played as a three-piece before Guy Picciotto joined the group, at the Wilson Center in Washington DC on September 3, 1987. Among these was a striking anti-consumerism statement called Mechandise.
"We owe you nothing," the staunchly DIY Ian MacKaye sings on the song's chorus. "You have no control."
"Merchandise keeps us in line," MacKaye continues on the song's second verse. "Common sense says it's by design. What could a businessman ever want more, than to have us sucking in his store."
On the demo recording, there's a repeated refrain of "A dollar and a dollar spent" before the song's outro explodes with the iconic line "You are not what you own."
