Steady Diet of Nothing by Fugazi

Steady Diet of Nothing, Fugazi's second studio album, came out on Dischord in July 1991, wedged between Repeater and In on the Kill Taker. Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto split the guitars and the vocals, Joe Lally holds down the low end and Brendan Canty drums, and the Washington, D.C. four play it lean and wiry, all taut basslines and guitars grinding against each other, DIY to the bone and openly contemptuous of the music business.

The title belongs to Lally. A stubborn rumor pins it on a Bill Hicks line, but the album name came first, by several years. It went down well and sold well at the time, yet it tends to get skipped when writers tell the Fugazi story, which only makes the fans who swear by it hold it closer. "Reclamation" is the song that surfaced on the countdowns.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.