Ian MacKaye Lends His Ears To Kent State Investigation

This is going to take a while to set up, but trust us, it’s worth the trip: Last week, Alan Canfora–one of the survivors of the 1970 Kent State University shootings–released a newly enhanced audio snippet featuring 13 seconds of National Guard gunfire. The material was originally recorded by Terry Strubbe, a KSU student who had a reel-to-reel player on his dorm window, and according to Canfora, you can hear the words “Right here. Get set. Point. Fire” being spoken on the clip. Compelling stuff, to be sure–but you’ll have to read way down to find a rather intriguing indie-rock connection:

Canfora, who is director of the Kent May 4 Center, released two versions of the 20-second audio clip: a copy of Strubbe’s unaltered recording, and a digitally enhanced version in which the volume was boosted and some background noise was removed. Ian Mackaye of the band Fugazi analyzed the recording for Canfora at Dischord Records in Washington, D.C.

There’s no explanation of how MacKaye got involved with all of this; perhaps Canfora thought he’d found a political ally in the Minor Threat mastermind, or perhaps he was just really impressed with the remastering job on In On The Kill Taker (which, incidentally, is still way underrated). Either way, we can only hope that this incident prompts a newfound investigation into the shootings–and maybe a Fugazi reunion, to boot.

Casualty wants new probe of KSU shootings [Akron Beacon Journal]