Fugazi

Fugazi brought together Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Guy Picciotto of Rites of Spring, and found a sound that kept hardcore's intensity while opening it right up. Joe Lally's dub-influenced basslines and Brendan Canty's drums left room for two guitars that scraped, stabbed and suddenly dropped away, with MacKaye's barked commands and Picciotto's yelps trading off over the top.

Repeater is the tightest statement of that style, while In on the Kill Taker gets louder and rawer and Red Medicine experiments with space, noise and instrumentals. They ran everything on their own terms, releasing through Dischord, keeping tickets famously cheap (often just $5) and playing all-ages shows, and have been on indefinite hiatus since 2003.