Fred Armisen: A Former Hardcore Kid's Tribute to a Bygone Era

For years, Fred Armisen toiled away as an underused cast member on Saturday Night Live. During that time, we at RAJ grew to appreciate his deft talent for the art of deadpan humor, as well as his humorous impersonations of David Patterson and Mahmoud Amenijidad. But we've always felt Fred was criminally under-utilized on the show.

It appears that Fred has finally found his niche with the sketch comedy show, Portlandia on IFC. We have only seen a couple of episodes, but we already love it's subtly nuanced satirization of hipster culture. Meanwhile, Fred continues as a cast member at SNL, and a recent sketch in which he starred caught our attention, mainly for its tribute to the 80's hardcore/punk scene. In the sketch, Armisen plays a nostalgic older man giving a father of the bride speech at his daughter's wedding. He announces that his former band has reunited to perform one of their old songs as a tribute to her. The song they perform turns out to be not at all what the wedding guests (or viewers) anticipated. Some of you may have seen this on the we by now, but if you haven't, you can check it here.

It's a funny sketch, and a big part of why it succeeds in that regard is due to the utter authenticity of the song itself. The song sounds like a legitimate 7 inch from the hardcore scene during its prime in the Regan Era. The credit for the song goes entirely to Armisen, who wrote the lyrics and music himself (it does help that Dave Grohl is the drummer in the skit). A former drummer for the Chicago band Trenchmouth, Armisen is a product of that scene and that era. His love for that specific time in music history compelled him to record and release the song as a seven inch in tribute. The song is titled "Fist Fight" and is credited to the aptly monikered Crisis of Conformity. It was released on Chicago's Drag City records label, and is available on their website.

The single is paired with a B side, "Kick it Down and Kick it Around", which thrashes with equal force.  The cover art for the seven inch is pictured above, and it appears to feature a youthful Armisen at the bottom right, doing a very convincing Ian MacKaye impersonation. This leads us to the inevitable question, was Fred "Straight Edge"?