Early yesterday morning, the tragic news was announced. On Myspace, a bulletin appeared that read:
Ian Mackaye, lead singer of influential hardcore band Minor Threat as well as Fugazi passed away today in a Baltimore hospital room. Outside a Fugazi show in New Jersey last night, the singer was struck by a car passing by the front of the Ventura Theatre. Brunswick police say that the driver allegedly stopped, but then fled the scene. There is now a police investigation underway.
Mackeye was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, where he was pronounced dead this morning at 6am. This is a tragedy for the underground music as a whole and we need to stand together at this time of loss.
The news quickly spread to Wikipedia. Then it disappeared from Wikipedia. Then it was back. Then a flurry of sources reported what should have been obvious from the post, that the whole thing was a hoax. The Baltimore Sun gave MacKaye a call yesterday evening, and he’s been getting so many calls that he was simply answering the phone, “I am still alive.”
Now, we’re not encouraging the propagation of internet hoaxes here, but if you’re going to start making up stories, at least make them believable. Most of the people who are going to care most about this news are going to be well aware that Fugazi haven’t played a show in 5 years. And to the best of our Google searching knowledge, there’s no Ventura Theatre in New Jersey, as well as no place called “Brunswick” without a “new” appended to the front. And why on earth is a critical patient being taken to Baltimore from an accident scene in central New Jersey anyway? Not to mention that anyone who was at the Rollins gig at the Birchmere on Monday can testify to the fact that the man was nowhere near Jersey.
What’s the deal with hoaxes targeting Fugazi lately? Just a couple of months ago, there was the whole reunion fabrication, and now this. Hopefully this latest doesn’t have the same air of wishful thinking as that first one. DCist did not contact MacKaye for comment, as we’re generally of the opinion that he probably has better things to do with his time than deal with yet another call or email stemming from the actions of some random tool of a Wikibomber. “I am happy to report that I am not dead,” MacKaye told the Sun. And we’re happy to hear it.
Photo by Flickr user DaigoOliva, used under a Creative Commons license.
