Brightest Young Things

If you're a member of what is/was probably the most well-respected rock band of the past thirty years, how do you make the transition from post-hardcore drummer to uber-cool, post-suburban papa?

all photos: Dakota Fine

Smoothly, of course.  Smooth as the Trader Joe's organic vanilla yogurt wedged between the Pace picante salsa and the Light Links Smart Dogs Veggie Protein Links in your refrigerator.

We recently caught up with Brendan Canty, drummer of seminal post-hardcore band Fugazi, scorer of Discovery Channel television shows, writer of the catchy-ass Pancake Mountain theme song and probably the coolest dad on the planet.  Eventually every kid is going to google their parents.  Imagine if this is what your kids saw when they googled you:

Hard to top that.  But if it were to be topped, the Cantys would most likely have something in their fridge to do the trick.

Unlike other iceboxes presented in this series, the Canty family's is chock full of real ingredients for a brood of growing kids.  SMJOR Icelandic butter? Gag. Duck Eggs and Crave Brothers Marscapone Cheese? Get lost.  This is a REAL fridge.  With CHICKEN eggs and CHEDDAR cheese.  Don't you forget it.  No butter from Iceland here.

The last thing you expect to hear from a member of Fugazi when you go to his house to document the contents of his fridge are 'do you guys want a beer?'.

Brendan Canty: Do you guys want a beer?

BYT: No thank you.  Aren't you straight edge?

Brendan Canty: No, no, I haven't been for a long time.

BYT: Do you cook?

Brendan Canty: My wife and I both cook, she is a much better cook than me, but we both cook, that's why we turned half our house into a kitchen.

BYT: What about barbeque?

Brendan Canty: Yeah, we bbq but we use charcoal so we don't do it as much as we should. We need a new gas grill.

BYT: So do you entertain?

Brendan Canty: You know, when you have four kids it's basically whoever stops by.  My family is DC-based.  My mom and sister live here [in D.C.] and so do a lot of extraneous people so we pretty regularly have big dinner parties.

BYT: You were born in the District?

Brendan Canty: Born and raised in Cleveland Park. Same zip code.

BYT: Have you ever left?

Brendan Canty: We lived out in Seattle, my wife and I.  When she was going to school we were out there for four years.

Dakota: Were you in Seattle in the 90's during the grunge thing?

Brendan Canty: I was.  I was in Fugazi so I was flying back and forth.  I kept a room in a house on Irving Street. 1843 Irving Street.

BYT: Born and raised here.  You must have a lot of great memories.

Brendan Canty: I saw the Bad Brains when I was 13 years old.  Those were like my first shows.  Straight up punk rock shows.

BYT: Have you seen Bad Brains lately?

Brendan Canty: Nah, I don't go see my heroes.  It's a bad thing, you don't want to do that.  I did go see Public Image Limited [Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols' other band] the other night.  He's out of his f*cking mind.

BYT: You drummed for Bob Mould, correct?

Brendan Canty: Yes I did.

BYT: Did you ever go to any of his Blowoff nights at the 9:30 club?

Brendan Canty: Yes

BYT: Did you take your shirt off?

Brendan Canty: (laughs) No. That wouldn't have gone over well.  You have to be buff to be a bear.

BYT: You can be a fat bear.  You just have to have hair to be a bear.  I think fat is actually part of it.  You don't have to be buff, you just have to be big.

Brendan Canty: Being on tour with Bob is definitely Bearville (cracks up).  Every night.  Every night.

BYT: When was the last time Fugazi played together?

Brendan Canty: 2001 or 2002. [it was March 2002]

BYT: Any plans to record or play anytime soon?

Brendan Canty: No, no plans.  Ian and I play together sometimes.  But I don't know about another album.  Ian and I wrote a bunch of songs for a Matt Hoffman documentary we were working on. You know that 30 for 30 series ESPN is working on?  It was for that.

BYT: Where do you shop?

Brendan Canty: Trader Joes for veggie sausages and junk like that. Safeway for the milk and cheeses, and assorted junkie items for the kids, and the New Morning Farm farmers market by us for the awesome veggies!

Brendan's not the only filmmaker in the house.  His son is getting in on the act, too.  Check out this video that he made about the DC landmark that is Ben's Chili Bowl.  This kid's gonna knock the ladies dead.

Like what you saw? Check out previous “What’s in You Fridge? ” posts

• DC Vegan’s Amnber McDonald
• Josh Sisk, photographer, author of “Under the Strobe Light”
• Todd Kliman, food & wine editor of “Washingtonian”
• Josh Short, pastry chef of BUZZ Bakery
• Robb Duncan and Violeta Edelman of DOLCEZZA Gelato
• Miriam’s Kitchen
• Scott Drewno, of The Source
• Tim Carman, food columnist “Washington City Paper”
• DCVegan’s Amber McDonald
• Billy Klein, executive chef of Cafe ST-EX
• Spike Mendelsohn of TOP Chef and Good Stuff Eatery
• Jeff Mills, new food service director for DC Public Schools
• Amanda McClements of Metrocurean
• Nycci Nellis of TheListAreYouOnIt
• Joe Yonan, Editor of Washington Post Food Section
• Warren Brown of CakeLove

Is there a fridge you’d like to see in here? Let us know in comments or at info@brightestyoungthings.com

Previously in I Heart DC:

• 5/24: DC NEWS YOU CAN (MAYBE) USE...
• 5/23: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
• 5/23: BYT Patio and Outdoor Dining Guide - Spring/Summer 2012
• 5/22: DC NEWS YOU CAN (MAYBE) USE...
• 5/21: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
• 5/21: PHOTOS: Artomatic 2012 Opening
• 5/18: DC NEWS YOU CAN (MAYBE) USE...
• 5/17: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
• 5/16: D.C. NEWS YOU CAN (MAYBE) USE...
• 5/16: Photos: Dance In The Circle @ Dupont Circle