To their fans, Fugazi are considered to be one of the most important and uncompromising bands of the past 30 years, influencing acts such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Strokes and The Killers.

But the group became known as much for their alternative stance towards the music industry as their post-hardcore music - the members of Fugazi have always been dedicated to keeping concert admission fees as low as possible and don't sell merchandise while touring.

They've played over 1000 concerts since forming in Washington DC in 1987, over 800 of which were recorded by their sound engineers. Now, despite being on an indefinite musical hiatus since 2003, the band continues to work together on the Fugazi Live Series archive project.

The goal of the project is to make that huge catalogue of recordings available to download, for a small fee. The BBC caught up with the band's guitarist and vocalist, Ian MacKaye, to find out why they are making this foray onto the web.

Produced by Bill McKenna.

Photos courtesy of Dischord, Fugazi, Glen E. Friedman, Chris Tolliver, Jody Morris, Jeff Winterberg, Joe Henderson, Var, Jim Saah, J. Venvercoh, Jodi Vigneau, Dez, K. Carnie, Bryan Peek, Andrew Geddes, Ken Salerno, Joey Lin, Sean Gustillo, Shawn Scallen, Bert Queiroz, Pat Graham, JoAnn Cobb, Molly M. Stevens, Michael Ackerman, Samuel Maquiera, Bob Weston, Marecio Rossi.

The Fugazi Live Series website was designed and produced for Dischord by Alec Bourgeois and was developed by Jerrod Blavos of RecCenter.

Super 8 film footage shot at Fort Reno, Washington DC by Bill McKenna.