Fucked Up (band)

Fucked Up

Fucked Up receiving the 2009 Polaris Music Prize
Background information
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres Hardcore punk, punk rock, experimental rock,[1] indie rock, post-hardcore
Years active 2001–present
Labels Arts & Crafts (Canada), Matador, Deranged Records, Jade Tree
Associated acts Career Suicide, Ruination, No Warning, Wavves, S.H.I.T., Young Guv
Website fuckedup.cc
Members Damian Abraham
Jonah Falco
Mike Haliechuk
Ben Cook
Sandy Miranda
Josh Zucker

Fucked Up is a Canadian hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario.[2] The band won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for the album The Chemistry of Common Life.

History

2001–2006

The band formed and played their first shows in early 2001. The initial practicing lineup consisted of 10,000 Marbles (Mike Haliechuk, Lead guitar), Concentration Camp (Josh Zucker, Rhythm guitar, Vocals), Mustard Gas (Sandy Miranda, Bass Guitar) and Chris Colohan (of Left For Dead/The Swarm fame, and was lead vocalist for now-defunct Cursed). Just prior to recording their demo tape, Concentration Camp moved to guitar and vocal duties were taken over by Pink Eyes (Damian Abraham, also known as Mr. Damian). Drums are played by Mr. Jo (Jonah Falco, also credited as G. Beat or J. Falco).

Following the release of the demo, the band embarked on a long series of 7" records. The band released the "No Pasaran" 7" in May 2002. The Police 7" was released on March 2003, quickly followed the Baiting the Public 7" in May 2003. Two more 7"'s followed in 2004, the Dance of Death single, and the Litany 4-song ep. The vinyl releases to this point were collected on 2004s Epics in Minutes CD. The band was the subject of a two-minute 16 mm film showing its links to the Toronto hardcore scene, a local infoshop and punk radio show.

The band's use of imagery and symbolism (notable the use of Sigils) took a decided turn after the release of Epics in Minutes, as it was followed by two limited 12"s, the Looking for Gold 12", and the live Let Likes be Cured by Likes 12". The Looking for Gold 12" contained no liner notes or credits, no song titles, and a hidden track. It was self-released by the band in 2004 in two limited runs of 300 & 400 copies. The title track was 16 minutes long, used 18 guitar tracks, had a three-minute drum solo and contained 5 minutes of whistling.

In the summer of 2004 the band released the Generation 7" and 12" eps. After touring for most of 2005 the band took on David Eliade as a quasi-full-time manager/promoter. In early 2006 Eliade began shopping demos of songs from the planned Hidden World album to labels, ending with the band signing to Jade Tree Records for an early fall 2006 release of the album. Jade Tree is distributed by Touch & Go which in turn has a distribution agreement with ADA (Warner Music Group). Jade Tree licensed the vinyl version to Deranged Records, which released it as a double album in November 2006.

Several other records, such as Year of the Dog 12" were released, before the band went on the European tour, visiting England, Germany and Spain, among other places. January 16, 2007 marked the band's live television debut on MTV Live, where they were introduced as "Effed Up".[3] During their performance of their song "Baiting The Public", the majority of the audience were moshing and causing damage to the set (also visible was a cut from lead singer Damien's forehead), resulting in a sum of $2000 in damages. This performance sparked controversy and resulted in MTV Canada banning moshing from future MTV Live performances.[4]

2008–present

On October 9, 2008 the band returned to MTV Live, this time performing in the men's washroom. Once again, the band (and their fans) caused a large amount of damage, destroying the ceiling, spray painting walls and knocking over amps and a motorcycle which was brought into the washroom as a prop. Fans, who were told beforehand to stay out of the washroom and to watch from outside the door, rushed the doors and joined in the destruction the band had already started. The band was supposed to play three songs, but were stopped after the first song as MTV was not aware of the destruction the band had planned and were concerned about the safety of the band, audience and crew. On October 10 Abraham blogged about the performance on the MTV Live website, saying the bathroom performance was "f**king out of control terrifying."[5]

In November 2007, the band played a show in New York that was filmed for the movie Burn, directed by Richard Roepnack. The performance was positively reviewed in the New York Times, although the Times chose not to print the band's name, referring to them instead as a string of asterisks.[6][7]

The band signed to Matador Records in Spring of 2008. That summer, Matador reissued the "Year Of The Pig" 12" single. This time it came out with additional formats including a series of three 7"es, for the US, UK and Japan respectively, each with a different edit of the A-side and a new B-side. A CDEP compiled all the versions from the various vinyl versions. The band toured extensively in the UK behind this release, following it with a trip up the West Coast.

On October 7, 2008, Matador released Fucked Up's second album, "The Chemistry Of Common Life." It has received near-universal critical acclaim from publications such as the NME, The New York Times, Blender, Pitchfork, Alternative Press, Q Magazine and many more.[8] The band toured the Eastern US in October, including a much-covered 12-hour long show on the Bowery in New York on October 14. They were joined by musical guests including Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, Moby, John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, members of Endless Boogie, Les Savy Fav, Dinosaur Jr., and others.

In November 2008, the band participated with other similarly named bands, including Holy Fuck, Fuck, and Fuck Buttons in the Festival of the Fuck Bands music festival in the village of Fucking, Austria.[9]

Abraham at an April 2010 literacy event

In 2009, Damian Abraham was invited to become a regular guest (appearing one to three times a month) on the Fox News show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, which he had previously appeared on twice.[10]

In 2009 Fucked Up took part in an interactive documentary series called City Sonic. The series, which featured 20 Toronto artists, had lead singer Damian Abraham inside Rotate This talking about his love of vinyl and punk music.[11]

Fucked Up were confirmed to play the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York in September 2010. The band also confirmed they will play their annual Halloween gig in Toronto, October 31, 2010. The band had initially cancelled the event due to scheduled tour with Against Me!. "We were going to go on this tour in the UK with this band Against Me!, but then they cancelled all their shows for some reason (they never told us) so the tour isn't happening so we'll be in Toronto so we figure what the hell." They were joined by The Sadies at The Garrison, Toronto.

In February 2011, the band toured Australia for the first time as a part of the Soundwave Festival. Additionally, the band played some select side-shows from the festival with artists as diverse as The Bronx, Terror, H20, Trash Talk and Polar Bear Club.

On June 7, 2011, Fucked Up released their third studio album, David Comes to Life. A self-professed "rock opera" set in Thatcherite Britain, it tells a story of love, loss and redemption. The story is complicated by misdirection and unreliable narrators.[12][13] The record debuted at No. 83 on the Billboard 200 in the US.[14] It has received wide critical acclaim.[15][16][17][18]

In November 2011 it was announced that the band would be going on hiatus, as Abraham is not able to handle raising a family and tour the same time.[19]

In December 2011, Spin magazine named David Comes to Life its No. 1 Album of 2011, and put the band on the cover, writing "Fucked Up have synthesized 40 years of rock into what's ostensibly a hardcore record, and in doing so created its own logic."[20]

On February 7, 2012, the band was listed as one of the acts to be featured during the Orion Music + More Festival. The event took place June 23–24, 2012 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was curated by Metallica. The band was also listed to play Fun Fun Fun Fest in November, 2012, in Austin, Texas.[21]

In August 2012, Fucked Up was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize for the second time. The shortlist nomination described David Comes to Life as follows: "Excessive? Sure. Ridiculous? At times. Brilliant? Sounds pretty damn close to it."[22]

In March 2014, Fucked Up announced their fourth LP, named Glass Boys, which was released by Matador Records on June 3, 2014.[23]

Lawsuit

In January 2008, Fucked Up, along with Xiu Xiu, filed a lawsuit against Rolling Stone Magazine and Camel Cigarettes for an advertisement that included both bands in an Indie Rock Universe special.[24] The advertisement apparently portrayed the bands as supporters of Camel. Pink Eyes stated that "The fact that Fucked Up was mentioned in there wasn't some great coincidence. This isn't a case of subliminal advertising, where we're claiming that there were penises in the shadows — our name is right there. Maybe they thought we were too stupid to know what was going on."[24]

On January 28, 2010, The Court of Appeal of the State of California for the First Appellate District reversed the lower court's ruling, saying constitutional principles of freedom of speech and the press require that the lawsuit be dismissed.[25]

Collaborations

Fucked Up has collaborated extensively with other artists on record and during live performances. Hidden World features guest instrumentation from Final Fantasy, and guest vocals by Ben Cook of No Warning (2 years before he joined the band), George Pettit, formerly of Alexisonfire, Chris Colohan of Cursed, and Heidi Hazelton. Year of the Pig was written in part with Max Mccabe-Locos of The Deadly Snakes, who plays piano and organ on the record, and a lead vocal by Jennifer Castle of Castlemusic. In late 2007, the holiday charity single David Christmas featured guest vocals from Nelly Furtado, Davey Havok, David Cross, Shenae Grimes of Degrassi: The Next Generation and Faris Badwan of The Horrors, among others.[26]

On March 15, 2008 at the Mess With Texas Fest in Austin Tx, Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris joined Fucked Up on stage and sang Backed Against the Wall, Beverly Hills, and Nervous Breakdown.

On February 6, 2009 at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, they were joined onstage again by Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks to play the Black Flag song Nervous Breakdown.

On February 8, 2009 while playing at San Francisco's The Independent, Fucked Up were joined on stage by former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, for their encore of the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop".[27]

On December 8, 2009, Fucked Up released a second all-star Christmas single, this time a cover of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas," featuring Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, the members of Yo La Tengo, David Cross (again), Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, Tegan & Sara, Andrew W.K., Bob Mould, Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio, and GZA. Proceeds from the single go to benefit three charitable organizations working to publicize the high disappearance rate of Aboriginal women in Canada.[28]

On January 21, 2010, Abraham joined Dinosaur Jr. at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto for the encore, performing vocals on "Chunks". He made another appearance with Dinosaur on September 26, 2012 at Lee's Palace during the encore, performing the same vocals for "Chunks". He was accompanied by Murph at the microphone stand, while Harvey Milk (band) drummer Kyle Spence performed drums.

On April 15, 2011, Fucked Up released a special Record Store Day exclusive vinyl LP entitled David's Town. It is not billed to Fucked Up, and in fact pretends to be a compilation album documenting the scene in the fictitious UK city of Byrdesdale Spa,[29] the late '70s setting for the band's upcoming "rock opera" David's Come To Life.[30] Each song featured a guest singer (one was sung by the band's vocalist Abraham, three were sung by other band members), including Danko Jones, Wesley Patrick Gonzalez, Dan Romano, Simone Schmidt, Cee Kay and Cloud Nothings.[31]

Television appearances

This is the list of all known appearances of Fucked Up or their songs on mainstream television.

Members

10,000 Marbles (Mike Haliechuk) - Lead guitar. Previously of Ruination, he claimed to work at a lightbulb factory in an interview with Stereogum, but in reality works for a food co-op.[34]

Father Damian / Pink Eyes (Damian Abraham) - vocals. He has a wife, Lauren. On Saturday, February 14, 2009 at the early Chicago AV-aerie show Damian let the audience know that he and Lauren were expecting a child. The child, a boy named Holden, was born in summer 2009.[35] The couple appeared on a reality television show called Newly Wed, Nearly Dead.[36]

Mustard Gas (Sandy Miranda) - Bass guitar, vocals. Full-time bass guitar player. Part-time photographer.

Concentration Camp / Gulag (Josh Zucker) - Rhythm guitar. Zucker is a transient who was chosen as the original frontman for Fucked Up due to his confrontational manner but is now the band's guitarist.

Guinea Beat / Mr. Jo (Jonah Falco) - drums. Falco splits his time between playing drums for Fucked Up and playing guitar for Career Suicide, as well as being a full-time student. He has had to keep the existence of Fucked Up a secret from his family, with whom he lives, after his father declared the band's name "made him want to vomit."

Young Governor / Bad Kid / Lil' Bitey (Ben Cook) During the last half of 2007, Cook played many of Fucked Up's concerts as a third guitar player, and has done some songwriting, contributing to the "David Christmas" single. He plays on The Chemistry of Common Life and has toured with the band since his joining. He provides backing vocals during live sets in addition to his guitar work. He is a vocalist of No Warning. He provided backing vocals and song writing contribution to "David Comes To Life".

David Eliade - Visuals, spiritual and political guidance. Eliade is the "fifth Beatle", so to speak, and manages Fucked Up from behind the scenes. He has designed their logo, records, and influenced most of their lyrics. Eliade has coordinated most of their interviews, except for those conducted live on the road. He has begun taking a more visible role, acting as management for the band of late and working with them in the studio on the production of their forthcoming LP. He is the one who taught Haliechuk to garden and Camp to hop trains. He is the only person involved with the band who knows how to tune a guitar. Unfortunately he has never attended one of Fucked Up's live shows. It has been stated that David's name is a pseudonym. He shares his last taken name with Romanian writer Mircea Eliade, who is mentioned in the Hidden World booklet.

Discography

Studio albums

Collaborations

Compilation albums

Zodiac series

Other 12"s

Singles, EPs, demos, mixtapes, splits, and tapes

Music videos

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jason Lymangrover (2008-10-07). "The Chemistry of Common Life - Fucked Up | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  2. ↑ Sanneh, Kelefa (2007-11-12). "Music Review: ****** **. Outrage, Bile, Hardcore Punk ... and a Sensible Lost-and-Found". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Sutherland, Sam (2007). "What the Fuck? Curse Word Band Names Challenge the Music Industry". Exclaim! Magazine. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  4. ↑ Vice magazine: Fucked Up Banned From MTV
  5. ↑ F**ked Up Explains Bathroom Performance, by Sharlene Chiu, at MTV.ca (via archive.org); published October 10, 2008; retrieved September 23, 2014
  6. ↑ Music review: ********: Outrage, Bile, Hardcore Punk ... and a Sensible Lost-and-Found, by Kelefa Sanneh, at the New York Times; published November 12, 2007; retrieved September 23, 2014
  7. ↑ Hsu, Hua (2008-06-23). "****** **: Why do bands give themselves unprintable names?". Slate.
  8. ↑ "Chemistry Of Common Life Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  9. ↑ Lopez, Michael (27 January 2009). "Fucked Up and other F-Word Bands Congregate at the Festival of the Fuck Bands". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ "Watch Damian Abraham (Fucked Up) at Rotate This Video | City Sonic Films | Toronto Music Mobile Video". Citysonic.tv. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  12. ↑ "A Brief History of Punk Ambition: Part 1 « Frontier Psychiatrist". Frontpsych.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  13. ↑ Breihan, Tom (2011-01-19). "Fucked Up's Damian Abraham Talks About Becoming a VJ and Making a Rock Opera | News". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  14. 1 2 "Music Albums, Top 200 Albums & Music Album Charts". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  15. ↑ Fitzmaurice, Larry (2011-06-08). "Fucked Up: David Comes to Life | Album Reviews". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  16. ↑ Raftery, Brian (2011-06-07). "Fucked Up, 'David Comes to Life' (Matador)". SPIN.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  17. ↑ Gotrich, Lars (2011-05-30). "First Listen: F- Up, 'David Comes To Life'". NPR. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  18. ↑ "David Comes To Life Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  19. ↑ "F*cked Up announce hiatus". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  20. ↑ Spin Staff. SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2011. Spin. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  21. ↑ "Artists : Fun Fun Fun". Funfunfunfest.com. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  22. ↑ "The 2012 Short List - Polaris Music Prize". polarismusicprize.ca. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  23. ↑ "Interview with Damian Arbraham, Fucked Up". frontpsych.com. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  24. 1 2 "The Indie Rock Universe Strikes Back: Fucked Up and Xiu Xiu file class action lawsuit against Camel and Rolling Stone". The Daily Swarm. 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  25. ↑ Archived May 18, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ↑
  27. ↑ Harper, Kate (2009-02-10). "Fucked Up Play With Jello". CHARTattack. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  28. ↑ "Matablog". Matador Records. 2009-12-08. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  29. ↑ "F*cked Up announce 'David's Town' LP for Record Store Day". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  30. ↑ "Fucked Up to release rock opera album in June | News". Nme.Com. 2011-03-27. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  31. ↑ "Album sleeve notes". 3.bp.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  32. ↑ "Looking For Gold: Freitag Nacht Beleuchtungen". Lookingforgold.blogspot.com. 2008-10-24. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  33. ↑ "Skins - Music guide: series 3, episode 1". E4.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  34. ↑ "Quit Your Day Job: Fucked Up". Stereogum. 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  35. ↑ Sutherland, Sam. "Fucked Up - Damian Abraham • Questionnaire •". Exclaim.ca. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  36. ↑ "Get Cooking, Fine Living Fans! : Site : Cooking Channel". Fineliving.com. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  37. ↑ "CHART LOG UK: NEW ENTRIES UPDATE : 18.06.2011". Zobbel.de. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  38. ↑ Hudson, Alex (March 30, 2011). "Fucked Up Reveal Another New Concept Album, Share Track". Exclaim!. Retrieved April 2, 2011.

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