Meat Parts

Back in March, the band did a segment for an "internet tv show" called Dinner With The Band in New York. You should have seen the amounts of pizza there was. Anyhow, they made some food and played a few songs. That night it took about 4 hours to get out of NY, a disaster voyage that somehow passed through Newark twice. You can find the link here.














Plus, Pink Eyes interviewed The Black Lips on MTV yesterday. If you live in Canada, you can see it here. I haven't seen it yet obviously, because I live in Karachi.

Here is some more info about the upcoming Fucked Up show in New York:

BE IN A MOVIE WITH FUCKED UP

On Nov 10 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn Fucked Up's set will be a LIVE TAKE to be thematically included in Richard Roepnacks upcoming movie BURN. BURN follows the adventures of two arsonist thief lesbian republicans as they tear up dystopian New York City and evade the police, drunk bail bondsmen and aliens.

At one point in the film one of the characters winds up in a club to lose someone on her tail, and walks in on a Fucked Up show. The camera follows her through the crowd during the concert as she finally makes her way on stage with a cop and a bail bondsman trailing.

Fucked Up's set, and anyone watching it will be part of the film. It is being shot by multiple camera angles throughout the building (on 35mm film!). There are no "takes" and no re-do's, however the shot goes and whatever the crowd does, thats how the scene will be captured for the movie.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10
MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG (66 North 6 St.)
8PM price TBA 16+
FUCKED UP
MIND ERASER
86 MENTALITY
+1

LIVE MOVIE SHOOT INSANITY

Advance tickets will be on sale here on Friday, so make sure to snatch them up.

Feist

It's time to announce our annual fest. So here we go. Some info may change and more bands are gonna get added.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 19
7pm 19+
Sneaky Dee's 431 College St at Bathurst
BRUTAL KNIGHTS
DIRECT CONTROL
HOMOSTUPIDS
CAREER SUICIDE
MILLENIAL REIGN

FRIDAY OCTOBER 19
12am ALL AGES
AFTER PARTY @ ADRIFT SKATESHOP 299 Augusta Ave.
URBAN BLIGHT
DIRTY BS

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th
6pm ALL AGES
THE KATHEDRAL 651 Queen West at Bathurst
FUCKED UP
MIND ERASER
THE TRANZMITORS
SEX VID
DOUBLE NEGATIVE
SOCIAL CIRCKLE
WASTE MANAGEMENT

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th
12am ALL AGES
AFTER PARTY @ ADRIFT SKATESHOP 299 Augusta Ave.
ATTACK IN BLACK
MARVELOUS DARLINGS
RAMPAGE

SUNDAY OCTOBER 21st
8pm
The Horseshoe 370 Queen St W. at Spadina
FUCKED UP
THE TRANZMITORS
DD/MM/YYYY
STATUES
CASTLEMUSIC

In other news, we're doing a split 12" single release with our new friends THE BESNARD LAKES. More info later. Next update we'll have more info on the show in NY on Nov 10.

Friday

Hi it's me, Octavio. I have no life and they are making me update this on a Friday night. I have to work early tommorow morning anyhow at the stapler factory, so I'm not going out tonight anyhow.

This zine The New York Times reviewed (sort of) Year of the Pig. You can find it here. They couldn't say our name, but we're pretty sure they were talking about us, and not the Japanese band "Messed Up" that was on Blurred Records and is pre-JABARA:

That’s the name of a monstrous new 18-minute song by a neo-hardcore band from Toronto. And the name of the band? Well, suffice it to say that if newspaper coverage were a priority, the members might have called themselves Messed Up instead. You can find “Year of the Pig” on iTunes and elsewhere. The 1980s Portland, Ore., band Poison Idea is an obvious influence, although Poison Idea wasn’t known for composing multipart epics about sexism and serial killing and the meat industry. In any case, this is an unreasonably stubborn song, building momentum slowly as the guest singer Jennifer Castle murmurs the lyrics (“Pigs at the trough show no fear”) and Pink Eye, the band’s lead singer, roars them (“Pigs at the trough getting fat!”). The band trudges slowly along for six minutes, then builds momentum, then lurches forward, riding a relatively sleek groove as Pink Eye declaims the words (“Ashamed of the pig in our head/Ashamed, so we kill ’em instead”) as the band stretches up and surges forward and, finally, collapses in a heap. This is the second installment in a series inspired by the Chinese zodiac; with any luck, “Year of the Rat” is up next. (By Kalefa Sanneh)


Here is the info for our first Pop Montreal show:

Wednesday October 3
@ Theater National (1200 St Catherine E.)
PERE UBU
FUCKED UP
THUNDRAH

We play at "22.00" which is french for 10pm. Get tickets here.

Some other cool news I just learned from the internet is that we have a split 7" coming out with the defunct band Think I Care, who we played with a few times. Its coming with the Town Of Hardcore book, and is gonna be taken from a live show we did at CBGBs. Not sure when it's coming out, but you can stay ahead by going to this website and waiting.

A while back the band did a piece for The Strand that was supposed to be like an annotated history of Fucked Up, up to the point where they left for SXSW last year. Friend Zach Feldberg put it together, and it came out pretty cool. If this is your first time here, this should bring you up to speed somewhat. If you are a journalist, you can use this in place of the FU bio from now on. This is an edited version, real names have been changed to fake names.

Fucked Up: The First Six Years, but Zach Feldberg
Late last year, on a seasonably cold Friday night, Fucked Up played an unannounced show to about 75 people in a small, windowless room hidden behind a small, windowless bar in downtown Montreal. Those who assembled there that night met the surprise performance with unbridled energy, and were treated to a brutal and exciting set in return. This was a show for the same people who had been going to see this Toronto punk quintet at similarly modest affairs over the course of the past five years.

If this dive was the Harlem Square Club - that is, a place for the "regulars" - then you might say that the room they played the next night, the glossy Petit Campus club on Prince-Arthur, was the Copa, a good-sized venue filled to capacity with curious people who probably didn't know the Friday show had even happened. Fucked Up singer Steve Tango did his best to goad the crowd into emitting any kind of reaction, regularly spitting fine mists of Red Bull into the air like some kind of human crop duster. But alas, the same band that so readily engaged their audience just one night prior was, on this night, strictly a spectacle. Fucked Up - rounded out by lead guitarist Zander Michelin, bassist Gummo Ritcalf, rhythm guitarist Moshe Litchenstein and drummer Stevie Nicks - has developed a legendary reputation for its fierce live shows, and not for nothing, but the crowds that they're drawing nowadays are of an altogether different breed.

So goes the mixed blessing of crossover success. When a band - or just a record, or even a single song - ventures out into the world and connects with a group much larger and broader than anyone would have expected, thousands greater than its core audience, it's worth considering what exactly brought about that success. How is it that five years on, this elusive punk band with a career limiting name is being called "the only band right now that matters" by the New York Daily News?

The answer to that question might lie hidden somewhere inside the band's five year history - or maybe it doesn't. But for the purposes of this article, we may as well stick to the facts.

"When did Fucked Up form again?"

The fact that Steve is asking me this question just before I start jotting down my notes does not bode well for the chronology that he and I are putting together today. Luckily, a well-timed phone call from Zander confirms that our story begins in 2001, and so it goes…

The following is an annotated history of the first five years of Fucked Up.

2001
- In the spring, Fucked Up formed with Moshe on vocals, Zander on guitar, Butterworth on bass, and Chris Colohan (The Swarm, Left for Dead) on drums.

- By the time summer rolls around, Fucked Up played its first show with Moby on drums instead of Chris. Moshe goes away for the summer, so Steve is brought in to sing "On a temporary basis"; during this time, their first demo is recorded.

- Upon Moshe's return, says Steve, "He was told that he couldn't be the singer in the band anymore and he said, 'Okay, I'll just learn how to play guitar.'"

- After a calamitous show with Haymaker in late summer at a pre-facelift Jewish Community Centre, Gord from Deranged Records offers to put out the first Fucked Up 7". "It's also a show that Zander strangled a little kid at."

- Fucked Up plays Equalizing Distort (Sundays at 10pm on CIUT 89.5) for the first time. Steve makes up all the lyrics on the spot. (Half of this set appears on the Epics In Minutes CD)

- Steve claims he is going to quit the band.

2002
- Fucked Up goes to Blue Tilt Studio to record the No Pasaran 7", because that's where Left For Dead recorded their demo. In tribute to the studio's incredible number of cats, it is affectionately known as Cat Piss Studios.

- Fucked Up plays the U.S for the first time, performing in Chicago and Buffalo to a lukewarm reception. (And Cleveland)

- In July, "We went to Signal To Noise and worked with Jon Drew for the first time and recorded the Police 7" as well as the split with Haymaker." The Police single gets a glowing review in Maximumrocknroll and ushers in "The beginning of the ego. And also the beginning of MRR's love/hate relationship with Fucked Up."

- Steve claims he is going to quit the band.

2003
- A quick Wikipedia check confirms that Police actually came out in 2003, so, whoops. For the rest of this timeline, Wikipedia will remain open in a separate window to avoid this type of embarrassing mistake in the future.

- The band is warmly received up and down the east coast during its first US tour with Punch In The Face and Fourteen Or Fight.

- "Our first good Toronto show happened in 2003, also. At Matt Bickle's house. And, that summer, we recorded Baiting The Public at Audiolab with Chris Hegge, because Career Suicide had recorded there."

- The 7" is regarded as "pretentious garbage" because it features one song split over two sides of a record, and also sets a time record for the band because the song was close to 6 minutes long. "Little did people know that in two short years Fucked Up would begin writing 13 minute long songs…"

- Steve claims he is going to quit the band.

2004
- Fucked Up breaks the format and puts out a 4-song 7" in 2004 with Litany.

- Further breaking the format, and caving into Deranged's "Constant harassing of us to put out a CD," Epics in Minutes is released, compiling all of the band's singles to that point.

- The band plays Wavelength on Hallowe'en, "Frightening many an indie rocker," and kicking off a tradition of annual Hallowe'en shows. The band is attacked onstage.

2005
- The Generation 7" comes out, and "At this point people are complaining that we put out way too many records."

- Fucked Up goes to California for the first time, and acquires an insatiable appetite for In N Out Burger. Steve decides that he doesn't like Mexican food anymore after eating too many burritos.

- Maximumrocknroll publishes an interview with the band, which, "Following the band's failure to find anyone suitable to interview them, is totally self-written." (not true)

- Vice Magazine runs a piece about the band, and its UK record label division puts out the Triumph of Life single, thereby beginning the band's relationship with Vice, much to the chagrin of many in the punk community.

- Towards the end of the year, Langon, Alphonse and Amadeo begin the early stages of planning the Hidden World LP.

- Fucked Up visits Europe for the first time and Steve refuses to go, citing a nervous breakdown brought on during a weekend tour Pink Eye, one of his other bands. (yeah right)

2006
- Fucked Up goes to Philadelphia to play with Hardskin and Dillinger Four at which point "We met a very drunk Darren Walters from Jade Tree Records who compliments [Damian] on [his] bright orange jacket." The two begin talking about Jade Tree putting out Hidden World.

- Following a brief period of deliberation, the band signs to Jade Tree and three days later is at Hallamusic recording Hidden World with Jon Drew.

- The recording session takes two weeks, with the band taking a break in the middle to go to England for a short tour.

- They also keep going to America but Steve doesn't remember exactly when or where.

- Fucked Up celebrates the release of Hidden World by doing a weekend of sold out shows, but this triumph is short lived as the group is banned from going to America two days later for trying to sneak across the border without work permits.

- The Globe and Mail does a feature on the band, which gives Steve's parents great joy.

- Following EYE Magazine putting the band on the cover, Dingo's parents find out that he's in a band called Fucked Up, resulting in his parents being "very disappointed".

- The band goes on a three-week European tour over New Year's where Alonzo begrudgingly actually tags along and sings. They are well received in every city, and play three consecutive sold-out shows in London. "I love visiting England," the NME quoted Hemo as saying from the stage. "It's like visiting a dying grandmother."

- Stevo claims he is going to quit the band.

2007
- The band determines that "Germans are fucking weird" and "Barcelona is the best place on Earth and the Spanish people rule."

- Fucked Up plays their infamous MTV set, causing $2000 worth of damage to the soundstage. A HAZMAT team is called in to remove a syringe and "pints" of blood from the stage.

- Steve claims he is going to quit again, before leaving for South by Southwest in Austin, TX.

- Fucked Up leaves for SXSW, Steve in tow.

(Also a lot of other shit happened.)

Here is another interview they did on tour in the summer, one of the stupidest. Unbelievably, it cost like $80 in roaming charges and took almost an entire (and part of the following day) to complete.

Another update - we're going to start doing PODCASTS on this thing. Most likely I'll be doing all the work. Keep your ears peeled for that.

Tentative

Hey we just got back from Osheaga. The food was great. Blonde Redhead also were great.

Ok, this update will include only TENTATIVE plans.

We are going to come back to Montreal to play Pop Montreal. I can tell you tentatively that we'll be playing with Pere Ubu on Wednesday October 3rd, and the Whats Your Rupture showcase on Saturday October 6th. On the 6th we're going to tentatively be playing "Year of the Pig" live for the first time ever. Tentatively these people will be there to play it with us:



We're also going to be participating in the Pop Montreal road hockey thing and we will destroy you if you're also involved. Notice I didn't say "tentatively".

In fact, here is the poster for the Saturday show:
Be warned - we play at 11pm sharp! This is because of a timing conflict for us. But for you, it means you can see us, Career Suicide and Jay Reatard that night without missing anything. Notice that we are still at the TOP of the poster.

Tentatively, later that month we're gonna throw our annual "End of October" thing. It's going to be October 19th, 20th and 21st. I can tell you that tentatively it's going to involve bands like SEX VID, THE TRANZMITORS, DOUBLE NEGATIVE, THE MARVELOUS DARLINGS, and tentatively we're going to play Year of the Pig again. So tentatively set your watches for that weekend.

Also in the tentatively category, we're going to be playing New York again on November 10th. This will be a special sort of show. Our director friend Richard Roepnack is shooting a movie, and we're going to have a part in it. Tentatively, its going to be at the new Music Hall of Williamsburg, in South-Greenpoint Brooklyn.
The shot is going to be one take with no re-dos, so if you're at this show you're going to be part of the shot and in the movie. More details later.

Oh yeah, tentatively Year of the Pig is being released as a 12" in the UK on Vice Records. That will be out in a few months. Tentatively, the tune is being edited down as 2 seperate 7" a-sides. More info later! Also just to quell some rumours, we are NOT doing a Christmas 7" this year.

Tentatively, HG:Fact is doing a Japan-style singles collection. Also we're gonna go there soon. Not sure why you need to know that.

Also tentatively we're starting to work on our next record tentatively entitled The Chemistry of Common Life. Get some knowledge.