What Up Mikos

SUMMER

Hey we're gonna be doing some festivals this summer. The first one is Coachella:

I DO NOT SUCK

Presented is the following pictorial evidence, so that the learned readers of this, and that other blog, may judge for themselves, who indeed does, suck the most, and who in fact, hates the strongest. Ps Damian that gold hat really does make you look like a bear C3P0.

Back when we were smart...

...We used to write stuff like this all time time.



The Mindful Bard
Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life

Books, Music, and Film to Wake Up Your Muse and Help You Change the World
Wanda Waterman St. Louis
Volume 17 Issue 03 2009-01-23

CD: Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life

Release date: 2008

Label: Matador Records

Demon Spawn Acid Punk Call-to-Arms Rousing the Fainthearted to Radical Consciousness

Ignite the crust
Inseminate the dust
The cultured quartz that rises high
The stone refined that lives and shines
Be the vessel, be the knife stone and metal
Come to life in the crux
The cross divine
The shell, the purpose, the sublime . . .

Fucked Up, title track, The Chemistry of Common Life

In the story of the Pied Piper the town of Hamelin is teeming with rats. The townspeople have done all they can to oust the vermin, to no avail, so when a flutist comes to town and offers, for a sum, to charm the rats away the people immediately agree to his terms. But once the rats have been led away to drown in the river the townsfolk don’t think it necessary to pay the piper. Later on, he returns for their children.

The Chemistry of Common Life places a value on beginnings and endings. The title song is at once a creation hymn and an ode to the apocalypse. The album opens and closes with a flute soliloquy; the tune at the start is like an offer of redemption, the warble at the end somewhat less beatific. You can almost hear somebody saying, “You failed to give me what you promised, so I’m taking your children.”

It seems the children are following, entranced, in droves. Fucked Up’s career has so far straddled the two George W. Bush terms, and aptly so; their music is a radically fitting response to an era notorious for expensive and life-destroying exercises in futility, not to mention broken deals with rat catchers.

History regurgitates. The ‘70s–‘80s punk phase was timed to coincide with recession, Reaganomics, and mounting conservatism. Punk rock issued a loud challenge to the dirty dealers of the time while deliberately avoiding the hypocrisies exhibited by ‘60s pop culture icons.

Having come of age in this grimily divine epoch there is still a warm place in my heart for incarnations of punk in its sincerest forms.

It’s hard to get more sincere than Fucked Up, which manages to create poignancy with screaming vocals and ripping power chords (is such a thing even possible?). Not only are the message and poetry of the lyrics delightfully (or offensively?) at odds with the hardcore sound, you can barely hear what the singer is saying.

If it weren’t for the liner notes you wouldn’t imagine that the rebel yells included lines like “The Greek gods watch down from the heights of Mount Zion joking that the worship of the literal doesn’t fade with time . . .”

The theology is questionable but intriguing, and I’d be the last to question the poet’s right to disseminate ideas; to paraphrase Reginald Shepherd, poets initiate the future.

This is neither the self-indulgent word-diarrhea of the art rockers nor the self-consciously simple-minded ditties of so many garage band wannabes. “Crooked Head,” for example, is at once a stirring anthem to psychological anomaly and a kind of Zen renunciation of worldly ambitions.

The lead singer is rumoured to have schizophrenia, which if true, is one clear sign of the band’s punk integrity; taking the outcasts of society and placing them centre-stage, like Joey Ramone with his obsessive-compulsive disorder, or Ian Dury with his polio-damaged limbs, is a reliable demonstration of the punk ethos.

We have some cause to worry about great bands like this when society at large changes tides. Punk rock seems culturally more significant during those times when bozos have the wheel and use it to force us into reverse, but recent developments in the US have given its citizens an unprecedented optimism which is rippling throughout the world. In times like these, can a band like Fucked Up continue to be relevant? I’m anxious to see.

The Chemistry of Common Life manifests eight of The Mindful Bard’s criteria for music well worth a listen: 1) it is authentic, original, and delightful; 2) it confronts, rebukes, and mocks existing injustices; 3) it displays an engagement with and compassionate response to suffering; 4) it inspires an awareness of the sanctity of creation; 5) it is about attainment of the true self; 6) it provides respite from a sick and cruel world, a respite enabling me to renew myself for a return to mindful artistic endeavour; 7) it stimulates my mind; and 8) it poses and admirably responds to questions which have a direct bearing on my view of existence.

The Bard could use some help scouting out new material. If you discover any books, compact disks, or movies which came out in the last twelve months and which you think fit the Bard's criteria, please drop a line to bard@voicemagazine.org. For a list of criteria, go here. If I agree with your recommendation, I'll thank you online.

FOX

Oh shit Damian was on TV again (at 3am) (on fox news):

ADD

Hey, so we were recently featured in that movie Be Kind Rewind where they make things look really old and sound weird:



You can watch the rest of the videos right HERE.

Phoenix

Philly

Attention Extreme Blog Commentors (EBC): Damian now has his own blog, where you can make tons of comments about how hot he is, how much you'd like to see a sex tape of him, and various other topics, not including house music, liverpool football club, music, things that are cool, and other topics not already covered on this blog. It's right HERE so remember to book market, because he tends to update is blogs atleast once every six months. Note the hilarious title.

One thing we haven't talked about for a while is records. We are still putting those out.

For now, you can get our MIXTAPE VOLUME 4 from us on tour. If you aren't seeing us, maybe you'll be able to get a copy from somewhere in the future.




The long lost No Epiphany 7" is finally going to come out. It will be available on Matador in about a month and a half. The bside features a remix of the tune from our bros in NO AGE, that rips.



Finally, some of you may have noticed that in New York and Philadelphia, a few copies of the Year of the Rat 12" accidentally slipped into existence. If you got one, you are lucky. The rest will be released with a real cover and etc around the same time as No Epiphany, and we should have both in time for the UK tour in March.

HI

Hi, we're on tour, it's great - all of our stuff is working, including our amps and all the little shit in the van, which I might add, is not full or dirty. No one is coming to our shows and no one takes pictures of our faces with these insanely bright flashes, even when we are just standing there tuning, or something even less interesting. No one has smashed a guitar or flipped out for no reason, and we're making tons of money and not blowing it all on cookies and milkshakes all day. We drove on the highway to McDonalds to hear Obama make a speech and listened to poems on the Mass Pike. We aren't destroying anything or making mistakes.

In a few weeks there will be a benefit for a group of people who have real problems -

"On Sunday, February 8th we are putting on a benefit for the family of Oscar Grant, the young man that was fatally shot by a BART police officer on the night of New Years Eve in Oakland, CA. The show will be taking place at Gilman St. in Berkeley and will feature Two Gallants, Trash Talk and two more bands that will be announced shortly plus A VERY SPECIAL guest that will be announced the morning of Feb 8th. The cover is $12 and all of the money will be donated to his family."

A BENEFIT FOR THE FAMILY OF OSCAR GRANT
Sunday, February 8th
Two Gallants
Trash Talk
+ many more to be announced shortly
@ Gilman St
925 Gilman st. Berkeley, CA
3:00pm / $12 / All Ages
Brought to you by the Trash Talk Collective & the Fuck Yeah Fest

A few months ago we played a set for CBC Radio 3, which turned out pretty good. You can download it now from right HERE, I guess instead of streaming it.


Thanks to everyone on tour so far who has made us not die.

HIYA

Here are a bunch of posters:





Also we have this crazy new MIXTAPE now - you can buy it from us on TOUR:



That is not a fake cover, btw.

YUNG GOV

Hey the first Young Gov 7" is out on this label. You can get it there or from us on tour real soon.

Two Snakes

Hello fans. The "Two Snakes" 7" has just been released in Japan on HG Fact. For those keeping track, that makes it: England, Germany, Greece, North America, Japan issues for this single. Still waiting on Israel, Yukon, Azerbaijan and Kiribati editions in the future. Here is the blurb from the label, so you can try to order one (there are 250 copies only):

(ps you aren't gonna get one)

HG fact new release

FUCKED UP - Two Snakes HG-236 (7"EP) ltd 350 copies!

The track is originally on the 2xLP Hidden World released by Jade Tree
but was re-mastered and separated on two 7inch sides. Probably the most
powerful track on the Hidden World 2xLP.
Fucked Up are from Toronto Canada and play tuneful hardcore. On the
records they expanded the bondaries of hardcore with a lot of cool
arrangements and ideas and bring in many other influences but live all
songs are shorter and in the face, just plain hardcore. A band with a
lot of ideas, humor, content and success!

Here the pressing details:
Fucked Up - Two Snakes
remastered by Frank "SAW" Bolz
250 pressed english version (papercovers+ english xerox lyricsheet) ~
2006 all sold on the last euro tour
250 pressed german version (50x papercovers+ german xerox lyricsheet /
200x Screenprint cover with screeenprint german lyric sheet) ~ 2006
350 pressed greek version (Screenprint cover with screeenprint greek
lyric sheet) 11/08
350 pressed japanese version (Screenprint cover with screeenprint
japanese lyric sheet) 11/08

Mail order! Please send 1381jpy to my account
MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT
hgfact@japan.interq.or.jp

so If you want to buy it then, Please send order to this e-mail for
reservation!


Thanks

TAD


-------------------------------------


HGfact
105, 2-7-15 YAYOI-CHO, NAKANO, TOKYO, 164-0013, JAPAN
TEL & FAX 81-3-5304-0833

hgfact@japan.interq.or.jp
http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/hgfact

http://www.myspace.com/hgfact


Please send money to my paypal account

VIDEO

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CH CH CHANGES

Hey we've developed personal vendettas against a lot of the commentors on this blog recently, so to reflect that, we've totally changed our shit up and added and/or cancelled a bunch of dates on our upcoming tour. Also - if the show in your town isn't all ages, or at some weird huge club we shouldn't be playing at, it's because we hate you. Here are the new DATES:

Fri-Jan-16 Ottawa, ON Maverick's
Sat-Jan-17 Montreal, QC La Sala Rossa (with Aids Wolf)
Sun-Jan-18 Portland, ME Space Gallery
Mon-Jan-19 Boston, MA Middle East Upstairs
Tue-Jan-20 Brooklyn, NY Market Hotel (with Vivian Girls & Pissed Jeans)
*This MAY be the Year of the Rat 12" release show*
Wed-Jan-21 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
Thu-Jan-22 Baltimore, MD Talking Head (with Vincent Black Shadow)
Fri-Jan-23 Charlottesville, VA Outback Lodge
Sat-Jan-24 Charlotte, NC Milestone
Sun-Jan-25 Atlanta, GA The Earl (with the Carbonas, Bukkake Boys)
Tue-Jan-27 Gainesvile, FL Common Grounds (with Iron Livers)
Wed-Jan-28 Tallahassee, FL Engine Room
Thu-Jan-29 New Orleans, LA Ducbo (with Iron Age)
Fri-Jan-30 Houston, TX Walter's on Washington (with Iron Age)
Sat-Jan-31 Austin, TX Emo's (with Iron Age and Annihilation Time)
Mon-Feb-02 Albuquerque, NM The Launchpad
Tue-Feb-03 Phoenix, AZ Phix Gallery
Wed-Feb-04 San Diego, CA Casbah (with Mika Miko)
Fri-Feb-06 Los Angeles, CA The Echo (with Mika Miko)
Sat-Feb-07 Pomono, Ca @ Angelenos Pizza (with Mika Miko)
Sun-Feb-08 San Francisco, CA The Independent (with Mika Miko)
Wed-Feb-11 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
Thu-Feb-12 Omaha, NE Waiting Room
Fri-Feb-13 Grinnell, IA Grinnell College - Gardner Lounge
Sat-Feb-14 Chicago, IL High Concepts Laboratory (early ALL AGES)
Sat-Feb-14 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle (late 21+)


We will have some new shirts, mixtape volume 3, Year of the Rat 12", so if you could move up we can all have some fun please.

DAVID COMES TO LIFE

Hey we started rehearsing our musical the other day:


FURTHER:
Year of the Rat will/should be out for our tour starting in New York on Jan 20. The full release date will be sometime in March.
This years Christmas 7" will be released in May to celebrate birth and will be a benefit for a childrens charity of some sort. Most likely there will be a show in Toronto to celebrate the release.
You can reach David at Vibrationandhum @ Hotmail.com

Any more questions?