Fucked Up

Fucked Up is a Canadian hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, formed in 2001. The band consists of Damian Abraham (vocals), Mike Haliechuk (guitar, vocals), Josh Zucker (guitar), Sandy Miranda (bass), and Jonah Falco (drums, vocals). From 2007 to 2021, the band also included guitarist and vocalist Ben Cook.

To date, the band has released five studio albums, alongside several EPs, singles, and companion releases. The band won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for their second studio album, ''The Chemistry of Common Life''.

History

2001–2007

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, who was lead vocalist for Cursed). Just prior to recording their demo tape, vocal duties were taken over from Colohan by Pink Eyes (Damian Abraham, also known as Mr. Damian). Drums were 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-inch records. The band released the ''" No Pasaran"'' 7-inch in May 2002. The ''Police'' 7-inch was released in March 2003, quickly followed the ''Baiting the Public'' 7-inch in May 2003. Two more 7-inches followed in 2004, the single ''Dance of Death'', and the 4-song EP ''Litany''. 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-inches, the ''Looking for Gold'' 12-inch, and the live ''Let Likes be Cured by Likes'' 12-inch. The ''Looking for Gold'' 12-inch 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 and 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-inch and 12-inch 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-inch 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". 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 on Damian's forehead), resulting in a sum of $2,000 in damages. This performance sparked controversy and resulted in MTV Canada banning moshing from future ''MTV Live'' performances. 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.

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."

The band signed to Matador Records in Spring of 2008. That summer, Matador reissued the "Year Of The Pig" 12-inch single. This time it came out with additional formats including a series of three 7-inches, 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''. The album received near-universal critical acclaim from publications such as the NME, The New York Times, Blender, Pitchfork, Alternative Press, Q Magazine, and would later go on to win the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. 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. 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.

Fucked Up played the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York in September 2010 as well as an annual Halloween gig in Toronto. In February 2011, the band toured Australia for the first time, as a part of the Soundwave Festival, along with side-shows from the festival with artists as diverse as the Bronx, Terror, H₂O, Trash Talk and Polar Bear Club.

The band's third studio album, ''David Comes to Life,'' was released in June 2011. A self-professed "rock opera" set in Thatcherite Britain, it tells a story of love, loss and redemption, with the story complicated by misdirection and unreliable narrators. The record debuted at No. 83 on the Billboard 200 in the US and received wide critical acclaim. 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."Spin Staff
SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2011
Spin. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2012. Like the previous release, this album was also nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, the nomination describing the record as "Excessive? Sure. Ridiculous? At times. Brilliant? Sounds pretty damn close to it." They did not win for a second time, being beaten by Feist's album ''Metals''.

In late 2011 the year the band went on hiatus to allow Abraham to raise his family, but they returned in June 2012 to play the Metallica-curated Orion Music + More Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and went on to play Fun Fun Fun Fest in November, 2012, in Austin, Texas.

Fucked Up's fourth LP, named ''Glass Boys'', was released by Matador Records on June 3, 2014. Avatars of the band and their songs ''"Paper the House"'' and ''"Queen of Hearts"'' were featured in the 2016 video game " Loud on Planet X".

In 2016 the band self-released ''Zanzibar,'' a soundtrack, recorded in 2011, to Tod Browning's silent movie from 1928 '' West of Zanzibar'' starring Lon Chaney. Their fifth studio album, '' Dose Your Dreams'' was released in October 2018 by Merge Records. Driven by guitarist Haliechuk, it is a concept album focusing on the band's recurring character David, and featuring several guest lead vocalists, alongside Abraham, Falco, and Haliechuk.

The band released their sixth studio album and the ninth installment in the Zodiac series, ''Year of the Horse'', in full on May 7, 2021. It was ranked number eleven on ''Decibel'' magazine's list of the "Top 40 Albums of 2021" and seventh on the "10 best albums of 2021" list of ''The Plain Dealer''.

In November 2021, it was revealed that longtime guitarist Ben Cook had left the band, with Haliechuk revealing that Robin Hatch would be replacing him during live performances.

Lawsuit

In January 2008, Fucked Up, along with Xiu Xiu, filed a lawsuit against ''Rolling Stone'' and Camel Cigarettes for an advertisement that included both bands in an ''Indie Rock Universe'' special. The advertisement apparently portrayed the bands as supporters of Camel.

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.

Collaborations

Fucked Up has collaborated extensively with other artists on record and during live performances. ''Hidden World'' features guest instrumentation from Final Fantasy, as well as guest vocals by Ben Cook of No Warning, two years before he joined Fucked Up, George Pettit and Dallas Green, 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.

Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris has performed live with Fucked Up, singing ''Backed Against the Wall, Beverly Hills'', and the Black Flag song ''Nervous Breakdown'' in March 2008, at the Mess With Texas Fest in Austin, Texas, and again on ''Nervous Breakdown'' in February 2009, at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. The band were joined by former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, for their encore of the Ramones' '' Blitzkrieg Bop'' at the same Los Angeles gig.

Fucked Up released a second all-star Christmas single in December 2009, 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.

For Record Store Day in April 2011 Fucked Up released a special exclusive LP entitled ''David's Town''. It is not billed to Fucked Up, and instead pretends to be a compilation album documenting the scene in the fictitious UK city of Byrdesdale Spa, the late '70s setting for the band's upcoming "rock opera" ''David's Come To Life''. 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

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