Send "Fucked Up " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 It would have been an understatement to say that Fucked Up were the underdogs going into last year’s Polaris Music Prize. And yet, there they were at the close of the awards ceremony, holding up a comically oversized check with “FUCKED UP” writ large on the front, to the amazement of all in attendance. Rare is the day that a hardcore band receives widespread critical attention, especially when that band has a decidedly less-than-family-friendly name. Fucked Up’s second studio album, The Chemistry of Common Life, however, was simply too good for even the mainstream to ignore. In the year since its release, the band has been the subject of near universal acclaim, was featured as a repeat performer on Canada’s MTV Live after supposedly being banned from the network (the band reciprocated by inciting fans to destroy a bathroom) and hosted an epic, 12-hour-long set at a Lower East Side gallery, featuring members of Les Savy Fav, Dinosaur Jr. and Vampire Weekend. Perhaps most unlikely of all, frontman Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham has recently become a regular guest on the Fox News program “Red Eye”. Clearly, it’s high time for a victory lap.In advance of a U.S. tour that will culminate in a SXSW showcase organized and curated by the band, Fucked Up has released the singles collection Couple Tracks. The title is, of course, a misnomer: Couple Tracks consists of 25 songs spread across two discs. Given the band’s prolific output and embrace of scarce goods (over 50 releases in eight years, most of which were pressed in limited runs and released on tiny labels), Couple Tracks provides latecomers with a valuable opportunity to get caught up with Fucked Up’s discography without paying eBay prices. Couple Tracks splits the lot into two categories: “The Hard Stuff” (disc one) and “The Fun Stuff” (disc two). Fittingly, the first disc kicks off with “No Pasarán”, the A-side to the band’s first 7”. Opening with a vow of international solidarity from the Franco-era Republicanos (“no pasarán” being an old wartime slogan meaning “they shall not pass”), the song comes tearing out of the gate, a blistering, two minute statement of purpose that’s as heavy as Black Flag, as fast as Minor Threat and as political as the Dead Kennedys (a sample lyric, delivered by Pink Eyes with all the subtlety of a drill sergeant: “They can bury our bodies / But not our dreams”). It’s one hell of an introduction....full text |
| Guardian |
| Naomi Klein spelled out in No Logo what The Kids have known for years: everything underground is eventually co-opted by the mainstream and monetised. Her fellow Canadians Fucked Up are working hard to buck the trend. From the name on in they remain true to the harder-faster-hoarser school of hardcore punk. Couple Tracks compiles 25 rarities from this prolific band, yielding more tunes than you'd think, and a surprising fondness for C86 era cutie pop. Not included is their recent indie star-studded charity Christmas single, worth seeking out not least because it highlights the plight of disappearing Native American women....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| In early 2007 Fucked Up were playing at Mercury Lounge, a relatively small but reasonably respectable club on New York’s Lower East Side. It was their first New York appearance since the Canadian band had been forced to cancel a slot at the CMJ Marathon a few months earlier due to visa problems. Frontman Pink Eyes (or Damian Abraham, if you prefer), related this story in conjunction with their border crossing to the current gig. Upon being told the name of the band, the immigration officer had replied, “You’ll never get anywhere with a name like that.” But this was before the release of The Chemistry of Common Life, the album that became the last decade’s foray into hardcore for the non-hardcore kid (for the Nineties’ example, please see The Shape of Punk to Come). This was a time when the band had one full length to their name and roughly five million singles/7-inchs/spilts/etc across just about as many record labels. Hyperbolic, yes, but only slightly; Couple Tracks is Fucked Up’s second compilation of singles and rarities, following Epics in Minutes. The two compilations combined do not even come that close to accounting for their complete non-LP output....full text |
Fucked Up lyrics
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