Fucked Up Biography

While Canadian punk provocateurs Fucked Up play aggressive and incendiary music, that's hardly where their desire to stir up trouble begins and ends. The group strays far from the standard template of four-four punk stomp, incorporating extended instrumental workouts, unusual arrangements, and lengthy experimental passages along with the furious guitars and ranting vocals. While Fucked Up has paid homage on record to pioneering anarchist movements and creative and political troublemakers of all stripes, they've also flirted with fascist images and obscure mysticism in a bid to puzzle and confront their audiences. And despite their fondness for lengthy musical statements, Fucked Up waited until four years into their recording career to record a full-length album. Fucked Up formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 2001; the group members (all of whom use pseudonyms) were Pink Eyes (aka Father Damien) on lead vocals, 10,000 Marbles on lead guitar, Concentration Camp on rhythm guitar, Mustard Gas on bass, and Mr. Jo (aka Guinea Beat) on drums. In 2002, the band released their first record, a vinyl 7' called No Parasan distributed by Deranged Records. Over the next four years, Fucked Up would release a steady stream of singles, EPs, and cassettes, most notably the infamous Looking for Gold vinyl 12', which featured the epic-length title song (which incorporates massive guitar overdubs, extended drum solos, and a whistled coda); rather than deal with the expense of the EP's elaborate package, the band opted to post the record online rather than go into a third pressing. Fucked Up's purposefully obscure and cryptic lyrical concerns led some music journalists to suggest the band was playing a bit too lightly with fascist ideology, an accusation the group seemed to cite when they featured a photo of a Hitler Youth rally on the sleeve of a split single with Haymaker. (The band also frequently cited their manager David Eliade as a key lyrical influence, but if he's an actual Malcolm McLaren-style Svengali or a fictional creation in the manner of Randy Fitzsimmons is anyone's guess.) In 2006, Fucked Up released their much-anticipated full-length album Hidden World through Jade Tree, a musically ambitious collection that featured 13 songs in 72 minutes, though its release didn't stop their ongoing parade of singles and EPs, eight of which appeared the same year as the album. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide