Fucked Up play Wavelength’s 12th anniversary festival on Friday, February 17th at Steam Whistle Brewing.
Fucked Up
First played Wavelength: WL 237 (Oct. 31, 2004)
Last played Wavelength: WL 518 (Images Festival, April 9, 2011)
Playing #WL12 on Friday, February 17th @ Steam Whistle Brewing
Notable Releases:
The Chemistry of Common Life (2008)
Purveyors of: Epics in 17 minutes
File next to: Hüsker Dü, The Phantom of the Paradise
“Epic” may have become the most overused adjective of the year, but in the case of Toronto’s FU, the shine hasn’t worn off the term – and besides they called their work “Epics in Minutes” ages ago, even before they evolved from straight-up Black Flag-style hardcore into the monumental, earth-moving power-punk they’ve been shaping over the course of their last three full-lengths. Their 2011 album David Comes to Life – which topped many a year-end poll, including SPIN Magazine’s — compressed the psych-influenced workouts on 2006’s Hidden World and ’09 Polaris winner The Chemistry of Common Lifeinto poppier, more digestible chunks without sacrificing any of their fiery stamina. Vocalist Damian Abraham’s growl is probably the only thing keeping them from making a mainstream breakthrough, and made the album’s “rock opera” love-story concept a little hard to comprehend at times, but that matters less than the musical thrill of riding the waves of FU’s – yes – epically sculpted power chords.
For Wavelength TWELVE, we’re thrilled to present the release of Fucked Up’s follow-up to David Comes to Life, the latest in their Chinese zodiac series — the Year of the Tiger EP, it’s A-side a massive, 17-minute prog-rock piece featuring guest vocalists Annie Claude from Montreal electro-punks Duchess Says and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (yes, Mr. Mystery Train himself), plus Katie Stelmanis of Austra on piano. The B-side is a literally palindromic composition called “ONNO.” Who says old punks get lazy? Following the success of last year’s Images Festival collaboration, in which Fucked Up played an original live score to the 1928 silent film West of Zanzibar, Toronto video artist and VJ Suedath will provide visual soundtrack to FU’s performance of “Year of the Tiger.” Look for the record in stores this Tuesday! – Jonny Dovercourt
Watch a section of Fucked Up’s original score to the cult classic film West of Zanzibar, commissioned by Wavelength & Images Festival performed live at the 2011 Images Festival.
Watch Toronto filmmaker Scott Cudmore’s video for Fucked Up’s Queen of Hearts from 2011’s David Comes To Life.
