A-Punk among
punks: Koenig
cameos in New
York, October 14.
F-BOMBS AWAY!
WHICH FUCKING BAND IS RIGHT FOR YOU? BY NISHA GOPALAN

NOT PUNK/METAL

PUNK/METAL

FUCKLY

(DANCEHALL RAP)

FUCKMOUTH (“COMEDY” RAP)

NO FUCKER
(COVERED BY WOLF EYES)

USA! USA!

LIKE IMPORTS?

which may be why Chemistry is so enlivening: There
are few bands taking their cues from the Cro-Mags,
and none doing so with the aid of a Farfisa and a
French horn.

“I just have a short attention span,” says Haliechuk of his band’s eclecticism. “If we were influenced by the bands I listen to, we’d sound like a cross of [’80s Italian disco maestros] Mr. Flagio and Vampire Weekend. Which I guess we sort of do.”

Like his bandmates, Abraham grew up in the Toronto area; at 16, after getting in trouble for trying to buy booze, he renounced his dope-smoking ways and immersed himself in hardcore. He began attending local shows with his younger brother, but it was “a drunk-punk scene,” he says. “Great bands, but lifestyle-wise, I had nothing in common with them.” At a show, he met Haliechuk, a (comparatively) mild-mannered straight-edger who would become an environmental-studies major at the University of Toronto. “We used to talk on the phone for an hour every night,” Abraham remembers. “He became my best friend.”

Haliechuk, 28, used his gig at an anarchist book-store-slash-record store to help recruit bandmates. “The pool of people to choose from was so small,” says Haliechuk. “The punk scene in Toronto, especially then, was a lot more confrontational. It was really foreign to me that people would spend time with each other not at a show, just hanging out.”

In 2002, after settling on a lineup, Fucked Up released the first of 27 limited-edition seven-inch singles; much like the band members’ aliases, the move was a nod to bands such as Poison Idea, which churned out multiple A-sides, challenging their fans to keep up with the glut. (One of Fucked Up’s more elusive releases, a Christmas 2007 charity single, features unlikely cameos by Nelly Furtado and future 90210 star Shenae Grimes.) The group’s first studio album, 2006’s Hidden World, was an ambitious departure from the abrupt thrash that marked earlier releases.

Last spring, Fucked Up signed to Matador Records and have since spent a large part of the year on the road, often broadcasting their issues in front of bewildered crowds. During a recent Pittsburgh gig, Abraham climbed a stack of speakers, took a seat, and launched into a brutally self-immolating harangue. “All of a sudden, I realized how ridiculous I look onstage,” he recalls. “It’s the one thing I have to never do: think about how this looks to an outsider.” Abraham says he’s quit the band several times, at one point forcing the group to tour Europe with a different singer. “I have severe emotional problems,” he

PREFER ELECTRO?

PREFER INDIE ROCK?

NO FUCKER

FUCKBOMBS

FUCKED UP

FUCK THE FACTS

FUCKPONY

FUCKHEAD

... THAT’S PART OF A COLLEC TIVE

HOLY FUCK

FUCK

SHU T THE FUCK UPS

FUCKING CHAMPS

WITH HIPSTER CRED

BAND THAT HATES EMOS

BAND THAT HATES EMO

BANDS THAT CREATED NEW SUBGENRES

CANADA DOESN’ T COUNT

FUCK BU TTONS

THE FUCKING OCEAN

LESS PRETENTIOUS

THE FUCK-UPS

FUCK YOU UPS (POP PUNK)

FUCKING VEGAS

THE FUCKWI TS

THE VIOLENT FUCKWITS

THAT FUCKING TANK

FUCKEMOS

FUCKFACE
(MOTTO: “WHO THE FUCK
ARE YOU CALLING EMO?”)

FUCKIN SHIT
BISCUITS
(JAM-BAND PUNK)

UNCLEFUCKER
(PSYCHOBILLY-
BLUEGRASS METAL)

THE FUCKING
WRATH
(PUNK ZOUK)

NOT IN THE U. K.

BAND THAT MISSPELLED “FUCK”

HOOKED ON CLASSICS?

SIC FUCKS
(ORANGE COUNTY PUNK)

BAND THAT MISSPELLED “FUCK” THE WAY NORMAN MAILER DID

GG ALLIN AND THE SCUMFUCS

THE FUGS

THE PLEASURE
FUCKERS
(SPAIN)

FUCKFACE
REPTILLIANS
(PORTUGAL)

NOT IN EUROPE

FUCK ON THE
BEACH
(JAPAN)

says. “I’m medicated for manic depression and stuff.
[Sometimes] I won’t take my meds, and all of a sud-
den I’ll have a crash. I’m not saying I’m without sin.”

Abraham’s volatility no doubt serves as an agitator within the band, but Fucked Up’s occasional turbulence likely has more to do with the realization that, simply put, these are six people who probably wouldn’t choose to hang out together. “Fucked Up was a really bizarre social project when it started, with disparate and conflicting personalities,” says Falco, who, along with Haliechuk, writes much of the band’s music. “And, frankly speaking, there’s some pretty combative personalities at play.”

Haliechuk—whose measured, aloof demeanor stands in stark contrast to Abraham’s effusiveness, so much so that it’s nearly impossible to imagine the two of them once chatting on the phone for hours on end—acknowledges all of this with a hint of regret. “It’s kind of a shame, ’cause we can all be pretty amicable,” he says. “It’s like a business: You like the

people you work with, but would you want to go hang
at their house for the weekend?”

At the studio, the recording session has ended for the night and Fucked Up gather outside for a video shoot. As they stand on a street corner blasting Chemistry’s “Black Albino Bones” from a tiny pair of speakers, several crankily inquisitive Canadians walk past. When a spectacularly geezerly passerby scowls at them, the band can barely contain their laughter. It’s a rare moment of us-versus-the-world unity.

The second the song ends, Abraham lowers his arms
and smacks two of his bandmates in the nuts.

GE T MORE
WE COVER THE BAND’S MARATHON 12-HOUR
NE W YORK CI T Y GIG. > SPIN.COM/FUCKED-UP-NYC