PERFECT YOUTH: THE BIRTH OF CANADIAN PUNK Toronto Book Launch

Joe Cornelisse-SMM

Fucked Up's GG Allin Tribute Song to Finally See the Light of Day

       Today Fucked Up's Damian Abraham Tweeted that he had did vocals for their long overdue GG Allin tribute track that is to be included on the 7" titled RATED GG. The 7" is also rumored to include "Cleaned Up" GG Allin tracks from BEN GIBBARD, TED LEO, MOUNTAIN GOATS, and TY SEGALL. This was/is supposed to be a benefit single for New Jersey freeform radio station WFMU home of the great Tom Scharpling…now this was last March so I don't know exactly how that all worked out…I just hope that the general public (us) get a chance to get our hands on a copy.

       

Also in his Tweet was a sweet little tidbit about him doing vocals for a Melvins Split …..now from what I have been able to find out about this is The Melvins instead of a normal 12" vinyl release of the Melvins "Sugar Daddy" LP, there is going to be 13 - 12" 45rpm records, each record will be favorites of the Melvins past/future*/present…..so Fucked Up are included in that. 

No release date for either has been confirmed

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Is Fucked Up Over? The Waiting Game Begins

    

This is from Damian's Twitter account:

Hey everyone: I'M NOT QUITTING FUCKED UP.
web • 11/7/11 2:21 PM

   So according to an interview Melody Lau did with Damian Abraham of Fucked Up on Spinner  the band is taking a long break after  they finish up the gigs that round out this year (They do have a "Bruise Cruise Festival" in the Bahamas in Feb though) …Damian is quoted in the article saying 

  "I can't tour anymore," Abraham says. "I don't want to take that away from them, so I would love to find a way to basically make it into a constantly evolving thing where sometimes F---ed Up can go on tour and other times, it's another band involved with us."

He goes on to say

"I have no idea how it's all going to work out," Abraham says. "I know we're going to take this long break and hopefully we can think about it and figure it out a little more.

Damian speaks about the effect of touring on himself

   "I can be weirdly lonely even though you're surrounded by these five other people," Abraham adds. "But we've been together now 10 years and there's not a lot left to talk about.

"It messes with your head after a while, and I think that's why we need this break. Me especially though, I'm the one losing it the most by far."

      After reading the Spinner article, what I take away from it is Damian is a guy who loves his son and wife more than anything, and if you know anything of the bands touring schedule they just don't play a few shows across the province or a some shows in the U.S., in the last year they have been all over the world and personally speaking I don't know how he does it, I can barely be away from my son for a few days but not seeing him for weeks at a time, that must be torture. 

    But this is also a guy who understands that him picking up and leaving does not only affect him but the other  five members of the band, it all comes back to Damian being one of the nicest guys in music today (Sorry D, you must be sick of reading that by now). 

   So the speculation begins now…is this the end of Fucked Up? Well in numerous interviews over the years Damian has said how far can a band with the name Fucked Up really go? I guess we will soon find out.

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

***Below is a video for "Running On Nothing" from the record David Comes To Life..it was put together by Sandy Miranda***

Fucked Up "Running on Nothing" from Sandy Miranda on Vimeo.

Trouble in the Camera Club.....Toronto’s Early Punk’s given New Life

          As I stood outside The Garrison Wednesday night and surveyed the crowd of people that had began to assemble I got the sense that this “book launch” I was attending was no ordinary book launch, this book launch some would say was the anti-book launch, maybe...and maybe it was just a celebration of a movement and of one man’s youth, that we all discovered had changed a generation.

    Living legends of the scene stood side by side with us everyman ..we had all come to celebrate the release of Trouble in the Camera Club , Don Pyle’s new Photography book that celebrates Toronto’s early punk scene and much more that you will discover when you pick the book up. 

    As the doors were open we were greeted by a smiling Don Pyle, a smile I’m guessing was a mixture of anticipation and nervousness. Don was more than happy to talk to friends, old and new, shake hands and sign copies of the book...I think he might have been a bit surprised at the amount of people that want autographs and just to say hi. 

  The night began with Don taking us on a trip with his Out-Of-Focus Talking Slide Show, a photo journey of his experiences growing up in Toronto in the 1970’s, photos of himself and his friends and of the many bands he had seen firsthand, the stories that he sewn along with the pictures were funny and somewhat touching, a real surprise that you would not have expected at the book launch for a Punk rock photo book. The audience at the front of the Garrison was hanging on his every word, and from what I could tell Don was having a good time also (except for the flash light he needed to use)

   After the slide show had finished called to the stage was author and music journalist of the widely praised book on the Toronto punk explosion “Treat Me like Dirt” Liz Worth. Liz held a brief Q&A session with Don, out of it came a great story about a leather jacket…enough said about that 

   Now it was onto the music, first up were The Ugly…now here’s a band that could teach kids half their age or more how to work a stage and a crowd, you come out…bash them with good, fast songs….then leave them wanting more. I still have stuck in my head the guy beside me yelling “Pound it Sam Pound it”. 

                Then after them The Sadies (Dallas Good, Mike Belitsky and Sean Dean ) began setting up , well 3 quarters of The Sadies as they have become known from that night. In no time at all Don was back out on the stage, he picked up the mic and the four of them blazed through some Diodes tracks, there were some real highlights of the night for me and that was one of them.

             Other guest artists that ran through some classic (I hate that word but it fits here) songs were Fifth Column’s Caroline Azar, Brutal Knights’ Nick Flanagan, Gord Lewis from Teenage Head (Where’s the hair Gord?) Martin Farkas of Career Suicide, Chris Colohan of Burning Love and of course how could we forget Mr. Damian Abraham of Fucked Up.

          Damian sang “CN Tower” by The Poles, right away making it his own, all was good then about 2 and a half minutes into the song Damian picks up this glass that’s sitting in front of me and proceeds to smash it over his head, with blood pouring all over his face (I learned the next morning he needed 5 stitches to close it) Damian sang on, the best part of that was the look on Dallas Good’s face,  it was of utter shock, I don’t think he could believe that he had just did that (Dallas needs to get out to a few more Fucked Up shows) . 

         Damian smashing that glass over his head was the other highlight of the night for me, and at the same time it just seemed to sum up for me what the book was about in my opinion, not really giving a damm about what other people think and just doing it for doing it….Thanks Don

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS