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Fucked Up Know It’s Christmas

Emma Renda — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:30:33 +0000

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The weather outside will soon be frightful, and Canada’s Fucked Up is getting ready to make music to match. The Polaris Prize winners are using their prize money to record an all-star rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” a remix of the 1980s charity song by Band Aid.

So far, Fucked Up have accumulated an all-star lineup of musicians, if a little peculiar.

“David Cross, members of Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio, Broken Social Scene, the GZA, Bob Mould, No Age, and Yo La Tengo are all confirmed,” frontman Damien Abrahama a.k.a. Pink Eyes told New York Magazine. ”I’m still waiting on confirmation from Feist, Jarvis Cocker, and M.I.A. We wanted the biggest people we could get. If we could get a Jonas Brother on this, I would get a Jonas Brother.”

The song was first recorded in 1984 for famine relief in Ethiopia by Band Aid, a group featuring musicians such as Queen, Paul McCartney, Bono, George Michael, Sting, David Bowie, Bananarama, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Kool & the Gang, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Spandau Ballet, and Status Quo among others. Written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (Ultravox), media attention took off and the song became the biggest selling single in UK singles chart history.

Needless to say, Geldof decided to remake the song in 1989, featuring Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Banarama under the name Band Aid II. In 2004, Band Aid 20 appeared, starring Coldplay (who proposed the idea), Bono (again) and Dizzee Rascall rapping an interlude.

The latest version will benefit organizations including Justice for the Missing, that is affiliated with missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

This isn’t Fucked Up’s first brush with Christmas cheer – in 2007, they appeared on the the B-side of Stars on 45, collaborating alongside Nelly Furtado, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Jay Reatard and members of the Black Lips, the Faint and Chromeo. The proceeds of the 1,000 hard copies available went to George Herman House, a transitional housing program in Toronto supporting women with mental health issues.

“I liked the idea of somewhat marginalized indie rockers coming together for a marginalized cause,” Abraham told New York Magazine. ”There’s a kind of cavalier colonialism to the original, like the West has to go in and help this poor Third World country. But the charities that we’re trying to help are exactly a product of this colonial history. People who have been subjugated and oppressed for so many years are going missing. So there’s an irony to using the song.”

The music itself will be gift enough, but the fact that I won’t have to listen to Mariah Carey and Michael Buble this holiday season is some sort of Christmas miracle.

Experimental Toronto Band Takes Coveted Polaris Prize

Sara Harowitz — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:49:48 +0000

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Move aside indie-rock. This year’s Polaris Music Prize winners are a little different from the average Canadian alternative style. Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up took this year’s $20,000 award for the best Canadian album of the year on Monday, according to The Globe and Mail.

The band’s album, “The Chemistry of Common Life,” beat out nine other finalists including Metric, K’Naan, Joel Plaskett, and Great Lake Swimmers.

The Polaris Prize is an award decided by a jury made up of Canadian journalists, bloggers, broadcasters and programmers. The jury is determined by the Polaris Board of Directors and is made up of 185 members from both the local and national media.

The way it works is, each jury member submits a ballot with their top 5 albums of the year on it. The results from this determines the Polaris Prize Long List and after a second voting round, the Polaris Prize Short List. An 11-member jury is then selected to attend the Polaris Awards gala, where the winner is determined. There is no submission process to be considered for the Polaris Prize – every Canadian artist with an album of at least eight songs or 30 minutes of music is automatically eligible to win the prize.

As shown on their MySpage, Fucked Up describes their music as “experimental hardcore.” This usually involves songs with screamo singing, in this case done by 300-pound and often shirtless Damian Abraham, overtop of detailed instrumental melodies. Many thought their album was too extreme to win the prize, especially considering hardcore music is not a genre that usually sprouts a lot of attention.

But Fucked Up is anything but conventional.

For starters, each band member has at least one very unique nickname. Lead guitarist Mike Haliechuck has been named “10,000 Marbles”; lead singer Damian Abraham is known as “Father Damian” or “Pink Eyes”; bass guitar player Sandy Miranda can also be called “Slumpy”, Laundry, or “Mustard Gas”; rhythm guitar player Josh Zucker is nicknamed “Concentration Camp” and “Gulag”; drummer Jonah Falco is known as “Guinea Beat” and “Mr. Jo”; and third guitarist Ben Cook can be called “Young Governor”, “Bad Kid”, and “Lil’ Bitey”.

The band formed in 2001 and has been performing and recording ever since. Their hardcore screamo music starkly contrasts with last year’s mellow electro Polaris winner Caribou, and 2007′s indie-alternative winner Patrick Watson.

The Polaris Prize prides itself on judging solely based on musical merit and ignoring all commercial aspects of an artist, such as record sales. Fucked Up’s win is a testament to that belief, particularly in contrast with the 2009 Juno Awards that saw Nickelback and their international success get far more praise than any other Canadian musician.

Polaris jury member Lisa Ladouceur told The Globe and Mail that Fucked Up’s “The Chemistry of Common Life” is “not only the best Canadian album of the year, but the best album of the year in the world – period.” Not bad praise for an underground Toronto band who started out by shunning full-length CD’s and releasing their songs two-at-a-time. And as a photo on the Polaris Prize website shows, the band is ecstatic to have won the award.

To learn more about Fucked Up and hear some of their songs go to their myspace at www.myspace.com/epicsinminutes.

Montreal band Patrick Watson wins Polaris Prize

andPOP Staff — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:36:00 +0000

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Patrick Watson must be close to euphoria after winning the second annual Polaris Music Prize yesterday for their album Close to Paradise.

The band won the $20,000 pot over such steep competition as Calgary’s Feist, Hamilton’s Junior Boys, and fellow Montreal bands Arcade Fire, the Dears and the Besnard Lakes.

Performances at the industry gala included Montreal’s Miracle Fortress, Halifax’s Joel Plaskett Emergency, Calgary’s Chad VanGaalen and New Brunswick’s Julie Doiron. While the bands rocked out, a jury of 11 music experts from across the country chose which nominated album deserved the prize, based solely on artistic merit.

Nomination were provided by more than 170 Canadian music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers who submitted their top five favourite albums that were released between June 1, 2006, and May 31, 2007.

The Polaris Prize is modelled after the U.K.’s esteemed Mercury Prize.