Fucked Up - "Couple Tracks"

Couple Tracks came in the mail in a couple of days. (Ordered it from CD Imports online. I recommend them. I've ordered about a dozen CDs in the past three months and they always ship promptly.) I tear open the cardboard packaging. Look at the cover. Reminds me of another cover. Looks like the Epics In Minutes cover. Could this be that album only repackaged and retitled? Oh no, that's cool. It's the same poses and positions as the Epics cover only it's a few years on and the t-shirts have given way to collars, Pink Eyes has his beard, and there's a sixth member looking younger than the others. They even call him Young Governor. That's one thing I like about Fucked Up: like the Hellbomb staff the musicians all use pseudonyms!

Later I put it on. This is a double CD. 20 old tracks. Former singles. 5 unreleased tracks. It's all new stuff to me. Here's the run down:

CD1: 12 tracks: 43:27.

'No Parasan' begins with film dialogue. I like the dialogue but the song doesn't do much for me. I reach for the booklet. Check out the liner notes. It's one thing I liked about Fucked Up's other CDs: stellar liner notes. Picturesque. Informative. Readable. Unlike CD booklets for Radiohead or Sonic Youth, these are liner notes you can use. I like Mustard Gas' photography too. And I like seeing the single covers. It's like looking at Jandek's album covers: they make you interested in listening to the music. It says here even Fucked Up has ""weird feelings" about this track now." I don't feel too bad about not liking 'No Parasan' then. Liked the film dialogue though. Nice sentiment.

It says here that the 'Neat Parts'' drumbeat is taken from The Undertones' 'My Perfect Cousin.' That's cool. I like The Undertones. I like this song with their drumbeat too. I remember The Undertones coming to NYC in 1981 and all the punkers on the burgeoning NYC punk scene turning out because The Undertones were always a punk band at heart.

It's the next track ('Generation') that acts on me like 'Baiting The Public' on Epics In Minutes did. It's when you understand Fucked Up is one top notch punk band. The chords are catchy and you can really imagine being in a pack of bobbing punker bodies. Because while I love this stuff its squarely punk rock. This is a band quite proud of being punk. You can tell.

They're right. The story behind 'Ban Violins' is funny. These are good liner notes. If the music industry wants the public to buy CDs and not download then they've got to make sure all CDs have liner notes as good as these. Maybe they can hire the members of Fucked Up to teach other bands how to write good liner notes like I read somewhere once that Mike Watt used to be hired to teach newly signed bands how to tour econo and turn a profit.

As 'Dangerous Fumes' carries me along, I find myself wondering how the band got its name. I wonder if it has something with how fucked up the singer Pink Eyes sounds. I'd compare his voice to Tom Waits but Cookie Monster gives you a better idea of the man. (At least the one time I saw him in concert: actually sort of a cross between GG Allin and Cookie Monster, if you can imagine such a thing.) Sometimes it sounds like the voice of the man is too powerful to work with any band.

But Fucked Up – the musicians: the four guys and the obligatory girl on bass (the aforementioned Mustard Gas whose speedy basslines are this band's glue) – are a powerful unit too. A real presence. A musical beast that Pink Eyes' voice can't lasso. A perfect example is 'Dangerous Fumes', a song whose success relies on swiftness. Like a wild stallion, they carry Pink Eyes along, somewhat submerging his guttural vocals, which is when Fucked Up work best: when the singer and the band fuse.

'Triumph of Life' is another song where Fucked Up shows off its hardcore side. I like 'Dangerous Fumes' better but what I like about 'Triumph' is that its 6 minutes long. Fucked Up isn't a punk band that's afraid of going long if the song demands it. They're one of your ambitious punk bands: something that's a suicidal tendency if you're a punk band: you risk alienating your original core without attracting replacement fans. G Beat the drummer sort of solos over the band towards the end.

'Fixed Race' is standard punk fare. 'Nuff said as Stan Lee used to have lettered.

I like the story behind 'Toronto FC'. You really have to check out these liner notes. The drummer slows down the guitars enough to actually have a song. That doesn't mean it's slow. About two and a half minutes into it you find your leg jackhammering like the Boredoms' best punk songs do.

'Black Hats' is catchy as heck and shows off another strength of this band: the guitar interplay. I think I even hear a lead guitar in the mix or maybe it just really tuneful feedback. But the song loses me until the long rhythmic outro tugs me back. Oh, it's not really an outro. The singer's singing again but I don't mind anymore. The singer and the band have fused as one again.

The Who aspirations so prevalent on Fucked Up's last few albums but largely missing from this collection of singles surfaces on 'David Christmas'. I actually think this is what will allow the band's fan base to grow: their Whoness. Still this song doesn't do much for me. Second half's better than the first though like a good soccer match.

'No Epiphany' (gotta love that title!) has a hidden riff you could kill for. It surfaces every now and then behind the vocals only to emerge from the din and assert itself. Interestingly Fucked Up doesn't really milk it for all its worth. I'd use it as an outro but they don't. Which only makes me want to play the song again and again and again. That's masterful.

But you don't play it again because right on the heels of the 'No Epiphany' ending comes the opening chords of 'Crooked Head'. It brings to mind 'Soul Survivor' following 'All Down The Line' on Exile On Main Street, but a more apt comparison (since Fucked Up's a punk band) is The Dead Kennedys' 'Moon Over Marin' ringing out after 'Bleed For Me' on Plastic Surgery Disasters. It's a wondrous way to end CD1 and the "Crooked Heads!" chant sounds like "Fuckin' A!!!" to me, which is how I feel about CD1.

CD2: 13 tracks: 29:12.

Listening to the second disc is sort of like reading Thomas Bernhard. It's unrelenting rant. This disc is for those who like the fast side of Fucked Up and with 13 tracks clocking in approximately 33% less time than CD1 that would seem obvious, except there's a few really experimental, studio overladen tracks here because - as punky as Fucked Up are – any band that records as often as this band does is also comprised of studio nerds. 'I Hate Summer' sets the tone for CD2 but doesn't do much for me. That might because 'Teenage Problems' is just so good. With a little luck this could've been a hit. If that had happened, what would've been stranger: a hit song about pedophilia or a punk hit song? It says here in the liner notes that 'Teenage Problems' also has an Undertones drumbeat. That's not all it's got from The Undertones. The vocals – the cadence – sound like Feargal Sharkey's to me. That's okay. 'Carried Out to Sea' keeps up the attack. Being the demo version of a Hidden World track this version's less polished and about 30 seconds shorter. The opening to 'Looking Back' reminds me of The Clash's 'Drug Stabbing Time'. This is another hardcore blast that clocks-in in 1:19. The liner notes say 'Anorak City' is a cover of a song by Another Sunny Day. I don't know that band but I like this song of theirs. It's a good cover that features some nice guitar work. There's definitely lead guitar on this one. That's probably courtesy of 10,000 Marbles. Based on the liner notes he sounds like the musical mastermind behind Fucked Up. 'I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You' goes by too fast to make much of an impression. This one unrelenting side like one of Bernhard's block paragraphs. 'Mustaa Lunta' is heavily layered. 'Dream Comes True' comes and goes. 'Magic Kingdom' pivots on a fast, furious bass break. 'Magic Words' was recorded in Daytrotter, "a cool little studio in the west part of Illinois." For this recording session the band members switched instruments and wouldn't you know it, it's one of my favorite tracks on CD2. But then again I'm a sucker for studio sorcery. 'Last Man Standing' starts slowly … ominously bassy … until a fast beat breaks through. More studio sorcery on this one. Doesn't do much for me and neither does 'He's So Frisky', a punky throwaway. And that leaves us with 'David Comes To Life' to close out CD2. It's a good closer because this one's slower than the 12 before it and therefore stands out. Fuckin' B! That's how I feel about CD2.

Overall this is another strong collection from Canada's best band and more than just a stop gap measure while we await the follow-up to the critically (and justifiably) praised The Chemistry of Common Life. CD1's more accessible. I recommend playing that one for awhile if you aren't already familiar with Fucked Up. Work yourself up to CD2. Unless you're already into punk rock. You don't have to love punk rock to enjoy CD2 but it'll help.

And you really have to check out these liner notes. Really.