STILL SINGLE

A space for thoughts on music and culture, as written by Doug Mosurock and a select handful of individuals. This is intended as a supplement to our regular feature Still Single, published on Dusted Magazine. Updates will run here more frequently, and may feature writing on music not covered in the column. Compact discs are still not accepted for review -- we have more than enough vinyl and the occasional cassette to worry about.

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March 31, 2010

Fucked Up – “Couple Tracks” b/w “Heir Apparent” 7” (Matador)

Backlashes can be very infuriating, namely the type of backlash that has no dynamic aside from herd-mentality, “hate ‘em cuz I’m supposed to” bullshit. Fucked Up has weathered a lot of that over the past two-three years. They’ve followed natural creative restlessness into territories that your garden variety hardcore ham ‘n’ egger doesn’t understand, and when dipshits don’t understand something, they do what? One guess. Even as a young band, it was apparent they had something special. Then they became that something. The collective frame of reference at work here – at least three serious heads for a wide range of musical loves – is greater than the braintrust at some university departments. They are surgically-precise with desired aesthetics. They are smart – really smart, that sonically and intellectually, their music is no longer indicative of the accepted idea of hardcore. Ideally, they come off as a nice, fresh injection into that long-suffocating genre when others attempt to place them within the strata of hardcore punk. They just do what they do, and it happens to be unique and inspired on several levels. Considering the landscape they travel and profile they’ve achieved, in general and regardless of people’s genre tagging, this is something rare. Personally, since becoming versed on Fucked Up’s “thing” and getting cozy with a handful of releases (some of the bigger ones), I’ve had a deep appreciation of the band that outweighed my desire to throw them on randomly throughout the day. Now, they’ve gone and written a song that can be held high as a masterpiece. “Couple Tracks” is a brilliant pop-rager that transcends each and every trapping assigned to the band by the innumerable ninnies with opinions. It’s the type of song that lasts. It will always be powerful; long after there’s no Fucked Up to play it live, and hearing how golden it really is, that first time a week or two back, recalled some of those other, younger firsts that all of us believe are forever lost to nostalgia. It’s so good that it doesn’t even matter what I think of the other side. (sold only as a gift with pre-orders of the Couple Tracks double LP set, but try anyway at http://www.matadorrecords.com)
(Andrew Earles)

2 years ago • 0 notes