Bowery Ballroom

showview

Fucked Up

Vivian Girls / Fiasco

Wed 10/15

Tickets

18+

Doors 8pm

$10

Fucked Up

http://lookingforgold.blogspot.com/
While Canadian punk provocateurs Fucked Up play aggressive and incendiary music, that's hardly where their desire to stir up trouble begins and ends. The group strays far from the standard template of four-four punk stomp, incorporating extended instrumental workouts, unusual arrangements, and lengthy experimental passages along with the furious guitars and ranting vocals. While Fucked Up have paid homage on record to pioneering anarchist movements and creative and political troublemakers of all stripes, they've also flirted with fascist images and obscure mysticism in a bid to puzzle and confront their audiences. And despite their fondness for lengthy musical statements, Fucked Up waited until four years into their recording career to record a full-length album.

Fucked Up formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 2001; the group members (all of whom use pseudonyms) were Pink Eyes (aka Father Damien) on lead vocals, 10,000 Marbles on lead guitar, Concentration Camp on rhythm guitar, Mustard Gas on bass, and Mr. Jo (aka Guinea Beat) on drums. In 2002, the band released its first record, a vinyl 7" called No Parasan distributed by Deranged Records. Over the next four years, Fucked Up would release a steady stream of singles, EPs, and cassettes, most notably the infamous Looking for Gold vinyl 12", which featured the epic-length title song (which incorporates massive guitar overdubs, extended drum solos, and a whistled coda); rather than deal with the expense of the EP's elaborate package, the band opted to post the record online rather than go into a third pressing.

Fucked Up's purposefully obscure and cryptic lyrical concerns led some music journalists to suggest the band was playing a bit too lightly with fascist ideology, an accusation the group seemed to cite when they featured a photo of a Hitler Youth rally on the sleeve of a split single with Haymaker. (The bandmembers also frequently cited their manager David Eliade as a key lyrical influence, but if he's an actual Malcolm McLaren-style Svengali or a fictional creation in the manner of Randy Fitzsimmons is anyone's guess.)
-Mark Deming, allmusic.com

Vivian Girls

http://www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc
http://www.freewebs.com/viviangirls/
Behold the Vivian Girls. Just as their alluring name only became passed around mere months ago, this group of three upstart New York females have taken the noisy pop mantra and dipped it in pure gold, right out of the gate. With their debut 7" on their very own Plays With Dolls Records label already sending out waves of panic and adoration to the outer limits of the underground pop contingent, they have become the newest breakout sirens of the New York loft-pop brigade. Within seconds of hearing their seductive three-part girl group vocal harmonies lushly interwoven with chest-pounding rhythms of beautiful feedback, it's obvious that their songs are hard to resist, especially if you find yourself keen on the mid-80s noise pop conglomerate of Jesus & Mary Chain, The Vaselines, Black Tambourine, and Shop Assistants. The echo-filled songs resonate with such sweetness and provocative noise, that it culminates into a wall of beautiful vocals interplayed with a simple yet timeless beat that will have no problem crossing over genre lines and warming up to virtually anyone with an ounce of good taste.
—Todd Killings, VictimofTime.com