Triumph of Life

ONE FOR THE ROOK, ONE FOR THE CROW, ONE TO DIE AND ONE TO GROW
(Message on reverse of sleeve)


Sleeve - Front (Jade Tree version)
Sleeve - Back (Jade Tree version)
Vinyl (Jade Tree version): These are on pink vinyl, the shade varies a little as indicated in the picture above, which shows two different records. Most have a light marbled pattern as can be seen on the left-hand disk.



Vinyl: Peter Bower / Vice Variants:
Bottom: First Euro press on black
Top: Second Euro Press on purple and purple w/ black splatter



Stats:

General:
Tracks: Triumph of Life B/W Neat Parts
Year: 2006

North American Version:
Label: Jade Tree - JT1116
Matrix A: 8532-JT1116-7(A) R-19997 xar
Matrix B: 8532-JT1116-7(B) JT1116 R 1999 8 ner

European Versions:
Label: Peter Bower / Vice - VRC-001 PBR-015
Matrix A: 64802H2/A PBR015 A
Matrix B: 64802H2/A PBR015 B


Pressing Info:

Jade Tree Version:

1000 on Pink vinyl

Peter Bower / Vice Versions:
1966 on Black
1000 mixture of plain purple and purple with black splatter, 75 of these have a ‘tour cover’

Inserts:
  • Jade Tree version does not have a regular insert
  • Peter Bower / Vice versions have single-sided insert, with photocopied ‘two naked men’ image (the black vinyl usually has an A5-size insert on white paper, the purple variants usually have an A4-size insert on coloured paper. Colour of paper depends on ‘what was available at the time’)
  • Some PB / Vice versions have a small card copy of a gig flyer (various images), added by one of the distributors.
Variants:
  • Pink Vinyl – Jade Tree 
  • Black Vinyl – Peter Bower / Vice 
  • Purple Vinyl - Peter Bower / Vice (Variable sleeves – see below) 
  • Purple Vinyl - Peter Bower / Vice (Variable sleeves – see below) 
  • Tour Sleeve (see below)
  • Newcastle Version (see below)


Inserts - Peter Bower / Vice Variants:
Front:
 Small white insert - usually comes with black vinyl (First Euro press)
Back: Large coloured inserts - usually come with purple vinyl variants (Second Euro Press)
Some of the Euro Press versions also had a small card 'Show Poster' image, kindly added by one of the distributors. There are various images




Euro Sleeve Variants:
For the Euro Press there are two variants of the 'regular' sleeve:
  • Peter Bower / Vice Sleeve
  • Peter Bower Sleeve
The first Euro press on black vinyl was a joint venture between Peter Bower and Vice. The second press on purple and purple w/ splatter was done by Peter Bower and a new cover was produced omitting Vice. However, there were a number of covers remaining from the first press, so a lot of the coloured vinyl comes with the earlier sleeve. The new sleeves with the Vice logo omitted often come with the splatter variant, but many were packaged randomly.
Euro Sleeve Variants: Front
Left: Peter Bower ‘with’ Vice version - has white border below bird image on bottom edge of sleeve, similar to Jade Tree version
Right: Peter Bower ‘without’ Vice version - does not have white border on bottom edge
Euro Sleeve Variants: Back
Left: Peter Bower ‘with’ Vice version has Vice logo on bottom RHS
Right: Peter Bower ‘without’ Vice has Vice logo omitted





'Tour' Sleeves
These are black and white fold-out sleeves, made for the second press purple and purple w/ splatter. According to email correspondence, the sleeves were made for the last copies of the second press; a good year after the actual tour.

'Tour' sleeve, with purple vinyl. Borrowed from Kyle Whitlow's blog
Fold out sleeve printed both sides the left hand pic shows the reverse of the sleeve when folded out 
Tour sleeve with purple / splatter vinyl




Notes:

Announcement on LFG (Jan 28 2006):
"Triumph of Life", the first single from the upcoming "Hidden World" 2xLP, will be released first in the UK in April of 2006 to coincide with the Fucked Up UK tour (April 13-23). The single will later be released in North America with a different bside, with the album shortly following.

Spot Rusherz interview with Damian, posted on LFG (Jun 13 2006):
10. What did you write triumph of life about?
I didn't write it.... it's a Mike jam so it is no doubt about gardens or magic.

Scenepointblank.com interview, posted on LFG (Nov 14 2006):
10,000 Marbles:  I had militarism in mind when I wrote "Triumph of Life," ... but I like being discreet, you know?


Scenepointblank.com interview, posted on LFG (Nov 14 2006):
Scene Point Blank: "Neat Parts" seems like an account of being disillusioned with certain varieties of politics ("empty slogans they just fall on my left and deaf ear"). The question of Fucked Up and politics has always been fairly complex and uncomfortable for some; how does this fit in?

10,000 Marbles: Pink Eyes wrote "Neat Parts" about girls, I'm pretty sure. "Neat Parts" and "Reset the Ride" - that shit is about women.

Pink Eyes: "Neat Parts" really is two different songs in one, I guess. The first verse is definitely meant to be an attack on the sloganeering of punk. Where bands talk about being anti-racist only to turn around and have totally misogynistic views (or homophobic and classist) thereby totally ignoring the intersectionality (sic?) of systems of oppression. Or most of the time they do talk about being anti-oppression it is on a very surface level; like I'm anti-Nazi therefore I'm anti-racist, totally ignoring how deep these problems truly go. And it totally boils down to some idiot with a microphone telling us how to live so they can feel that they have somehow had a positive effect on the world. The other half of the song is about people subverting science to re-enforce systems of oppression. For me these two things are linked because they are both examples of people taking things and twisting them to serve their will. Both are totally different but both are equally self-serving.




Sleeve Notes

The following is copied from a LFG post (Dec 27 2010) regarding FU cover art work:

Triumph of Life 7"
Here is another cover with a subtle but powerful message. It's pretty much just a picture of a bird (The extinct Black Mamo) but then when you look closer you see that what makes the picture and the bird significant is the flower it's standing on, who's petals are perfectly formed to fit this birds beak, and no other. This holds with the syncretic message that most FU songs are about, our "anti-dualism" vibes. In 2006 I was mostly finished being interested in university and was taking biology and botany classes for fun and was learning about symbiosis in nature as it relates the evolution of species. It turns out that competition between two species, be it an antelope and a cheetah, or a bird and a flower is what drives evolution, since the constant battle between opposing forces makes each better and stronger and challenging the opponent. But since it's happening on both sides, its a positive feedback loop and allows new traits in each species to develop and strengthen the species as a whole. It's kind of like Marx/Hegels theory of the dialectic in society except that in nature it makes cheetahs that can run 100 mph, and in society it just makes Walmarts and Russian billionaires. I got the image from a huge picture book of extinct animals, and this was I believe the first time we ever used a colour photo on a 7" cover. I kind of tried to make this record like the part in The Wizard of Oz where all of a sudden everything was in colour. This 7" was kind of like a departure in style for us, and seemed appropriate for things to start being in colour.


Nazi Imagery?

Below is a screenshot from LFG, showing the first part of the post dated Jan 28 2006, announcing the forthcoming release of the 7''. The  image was reproduced on the inserts shown above and on FU Shirts. Some of its previous usages are outlined further down.






Pre-Nazi Usage:

‘’Die Germanische Glaubensgemeinschaft’’ Pamphlet (1921). 
This pamphlet was extracted from a Ludwig Fahrenkrog book, to promote Germanische Glaubensgemeinschaft (GGG) (Germanic Religious Community). 

Ludwig Fahrenkrog
(The following is quoted from ‘’Brown Shirt Princess’’ By Lionel Gossman):

His (i.e. Fahrebkrog) basic article of faith, he had written then, was ″Gott in uns″: ″If God is in everything, hence not only in me, then I am also the Other. If, however, God is in me, then his law is also in me and I have no need either of written law or of a Mediator. Likewise I cannot expect to achieve salvation otherwise than in and through myself.″ His ″new-won view of the world″ could be summarized, Fahrenkrog explained, in three short phrases: ″God in us – the Law in us – self-redemption.”... Later still, he proposed...”It is. The All is in me and I am in the All. [...] All things spring from the same original source. There is no difference between God-All and human soul. Man is part of the Totality, a particular being. And yet he is also God.″ According to Fahrenkrog, the immediate, incontrovertible experience of the indwelling of God in the human soul is the essence of all true religion: ″Whoever does not find these propositions self-evident is not truly religious. They refer to fundamentals. Neither faith nor dogma plays any role here.″ (1)

The GGG under the Third Reich (From Wikipedia):
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they outlawed almost all other groups not affiliated with the party. The GGG, however, was not forced to disband, partly... "because of Fahrenkrog's international status as an artist." Nevertheless, some of its activities were limited. They could no longer hold public meetings, and after 1938 could no longer use the swastika, which the GGG had been using as its symbol since 1908.


Nazi Usage: 

Fe y Acción (1938)"Faith and Action" 
This publication was an official text of indoctrination to the Hitler Youth, published by the NSDAP. It is a “Book of Virtues,” discussing the ideal traits of Nazi youth. A Nazi era review noted that this was a good book for those who wished to give their children something better than “the Jewish myths of the Old Testament.” The author was in charge of military education for the Hitler Youth. 

The above text is paraphrased / copied from the introduction to a translation of the publication HERE





Post-Nazi Usage

Going back to the screen shot above, the image appeared under the title: 'Give Dust To Life' and with the caption, 'One for the rook, one for the crow, one to die, and one to grow'. The song lyrics are also included in the post.

See separate page about use of FU logo to subvert religious / state imagery. (If it gets written later). In the meantime the replacement of the swastika with the FU logo and its subsequent usage was probably to do with selling records and T-shirts and maybe converting fans to Nazism, rather than anything weird like extending the alchemical themes of the record to distil and separate the pure elements from the muck associated with the image.

See also section in ''Brown Shirt Princess'' regarding Julius Hart’s Triumph des Lebens (Triumph of Life) poem.












Commodity Fetishism 

Triumph of Life 'Newcastle'  This picture shows the armband and patch, some had a button badge. The armband was placed around the first press (black vinyl) record, as shown in the picture below. The record was numbered on the back (25 copies) and sold at the Newcastle show (without the band's involvement).
Packed up - there were two variants to the armband; the one shown above and another that had a black logo on red fabric, shown below.



Test Press - Peter Bower / Vice - Euro Press: These had white labels with 'side A' stamped  on. The 'B' side label was blank
As above
Test Press - Jade Tree - North America Press:
A few of these were given away by Jade Tree as competition prizes:
Left: Cardboard mailer packaging (JT116 is the record code)
Right: White blank labels, small-hole vinyl

Test Press - Jade Tree









 (1) GOSSMAN, Lionel. Brownshirt Princess: A Study of the “Nazi Conscience”. New edition [online]. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2009 (generated 10 February 2014). Available on the Internet: <http://books.openedition.org/obp/399>. ISBN: 9781906924027.  HERE