''Generation'' (12")

Belief system fails, leaves behind a spiritual void...
Regular Sleeve - Front

Regular Sleeve - Back

Vinyl - Side 'A'
Vinyl - Side 'B'
'Glossy' Insert: Came with regular sleeve and some (most?) of the DJ sleeves.
Single-sided (reverse is blank). Gig image with lyrics on LHS.





Stats:

General:

Tracks: Generation B/W Ban Violins / Magic Kingdom
Year: 2005
Label: Slasher Records
Matrix A MURDER 1203-A RE2 45RPM
Matrix B MURDER 1203-A 45RPM

Pressing Info: (Figures kindly confirmed by Slasher Records)
1st Press 1400 Aug 2005 (3 sets of 9 test presses, the first two rejected)
Of these:
DJ sleeves - less than 300
DJ Muthafunkaz label - 6 or 7 (see notes below)
'13/100' (Show copy) - 'A hand full'


Inserts:
Two variants - Glossy 'gig picture' (see above) & Photocopy 'Statue' (see below)
DJ Sleeve - First 50 or so had photocopy insert, other 250 had both photocopy and glossy insert.
Regular Sleeve - Glossy insert

Variants:
Regular sleeve
DJ Sleeve
'MuthaFunkaz' Label
'13/100 message' (Show copy)




Notes:

From Email Correspondence:

DJ Sleeve: I'm not 100% sure how many of these there are but we originally made them to sell at a fest we where travelling to and the real covers where not ready in time so these where made. The first 50 or so just came with the paper insert w/ the statue and lyrics then after the fest the insert with the live photo was also included.

DJ Spen & the MutaFunkaz Labels: We found about 6-7 of the Generation 12" records with the wrong B side labels. This was a pressing plant error. We where packing the original run w/ DJ sleeves the night before we left for the fest and I noticed these.


13/100 Message: There are definitely not 100 of these. From my recollection Matt from Slasher records was selling these at a show and was just writing stuff on a handful of the sleeves. All where numbered #13/100. I'm not sure if all the messages where the same.


Notes from email correspondence with Matt Bickle (Slasher Records):

  • Pressed in batches of 500?, then 800? then 100. Last 100 have off-white (creamy) labels (due to fading?) and were pressed to fill 100 remaining regular jackets.
  • The DJ sleeve was done partly because the regular sleeves were not ready and some funds were needed to recoup some of the pressing costs
  • Some Slasher Club members received a copy of the vinyl plus both sleeves and inserts.
  • The Muthafunkaz labels occurred randomly through the first 2 or 3 boxes that came from the pressing plant. A couple were sold at the Posi Numbers Festival and a couple given away. It had been assumed that more would turn up... they didn't and unfortunately there weren't enough for all the band members. Awkward situation.


DJ Sleeve - Front: (Photocopy insert peeping through hole) - These mostly have a sticker on the top RHS s shown above. A few have the sticker loose, or positioned elsewhere.

DJ Sleeve - Back
Photocopy Insert - Front: Came with DJ sleeve. Lyric sheet, with sword and eagle.
Same as 7" insert, but larger and  'negative' - i.e. the 7'' version has black text and images on a white background.
Photocopy Insert - Back: Statue image.
Same as 7" but larger and (probably) only this image was used, whereas the 7" version had various images.










Commodity Fetishism: 


MuthaFunkaz Label - 'A' Side: The MF label mispress came in DJ Sleeves. The 'A' side was the same as the regular copies.

MuthaFunkaz Label - 'A' Side: The 'B' side was mispressed with the wrong labels.
Muthafunkaz Label
''Holy Ghost'' was pressed the same year as ''Generation'' - Discogs Link

''13/100 Message'' The messages where written by Matt Bickle (Slasher Records). Signed by Beav, vocalist of Toronto Band Urban Blight, and Violent Future + other Toronto Bands. friend of FU who stood in as FU vocalist for first Euro Tour. Also HERE. Urban Blight also gigged with FU and Beav drove them around and roadied on a North American tour.

Rejected Test Press

''Looking For Gold''

God did not choose to give us the medicines prepared. He wants us to cook them ourselves.
Paracelsus  (LFG Blog)


Sleeve - Front: Artwork pasted onto generic sleeve (this one needs re-sticking)
Sleeve - Back
Vinyl
Insert

Stats:
General:
Tracks: A: Looking For Gold, B: ''More Gold'' (Fate of Fates)
Year: 2004
Label: Self Release
Matrix A: RH 00-A
Matrix B: RH 00-B

Pressing Info:
1st Press 300 (Sept 2004)  (No Test Presses)
2nd 400 (Feb 2005) or maybe 300

Inserts:
All versions have same 'Let a Fool Walk in Darkness' A3-size insert

    Variants:

    • First Press
    • Second Press (has sharper print quality on back of sleeve)
    • Unstamped
    • Stamped (Labels & sometimes dust sleeve)
    • 'The Baiting of Chicago' Sleeve (Chicago show poster folded over regular sleeve - see further down)


    Stamped labels (and dust sleeve). Image borrowed from Doug's SITE
    Stamped labels and dust sleeve. Image borrowed from Doug's SITE



    Notes:

    In November 2005, three and a half years after the first press of 'No Pasaran', the Looking For Gold blog appeared. The following text combining the lyrics with explanatory comments is copied from the second post on the blog, it appears here with some of the redundant links updated, a few new ones and images added and the text fonts changed...


    Looking For Gold

    Our amber paths are etched to globes in code
    We ride on tigers through fields of young and old
    We search among you men looking for gold''


    Amber paths refers to ancient trade routes that prospectors once believed to lead the way to gold deposits. When our world still had frontiers, much secretism and code was made to preserve these and other sorts of areas. It is common knowledge that even Columbus was in possession of maps that lead him directly to the New World. The double meaning of these paths is revealed as the song progresses.
    "Riding the Tiger" was a phrase coined by Julius Evola (and later corrupted by Yo La Tengo, Jefferson Starship and others), used to describe a method of surviving in a corrupted world: by living on the back of the beast, you avoid its most harmful elements, that of the claws and teeth.



    ''Within the mines of human minds we seek to gain the Masters of the Name:
    Are you the fire or just another flame?''


    The "Masters of the Name" (known also as the Baalei Shem) were a Jewish mystic sect of the 10th and 11th centuries, who were thought to be able to use the true names of God to perform feats of magic - stirring the oceans, raising the dead, and making themselves invisible. The sect became for a time a popular religious movement in Europe, and was associated with the Kabbalist Isaac the Blind.

    The "fire-flame" line comes from a song by the 50s singing group The Orioles.



    ''We are the fluids that dance upon the rest
    We follow deeper laws possessed within this mess 
    We perch atop the very writhing beast 
    Out of reach are we from all its claws and teeth

    Our lives are shot to god from living bows 
    We live in streams of mercury 
    We're a current through the centuries''

    Mercury 

    The first line comes from this Evola quote: "Life is like a bow and the soul like an arrow, the target being aimed at is the Supreme Spirit", and describes his ideal human life. Keep in mind that Evola (nor this song) does not use the conception of "God" in a traditional sense - while being a mystical fascist and under the temporary employ of Mussolini (who thought Evola had magical powers), he was also a devout Buddhist and student of eastern religions.
    Mercury, or "quicksilver", as it was known by alchemists, is one of the seven alchemical metals, and was of utmost importance practically, as its reaction to nitric acid produced a dramatic red smoke, but also metaphorically, as they thought the element transcended the solid and liquid states, and represented the transcendence over life and death, and heaven and hell. The metal is often represented by a serpent or a snake. Coincidentally, mercury is liquid at room temperature. So is the element Francium, of which there are thought to be less than 20 atoms of on the entire planet at any given moment.


    ''As legends fade and Kali wakes
    Our fate owes no faith to this age
    So we spend the final days looking for gold
    The smoke that rises from our stone will turn this world to dust''

    Kali

    Kali Yuga describes both an age and a creature in Indian mythology.

    Kali, the Goddess, is associated with death, violence, blood and sex. Some interpretations of Tantric texts place her as the ultimate reality and source of being.








    Kalki

    Kali Yuga, the age, also referred to as the Iron Age, refers to the age in which we currently reside, and describes the downfall of the gods, and general chaos enveloping humanity. Hindus await Kalki, the 10th and final avatar of Vishnu, riding a white horse and striking down the wicked with a sword. Note the cover of the 12".








    Kylie

    After the conclusion of this age, time is reset and brings about a Golden Age. A similar theme is described in the Bible, the Eddas of Norse mythology (the coming of Ragnarok), and of course the 3rd Matrix movie.






    ''High and low, above below
    We look in places no one goes
    To boil the base and to transmute the world
    We Pan the rivers endlessly
    To forge a golden dynasty
    Our chemistry turns living into light.''

    Pan on Greek Coin

    "As below, so above; and as above so below" is used in alchemy to describe the transmutation from lower to higher elements. The alchemical process is briefly described in this section.
    "Pan" is capitalized because it refers to the act of panning for gold, but also to the Greek God Pan, the satyr-god who lords over shepherds and flocks. The connotations should be clear.







    ''We beat the drum to stir the elements
    They separate to liberate the best
    Our suns are rising west transcend the meek
    Our laws will part the golden from the weak

    The bees decide who listens and who speaks
    Their golden mead is fed to heads we keep
    New worlds and paths do these new minds conceive
    Not those who could become but those who be
    We wont rest until the Golden Dawn
    We fight with our black books in this grim war...''


    Bees were once regarded by the British to be storers of sacred or important knowledge. Many British estates maintained several hives, and employed Bee Masters to speak to the bees. Special occasions and important decisions were always told to the bees in advance to ward good fortune. Bees have always been important symbols of sacred information. Many old illuminated texts will have small bee images.
    The Golden Dawn line is to push forward the gold imagery, but also of course refers to the track by Yngwie J. Malmsteen, by which of course I mean the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an influential magical society founded in London England in 1888.






    Vesica Piscis

    Alchemists and mystics alike felt that the Earth had always been a place of Grim War between the forces of heaven and hell, a sort of spiritual and metaphysical battlegrounds.
    The little religious fish symbol (called an Ichtys) you see on peoples cars while meant to represent the feeding of the 5000 LP by the band Crass, it has also been said to be a VESICA PISCIS, the sliver image created when two globes are crossed (thus the battleground image - the sliver represents earth, while the two globes represent heaven and hell), where such icons like Jesus like to hang out.



     Haymaker Split - Dee credit for vocals, not guitar

    And of course, the grim war line also refers to a Grimoire, which is a type of book written in the 18th century that will contain magical spells and conversations with angels. The most famous grimoire was written by the Elizabethan magi John Dee, who founded Enochian magic (practised by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and concerns the sacred language of God) after deciphering his conversations with a series of angels. Dee, considered by many to be the first true renaissance man, was also the basis for Shakespeare's Prospero character, and invented the term "British Empire", and played guitar for Fucked Up on the Haymaker split 7".





    ''Whole in the broken, straight in the bent
    We make the muddy waters clear
    We plunge to depths unknown for the adepts
    We secure conditions for the rest
    And we rise

    On horses black we plunder through
    The white with serpents eggs strapped to
    Our backs are turned against the silver moon''
    Gold


    Here is a description of the cover piece again. The attempt to bring darkness to light. 

    This union of opposites idea is rife in the upcoming Fucked Up LP Hidden World.



    Two Snakes






    A serpents egg is also known as a philosophers stone (also known as the Rebis, or great equalizer, which is used by alchemists as a vehicle for the alchemical transformation. It is most often a powder, used in the hopes of transforming base metals into silver or gold. There's that serpent again.




    '

    'Transcend transmute to absolutes
    The serpent sun illuminates 
    Our golden age where all the lead is gone''

    The record uses the same symbolism and metaphors that alchemical texts used to do, for the same purpose. Alchemy was on one hand a legitimate scientific pursuit, and was the precursory to the (more) legitimate science of chemistry, but on the other hand a grand and historical religious metaphor. Texts that gave instructions on ingredient mixing were also religious codes that could be read only by adepts. The transformation from lead to gold was the attempt also to transform baser human lives into greater ones, the transformation of death into life, human into god. Many alchemists were in fact looking for the elixir of life, in order to bring humanity a step closer to the heavens (see Dee's conception of the Jacob's Ladder). The song describes the pursuit of an adepts through a wicked world, looking for more adepts.
    The connotations for such a message in today's world can be wide ranging, but takes from the mythology and tradition of 1000's of years of heresy and magic.


    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2005 Blog Post (Intro to above):

    Much mystery has surrounded the release of the first self-released FUCKED UP 12", "Looking for Gold". Released in two separate runs of 300 copies to coincide with short tours that took place from 23-25th September 2004 (Chicago/Columbus/Pittsburgh), and 15-17th November 2004 (Albany/Sherbrooke/Montreal), the record was never repressed and quickly became sought-after by collectors and fuck-heads.

    Many have since been able to acquire the music through electronic means.

    What has been lost on those unable to own this record are the lyrics, artwork and meaning of the project.
    The front and back pieces were commissioned to a local Toronto artist Greg Miller.
    The front cover painting is by an 18th century Viennese artist who is now forgotten. It shows a black knight on horseback being chased out of a forest by a cadre of white gods and cherubs, as if to retrieve something that has been stolen. The image uses important alchemical symbolism and is meant to invert the classic white-black dualism. In this case sympathy is placed on the black, and seemingly villainous knight as he attempts evasion of his captors with a perhaps valuable prize in tow.

    The lyrics on the backplate describe what we are all attempting to steal from the gods and angels:


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2010 Blog post regarding artwork:

    We used to get all the art for our records from either art books from my university library, or the image bank at the big central municipal library. Around the time we did this record and Dance of Death, I was getting into the fantastic realism artists from Vienna like Alfred Kubin and Max Klinger. I think this picture came from a book called "The Fantastic Art of Vienna". I don't remember who did the piece because I think it's a really minor work, but it again describes the lyrics perfectly. What struck me about the piece is how it inverts the classic white-black dualism you see everywhere. The black guy on the horse looks like the good guy, and the white angels kind of look like demons. Its got some heavy alchemy symbolism going on, which was something else we were really feeling at the time. Looking for Gold is kind of the most important Fucked Up record and describes the age old quest for the idealized humanity. Alchemy was really heavy on dualism (which we stopped digging on Hidden World) and is therefor really useful as symbolism for punk bands, who exist almost entirely to be placed in opposition to some other prevailing force. The last verse of the song is "On horses black we plunder through, The white with serpents eggs strapped to, Our backs are turned against the silver moon". The illumination was done by a friend who I used to work with.



    Blog comment on above post:

    Anonymous Anonymous said...
    The picture from the "looking for gold" 12" often illustrates the poem "DER ERLKÖNIG" by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - if anyone cares ...














    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From Discogs:

    Depending on exactly where you place the needle to start playing the A-side, it could play either of two intro tracks, as there are two sets of grooves running parallel. Both segue directly into the title track. This is the "hidden track" that is commonly referred to.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Intro on digital version  - Second Enochian Key read by Aleister Crowley
    Can the Wings of the Wind understand your voices of Wonder? O Ye! the second of the First! whom the burning flames have framed in the depth of my Jaws! Whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding, or as flowers in their beauty for the chamber of Righteousness! Stronger are your feet than the barren stone; and mightier are your voices than the manifold winds! For you are become a building such as is not, save in the Mind of the All-Powerful.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Commodity Fetishism
    This section is normally reserved for test pressings and variations that were available in less than 30, but this one gets a special dispensation, even though it's numbered out of 40 and more of a pairing rather than a variation. Known as the 'Baiting of Chicago' sleeve, it's basically a gig poster, folded to conceal the record.

    Looking For Gold, with 'The Baiting of Chicago'  'sleeve'. 
    Chicago was the first date of the tour, so this might be considered a record release cover.
    This one is numbered 36/40

    Part of email message from someone who was at the show:
    ...the story behind the "Baiting of Chicago" cover for the LFG 12" is kind of confusing. Those gig flyers were numbered and given out at the show, and the 12" was sold for the first time at the show, but the two items were not sold together. A former roommate of mine who went to the show with me decided it would increase the record's value on eBay if he sold the numbered flyer with the limited record. He called it the Chicago edition or something, and it helped him net a few more bucks while further complicating the reliability of information on FU records.

    ''Royal Swan''

    (Split with Katie Stelmanis)


    To bid death farewell the journey ends with a swan at the top of the earth...

    Sleeve - FU Side:
    Some swans at the top of the earth
    Sleeve - Katie Stelmanis Side:
    Stelmanis duets (spars) with Damian on ''Royal Swan''
    Appears here colour coordinated and with symbolic upside-down FU logo.
    Vinyl: Black labels; the other two ChemCom singles repeat the sleeve artwork on the label

    Insert - Front:
    Sempervivum image by Albert Renger-Patzsch
    The name Sempervivum has its origin in the Latin semper ("always") and vivus ("living"), which may or may not be relevant; likewise the fact that it has hermaphrodite flowers (more on that later) 
    Insert - Back:
    Lyrics / credits




    Stats:

    General:
    Tracks: Royal Swan B/W I'm Sick (Katie Stelmanis)
    Released: 2008
    Label: Matador Records OLE 848-7
    Matrix A: OLE 848-7-A         GOLDEN
    Matrix B: OLE 848-7-B          GOLDEN
    Pressing Info: One Time Pressing of 1000 (September 3, 2008)
    Inserts: Regular insert as pictured above
    Variants: No variants




    Notes:
    Originally intended for distribution only at the 12 hour "Chemistry of Common Life" release show, subsequent lack of availability lead to ebay madness remaining copies were made available some time later via the FU online store.

    LFG Post (Dec 12 2008)
    So in case you were wondering why this song is called Royal Swan in the first place - the term comes to us (me) by way of the Russian Esotericist Boris Mouravieff (by way of the ancient "Orient"), who explains that once existed a royal race of birds that when presented with a mixture of milk and water, could separate the liquid to drink the milk and leave the water behind. The appeal of this myth to Fucked Up should be plain to even the most casual observer.

    LFG Post (Dec 27 2010)
    All the artwork associated with the ChemCom album shared the sunlight theme. All of the 7"'s (No Epiphany, Royal Swan, Crooked Head) had the sun very prominently displayed on the covers, as did obviously the album itself. This picture was therefore a no brainer - a bunch of swans, the sun. I just found it in the library's image bank in the "Swans" folder when I was looking for LP artwork. This 7" only really exists
     because this picture is so perfect - if we'd have found a picture that perfectly represented the lyrics to "Days of Last" or whatever, that would have been the 7" instead of this, but I couldn't find this picture and not make
     it the cover of a record. The song title refers to a G I Gurdjieff anecdote about these ancient swans used by royalty who had the ability to separate milk from a mixture with water. This goes back to the alchemy theme, wanting the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, in the parlance of our times.

    G I Gurdjieff


    From Wikipedia:
    Gurdjieff was an influential spiritual teacher of the early to mid-20th century who taught that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential.

    Royal Swans:
    ''In Search of The Miraculous'' By PD Ouspensky
    ''Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Fragments'' By Boris Mouravieff























    Commodity Fetishism:


    Test Pressing:
    Generic white sleeve with handwriting, generic labels

    ''No Epiphany''

    Son of Heaven, The Sun of God...

    Sleeve - Front: The Sun
    Vinyl - 'A' side: The Sun
    Sleeve - Back: The Sun
    Vinyl - 'B' side: The Sun
    Insert - Front: The Sun (and a boat)...
    Image originally used on ''Carried Out To The Sea" 7" (Which doesn't exist)
    Insert: The Sun
    Top: Unidentified 'Solar Calendar'. Sun surrounded by repeating pattern of four symbols contained by ouroboros
    Bottom Left: Final lyrics by 10K
    Bottom Right: Original Lyrics by Mr Jo - this version appears on 'Couple Tracks'





    Stats:

    General:
    Tracks: No Epiphany B/W No Epiphany (No Age Remix)
    Released: 2009
    Label: Matador Records OLE 838-7
    Matrix A: OLE 838-7-A         GOLDEN
    Matrix B: OLE 838-7-B          GOLDEN
    Pressing Info: One Time Pressing of 3000 (February 3, 2009)
    Inserts: Regular insert as pictured above
    Variants: No variants





    Notes:

    FU Tom Jones 'Poison Idea' Shirt -  Front
    FU Tom Jones Shirt - Back


    LFG Post (Feb 11 2009): 
    Hi, we are releasing the No Epiphany 7" single on March 10 ... it's the 3rd single off the ChemCom album, the first being Crooked Head, which you can get anywhere, the 2nd being Royal Swan, which you can get nowhere.

    As you can see from this picture the single arrives fraught with mystery and hilarity. Why did the NME name it "Single of the Week" 4 months before it was even released? What on it made Katy Perry call us "good musicians?", and why did Tom Jones admit that it was "not something (he) would play"?

    Originally this 7" was planned as kind of a double aside - the actual aside containing the album version of the song, and the more symbolic aside (ie the bside) containing a demo version of the track.







    When we recorded the song we did a few versions of it. Jonah wrote this song, and he really likes punk, so No Epiphany was originally conceived as a faster piece. I kind of like punk, so I decide it would sound cooler if it was slower, and had some ridiculous guitar tracks all over it...if you are on this website you've heard the press - No Epiphany has 1546 guitar tracks in total, mostly all written on the spot. I digress - the bside for this 7" was originally going to be the faster version of the song that was eventually completed - the faster music and lyrics written by Jonah Himself. Also he played all the instruments. We got No Age to do a remix of the original album version, and now thats on the 7" instead, but I feel bad for Falco, because his version got bumped (twice now), so here is a little tribute to his vision:

    Jonah's Lyrics:
    - the sun of heaven, its message sent
    - gaze in the blaze of incendiary judgement
    - present a life or a static catastrophe
    - no epiphany

    - regard the victor - his splendour, foiled
    - unveil the laggard in all his spoils
    - worst of its vision makes all liquid boil
    - no epiphany

    - perchance to glance a glimpse thereof
    - a salty tear tended by a mother's love
    - reveals the sun-kissed shade of ennui
    - no epiphany

    - I see the cover but never the book
    - you can change but i'll only ever look
    - no amount of time can be took
    - no epiphany

    - nothing new and nothing old
    - facet the diamond or burn the coal
    - the gleaming essence of miscellany
    - no epiphany

    - do what you will to incense, to make irate
    - shatter life's foundations with a pathetic shake
    - a callous smirk at the shifting plates
    - no epiphany



    Epiphany:
    An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of sudden and striking realization...

    The word epiphany originally referred to insight through the divine. Today, this concept is used much more often and without such connotations, but a popular implication remains that the epiphany is supernatural, as the discovery seems to come suddenly from the outside.

    No Epiphany:
    Where none of the above happens.


    Son of Heaven...
    Hidden World Show Poster:
    Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heavens ''Dude, is that like a big 'F' in a circle?'';
    from Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy.







    Commodity Fetishism:

    Test Pressing - No Epiphany - No Picture