PINK EYE

(Damian Interview - ''Lifes a rape" issue 2  - 2006?)

I just read a Pink Eye interview with you and Jonah from the band and you came across as really in touch with a personal and like therapeutic side of your self - how come this doesn't come across in Fucked Up?

Pink Eyes: Fucked Up serves a different purpose for me. The lyrics I write in fucked up address broader themes. Pink Eye is a very selfish thing for me. It's a lot of fantasies and personal ranting set to music. I hope that Fucked Up reaches more people and people can take something away from it. With Pink Eye it is not important that anyone gets anything more then a surface level enjoyment. I read a review of it that alluded to it being some kind of joke band and at first I was hurt that it would be misinterpreted, which is not to say that I didn't have some humor intended in the lyrics but that some one could so easily dismiss it as a comedy thing when there are parts which I am serious as a heart attack about, but I quickly realized that it doesn't matter. With Pink Eye, it is something so personal that I can't expect anyone else to get what I meant.

(from Fucked Up Interview - Heartattack Fanzine 2006)

Fold out sleeve (folded out) - reverse has school shooter game

Regular pressings are on pink and white vinyl with pink being the most common. The gold vinyl is a limited version, usually hand-numbered on the 'B' side label; the labels are otherwise the same for all pressings. The orange is limited to 10, but its not the rarest version...

Stats:
Side A: How To Rob An Indie Rock Star / 1 Pink 2 Blues
Side B:  In Praise Of School Shooters / Behind The Shoe / THC0
Released: 2005
Label: Slasher (MURDER 004)

The gold vinyl were for me Damien and Jonah to use as gifts/traders etc. I certainly sent a bunch to Slasher members, however the white vinyl were the ones made for club members. The mixed colours were just a bit of an added bonus. Kind of surprising they made so many orange ones usually the blends only take two three records. 
(Matt Bickle - Slasher Records)

Pressing Info:
(Thanks to Matt Slasher for info and pics)
Test Pressings  - 8 on black
Pink Vinyl - 1350  (regular version - some are a little darker than others)
White Vinyl - 110 (slasher club version - some have streaks)
Gold Vinyl - 88 (numbered copies retained and used for trades / giveaways - officially 20 were destroyed, though it was actually more like 32. Pieces of the broken records were used in the Pink Eye box-set)
Orange Vinyl - 10
*Puke - 4
White /Pink swirl - 2
Grey /White swirl - 2

*All variants except puke shown in picture above.

Puke vinyl - picture taken of record laying on sleeve - vinyl is translucent

Inserts: 

Inserts are single-sided xerox prints on different coloured paper. The pink vinyl comes with white paper, white vinyl comes with pink. Gold comes with goldenrod paper stamped on the back. 

Variants: 

• Seven variants (of whole disks)  - different colours as above.
• Pink Eye Box Set version - as below

Pink Eye portrait on gold encrusted box, containing regular pink vinyl in stamped dust sleeve and a piece of the exclusive gold vinyl. 

The boxes are big, flimsy, difficult to store / transport and were given to punks; some of them look a little squashed these days... 

The rest of the space in the box is filled with a special long-sleeve shirt,  pack of button pins, and the School Shooter Pack comprising plastic (Glock-type) pistol, 3 rounds of ammunition and a target.

12" Version

In 2006 there was a 12" 'repress' which has an additional track and some different song titles...

Pressing Info:
14 test press (These were NOT on square vinyl).
First press 300 on clear vinyl.
2nd press 700 on black vinyl.

Sleeves are the same for both versions of the main pressing

Black and clear vinyl showing 'A' and 'B' side labels

Clear vinyl comes with a yellow insert, black vinyl comes with white. Basically larger versions of the 7" design but, the layout has been updated and there are a few alterations.

Yellow insert has artwork on reverse, white is blank.

Love this decorated dust sleeve - have no idea how it came to be.

Pink Eye CD

Limited to 50 CD with ''Songs from the upcoming Slasher Records 7" as well as other rare grooves" including tracks intended for the first Criminally Insane LP and a couple of interesting Fucked Up numbers...

DIY CD with numbered inlay

School Shooter Game on reverse of inlay

Notes:

Live band had Mark Hurst (Punch In The Face) and a dude who was in Unit Pride (Tim Monroe) Both of them lived in Chicago. I think one show in Toronto and one in Chicago and that was it.

(Matt Bickle - Slasher)

Jonah and Mark Hurst
(Photo courtesy of Matt Bickle)

L-R: Damian, Tim Monroe, Neal Dyrkacz, Mark Hurst, Jonah Falco
(Photo courtesy of Matt from Chicago)

Neal Dyrkacz is credited as bass player on the recordings - Neal and Mark Hurst also played a few shows with Career Suicide

''Litany'' (12")

...AND AGAIN

Sleeve - Front: Folds out to form poster as per 7' 

Sleeve - Back

Vinyl: Blank silver / grey labels on both sides

Stats:

General:
Tracks - A: Litany / What Could Have Been  B: Colour Removal / Reset The Ride + 1 additional song (see below)
Released: 2005
Label: Test Pattern Records TPR 108
Matrix A: TEST PATTERN-108A
Matrix B: TEST PATTERN-108B

Pressing Info:
1000 (The pressing numbers on that source seem a little 'confused'. Relative availability on second-hand market suggests there were less than 1000)

Inserts:
No regular insert

Variants:
At least one has hand-written labels.



Notes

Sleeve is same as 7" version, but bigger. See Litany 7"  for more infos

Discogs:
Comes with an extra, unlisted and uncredited song, and with a huge b/w foldout sleeve. The extra track is a cover of The Younghearts - A Little Togetherness

Commodity Fetishism 

From the owner: 

(I purchased a copy of the Litany 12" from) a fellow from the Czech republic which has writing on the labels, now I know this isn't a hard thing to do all you need is a marker and boom there you go, but I thought maybe there was some connection with the band. On the A side labels it has written: Sudetenland give it up, and on the B side: Fuck Fr. Tiso, in red marker. 

Sudetenland is the German name for parts of Czechoslovakia mainly inhabited by German speakers, hence the (I thought) connection with the band. Again though I'm probably just a sucker for some kid with a red pen!

Fr Tiso

Sudetenland

Is it Genuine? 
The 'tour versions' of  ''Black Army'' & ''Black Cross'' often came with hand-written labels and were sold in 2005 on the first Euro Tour. The Litany 12" came out the same year. The tour included visits to the Czech Republic and Germany. The handwriting matches up and the references are typical FU. Of course it's (almost certainly) genuine!

''Black Army''

The Struggle Against The State
(Title of insert)

Sleeve - Front

Sleeve - Back

Vinyl - Side A: Printed labels (left) and 'tour' version with white labels (right)

Vinyl - Side A: Printed labels (left) and 'tour' version with white labels (right)

Insert 1: (Lyric sheet) Front and back

Insert 2: (Nestor Makhno) Front and back

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Baiting The Public B/W Circling The Drain / Municipal Prick
Released: 2005
Label: Burning Sensation Records BSC-BS001
Matrix A: 59452 1A BS 001
Matrix B: 59452 1B BS 001

Pressing Info:
First Press 1000 (Out of press)
*175 white labels. here were actually 300 white labels.
9 Test Presses

*Above info from LFG site, but believed to be incorrect, should be:
15 Test Pressings.
First Press of 1000, comprising 700 with printed labels and 300 blank with white labels. Some of the white labels have hand-witten messages. (According to a Maarten - a friend of the label owner).

Inserts:
Lyric sheet with 4 images on reverse
Portrait of Nestor Makhno with précis of the Black Army & Black Cross on reverse.

Variants:

Printed labels
Blank white labels: some of these have handwritten messages on and were sold on the European Tour.

This is the Sandy of Records

Image borrowed from Kyle Whitlow's site - check it out.

Notes: 
Black Army & Black Cross often come as a pair and are a compilation of older releases, put together for the European Market (for want of a better term), as the earlier releases were not so readily available outside of North America.

The two records have different images on the front of the sleeves and the reverse of the lyric sheet, but otherwise share the same the artwork.

Sleeve Notes:

Front Cover: (To follow). Actually, probably not. This will have to go down as 'unidentified' for the time-being. The feathered bicorn hats and red? uniforms suggest knights, but could alternatively be military or diplomats. Looks like they're in a car and being followed by soldiers with bayonets on foot. Probably has something to do with the state, or God, or something...

Back Cover: The compilation theme is followed through in the artwork: The band shot is from the ''Epics in Minutes'' CD, The 'Twin Dragon' image was used in sketch form on ''Looking For Gold'' and would be used again for the labels of ''Two Snakes''. The 'Big Fish / Little Fish' was used on''Baiting The Public''. Similarly some of the insert images are reused - the art nouveau swans from the ''Litany'' insert and one of the 'soldier' images from a ''Generation'' insert.

Commodity Fetishism:

Test Presses: Black Army (White sleeve, white labels)
& Black Cross (White sleeve, white labels)...

''Black Cross''

The Struggle Against The State

(Title of insert)

Sleeve - Front

Sleeve - Back 

Vinyl - Side A: Printed labels (left) and 'tour' version with white labels (right)

Vinyl - Side B: Printed labels (left) and 'tour' version with white labels (right)

Insert 1:  (Lyric sheet) Front and back

Insert 2: (Nestor Makhno) Front and back

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Police / Zezozose BW Dance of Death / Last Man Standing
Released: 2005
Label: Burning Sensation Records BSC-BS002
Matrix A: 59457 1A BS 002
Matrix B: 59457 1B BS 002

Pressing Info:
First Press 1000 (Out of press)
*175 have blank white labels
9 Test Presses

*Above info from LFG site, but believed to be incorrect, should be:
15 Test Pressings.
First Press of 1000, comprising 700 with printed labels and 300 blank with white labels. Some of the white labels have hand-witten messages. (According to a Maarten - a friend of the label owner).

Inserts:
Lyric sheet with 4 images on reverse
Portrait of Nestor Makhno with précis of the Black Army & Black Cross on reverse.

Variants:

Printed labels
Blank white labels: some of these have handwritten messages on and were sold on the European Tour.

Image borrowed from Kyle Whitlow's site - check it out. 

Lover boy is better than SSD

Above two pictures are the same disk (Thanks Philip!)

Notes: 
Black Cross & Black Army often come as a pair and are a compilation of older releases, put together for the European Market (for want of a better term), as the earlier releases were not so readily available outside of North America.

The two records have different images on the front of the sleeves and the reverse of the lyric sheet, but otherwise share the same the artwork.

Sleeve Notes:

Front Cover: Original photo by Josef Koudelka, taken during the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The invasion was carried out to reaffirm Soviet control and was in response to the liberalising reforms of the Prague Spring.

More of Koudelka's pictures of the invasion HERE.

Back Cover: The compilation theme is followed through in the artwork: The band shot is from the ''Epics in Minutes'' CD, The 'Twin Dragon' image was used in sketch form on ''Looking For Gold'' and would be used again for the labels of ''Two Snakes''. The 'Big Fish / Little Fish' was used on''Baiting The Public''. Similarly some of the insert images are reused - the art nouveau swans from the ''Litany'' insert and one of the 'soldier' images from a ''Generation'' insert.

Weird

Synchronicity or misfiling of LFG-related inserts #1: This pair came with two artwork clippings in each sleeve.

Commodity Fetishism:

Test Presses: Black Army (White sleeve, white labels)
& Black Cross (White sleeve, white labels)...