''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

Haymaker / Split

''Who are the Nazis and who are the rats?

(Mixtape 1 Side A)

Sleeve - Front

Sleeve - Back

Sleeve Folded Out - Front: Hitler Youth Rally & 'Rat Catcher'

Sleeve Folded Out - Back: The Rats

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Fucked Up @ Signal To Noise Studio 7/22/02 B/W Haymaker @ The Music Gym 2/31/02
Released: Feb 2005
Label: Deep Six Records DS#52

Matrix A: FUCKED UP R-19103 DEEPSIX#49-F

Matrix B: HAYMAKER R-19104 DEEPSIX#49-H

Pressing Info:
1st Press - 1000  (Comprising 200 White and 800 Black vinyl)
2nd - 500 Grey vinyl
3rd - 1000 Clear vinyl, labels on wrong side of disk
4th - ? Translucent 'camo green' vinyl, plain black labels
5th - ? 'Marbled'
6th - ? Green

Variants: 

Different vinyl colours as picture below.

Inserts:

No regular insert. 

Someone at Deep Six missed the memo about not doing variants...

Top L-R: White, Black, Grey (1st & 2nd press)
Middle L-R: Clear, Camo, Marbled (3rd, 4th & 5th press)
Bottom: Green (6th press)

Notes:

The Fucked Up tracks were recorded 3 years earlier in July 2002, during the same recording session as ''Police''. The notes below are copied are cropped from a  2010 "fake'' about the band's first CIUT session in 2001 and hopefully relate to three of the tracks on this record...

FU song title AKA's

1. Black Iron Prison  - AKA - "A Light That Never Comes On"

2. Dove of Wood - AKA - ????

3. Dove of Wood  -  AKA - "Red" - AKA - "The Lurking Fear"

4. The Black Rats - AKA  - "Quick"

5. Surrounded By Boys -AKA - ????

1. Black Iron Prison is a reference to the concept of social control described by Philip K Dick in his novel VALIS.  This track is a polished version of ''A Light That Never Comes On'' one of the songs included on their Demo tape. 

Dove of Wood (Track 2): Does this title just symbolise the opposite to a black iron prison? I don't know. Is there another recording of the song somewhere else under a different name? I thought it might be an almost unrecognisably improved and updated version of ''Sleep Tight'' from the demo, because both seem to have a line ending ''...life away'', but other than that it's a different song altogether and all the better for it...

Dove of Wood (Track 3): There are three different recordings of this song on the Epics CD comp, it was originally called ''The Lurking Fear'' but was later named ''Red''. There are 3 versions of it on the Epics in Minutes CD comp (Deranged version). Here it gets a 4th recording and a 3rd name, but it has to share it with track 2.

The Black Rats: FU have a long association with rats. They have also been associated a zine that had it's name changed to 'Quick', which is also what this song was called when played with less skill for the CIUT session.

Surrounded by Boys: Like track 2, this might be a version of an early song with new lyrics and music; something only it's mother would recognise in its mature form, to anyone else it first appeared here as a fresh new 2-minute wonder. 

Following, is another early song claimed to appear on this split under a fake name (see ''fake'' link above). See also tracks 2 & 5. See also history of fake claims made by FU.

Sleeve Notes:


The Rat Catcher
When the sleeve is unfolded, this panel is arranged with its upper edge meeting the upper edge of the  main sleeve image. In this context it can be read as a metaphorical reflection on the Hitler Youth Rally via the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with the Nazi's as self styled rat catchers who end up leading the children away.

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Commodity Fetishism:

Test press from first press

Test press, probably for one of the later presses, with 'Psychotic Little Man' hand-drawn cover by Jeff Beckman (Haymaker)

(1) LFG Blog 2010 Re CIUT session 2001