"Remember Me'' (DCTL Prologue - Vivian Benson & Octavio St. Laurent)

Love was just an act for you, I was the one you poured it into...

Sleeve - Front:
Vivian Benson

Surviving so just one day I could smite evil and protect the good...

Sleeve - Back:
Octavio St. Laurent

Vinyl - 'A' Side

Vinyl - 'B' Side

Lyric Sheet

Lyric Sheet:
St Lawrence, Patron Saint of cooks

Stats:

Tracks: Remember Me (That's All I Ask) B/W What They Didn't Know
Released: 2011
Label: Matador Records OLE 962-7 
Matrix A: OLE 962-7 A GOLDEN
Matrix B: OLE 962-7 B GOLDEN
Pressing Info: 2000? TBC
Inserts: Regular insert as pictured above
Variants: No variants

Notes:

Extracted From LFG Post (June 28 2011):
As I've written on here before, this collection of records is meant to act as a prologue to David Comes to Life... to describe the characters and the setting in a bit more detail.

The Five Characters:
Right to left: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Aether

Random Facts About The Artwork:
-David Eliade is Ian from the band $100
-Vivian Benson is our friend Kate who is also on the cover of "The Beat and the Pulse" by Austra
-Octavio St Laurant is a Beggars Banquet employee
-The town on the Byrdesdale 7" is where Ben's real life mom was born
-It's the same lightbulb on each cover (and the back cover of DTCL, and the front)
-Nick Fenstle is Josh's Dad, and every member of Josh's family appears on the cover of DCTL

Vivian Benson:

Mixtape 4 Side B liner Notes:
I've read that often authors of books and plays will put a lot of meaning and care into naming their characters. One day I was checking my email and noticed a message from one “Veronica Boisson”. That's what the female lead in our new album became. Another day I got another message from someone called “Vivian Benson” - same deal. They both kind of work out, because as you know, Veronica is a cool name, and Vivian is from an early FU song title anyways.

Vivian (From Wikipedia):
Related names: Vivien, Viviane, Vivienne, Vivianne:
The Latin name Vivianus is recorded from the 1st century. It is ultimately related to the adjective vivus "alive".

I'm the Lady in the lake, where streams of memories pool and wait. Wish me well before you move on, we'll meet again in Avalon. (Lyric)

The spelling Vivien is the French masculine form, but in English speaking countries it has long been used as a feminine form, due to its appearance as the name of the Arthurian Lady of the Lake in Tennyson's Idylls of the King of 1859  

You're The wine I am the cup; give me your time and fill me up. (Lyric) 

The Holy Grail: is a dish, plate, stone, or cup that is part of an important theme of Arthurian literature. A grail, wondrous but not explicitly holy, first appears in Perceval le Gallois, an unfinished romance by Chrétien de Troyes.

Holy Chalice & "Holy Grail" (From Wikipedia)

There is an entirely different and pervasive tradition concerning the cup of the Last Supper. In this highly muddled though better-known version, the vessel is known as Holy Grail. In this legend, the cup was used to collect and store the blood of Christ at the Crucifixion.

Although the traditions of the Holy Chalice and the Holy Grail seem irreconcilable, there is an underlying concept. Since in Catholic theology, the wine consecrated in the mass becomes the true blood of Christ, both of these seemingly conflicting traditions emphasize the vessel as a cup which holds the blood of Jesus Christ, either in sacramental or literal form.

Oral tradition, poems and bardic tales combined the stories of the Holy Chalice and the Holy Grail. A mix of fact and fiction incorporated elements around Crusaders, knights and King Arthur, as well as being blended with Celtic and German legends. In 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, combined many of the traditions in his King Arthur and the Knights (Le Morte d'Arthur).

Vivian & her 'eye glass' (WATER)

Sleeve Notes:

Eye Ball  (Trinity of Man Diagram)

• Les yeux sont le miroir de l'dme (The eyes are the mirror of the soul.)
• Challice-shaped light with two reflections - referencing some kind of trinity, a link to David & Veronica?

• As if to spoil things there's a fourth light sneaking in at at the bottom...

Octavio St Laurent:

Octavio:

Octavio might have been named after any one of several historical persons, or maybe like Vivian and Veronica he was just a name on an email. In the ongoing quest to find meaning where none is intended and for the purposes of completing this page, the following Octavio has been selected:

Augustus (23 September 63 BC – 19 August 14 AD) (From his Facebook Page)

At birth he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius (or Octavian) between his birth in 63 until his posthumous adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC.

Augustus was the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. Augustus restored the outward facade of the free Republic. In reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and those of tribune and censor. It took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis ("First Citizen"). The resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire.

Beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states, and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign.

Upon his adoption by Caesar, he took Caesar's name and become Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. 

On 1 January 42 BC, the Senate posthumously recognized Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state, Divus Iulius. Octavian was able to further his cause by emphasizing the fact that he was Divi filius, "Son of God".

St. Laurent: (From Wikipedia)

Saint Lawrence or Saint Laurence (also St. Lawrence, St Laurence) is a title applied to many things named after Saint Lawrence, the 3rd century Christian martyr. Its French equivalent is Saint Laurent (and typically hyphenated when used for place names).

Lawrence is one of the most widely venerated saints of the Roman Catholic Church. He is invoked by librarians, archivists, cooks, and tanners as their patron. 

He was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome, serving under Pope Sixtus II, who were martyred during the persecution of Emperor Valerian in 258.

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind... The word "deacon" is derived from the Greek word diakonos which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning "servant", "waiting-man", "minister" or "messenger".

According to lore, Lawrence was able to spirit away the chalice used during Christ's Last Supper (the "Holy Grail") to Huesca, in present-day Spain, with a letter and a supposed inventory, where it lay hidden and unregarded for centuries. When St. Augustine connects Lawrence with a chalice, it is the chalice of the Mass:

For in that Church, you see, as you have regularly been told, he performed the office of deacon; it was there that he administered the sacred chalice of Christ’s blood. 

Octavio & his empty frame (AIR)

Sleeve Notes:

The Holy Trinity:
is not is

• The glimpse of white shirt at his neck is similar to a clerical collar and combined with the black jacket gives Octavio the appearance of a priest.
• The image focus on three main objects; Octavio, the picture frame and the light, the arrangement might suggest a reference to the Holy Trinity, whereby three separate entities are combined within a central deity. 
• In this version, Octavio would be the son of 'God' as per the Wiki text above, the Holy spirit often symbolised by fire is here referenced by an electric lamp, the father by the empty frame and God by the empty space between the objects.
• Whereas David & Veronica are positioned to the right of centre, looking toward the viewers left, Octavio (and Nick Fenstle) are left of centre and look directly at the viewer as if judgement.

To be continued / updated...

"Byrdesdale Garden City" (DCTL Prologue)

Turned paradise into a factory

Sleeve - Front

Pleasure on the edge of a knife

Sleeve - Back

Vinyl - 'A' Side

Vinyl - 'B' Side

Lyric Sheet - Front

Lyric Sheet - Back
The fountain of youth

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Byrdesdale Garden City B/W Into The Light
Released: 2011
Label: Matador Records OLE 960-7
Matrix A: OLE-960-7 A GOLDEN
Matrix B: OLE 060-7 B GOLDEN
Pressing Info: 2000? TBC
Inserts: Regular insert as pictured above
Variants: No variants




Notes:

Extracted From LFG Post (June 28 2011):
As I've written on here before, this collection of records is meant to act as a prologue to David Comes to Life... to describe the characters and the setting in a bit more detail.





Byrdesdale Spa UK:

Fictional settlement available information indicates an amalgamation of UK Mill Town, Garden City, and possibly Model Village. The presence of a Spa, suggests an earlier settlement.

Extract From TV Report:Originally envisioned by its founders as a utopian garden city, Byrdesdale has since fallen on hard times. Here the seasons never change, the people shrug like weeds, the angry thud of steel-toed boots echoing through the streets...

Damian Abraham Speaking in NPR Interview:

"The first act is reflective of the way that our band tends to have an idealized, rose-colored idea of that time in England," Abraham says. "There were a huge amount of problems, but even those problems seem fascinating. It was the first rise of the working class and the real last stand, unfortunately, [before] the conservatism of the next decade."

Devil Worship

Misinterpretation:
Just as it was possible to identify references to classical elements in each of the characters in the other prologue records, three elements can be contrived out of the place name: 

Byrdes (noun misp) - warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate animal of a class distinguished by the possession of feathers wings and a beak and typically by being able to fly. AIR
Dale (noun) - a valley especially in northern England. EARTH
Spa (noun) - a mineral spring considered to have health-giving properties. a place or resort with such a spring. WATER

Air, Earth, Water

Fire

The Factory:

Extracts from interview with Factory Worker:

How long have you worked at the light-bulb factory?
Three or four years. Or like six decades, it’s hard to keep track.









How’d you get the job?
I got the job through my friend David. After the band started I needed a job that I could work hard while I was here, and then take time off to travel with Fucked Up. Working in a factory is the perfect thing because you can plow through days on end working if you have the stamina.

Can you tell me more about the coworkers?
Imagine a lightbulb before it’s turned on. No one wants to work in a lightbulb factory — so you can imagine the paths people took to get there. Good people but not the types you’d want to get too involved in.







What’s the atmosphere like?

Hazy. Have you seen the movie The Machinist? It’s like that. It’s a real trip because lightbulbs are one of those elemental commodities that have been in production for such a long time, with the same essential design principles — the lightbulbs that were being built 100 years ago are basically the same ones being built today. Which means there hasn’t been a lot of updates in machinery at the shop either — my plant was built probably 60 or 70 years ago and there are parts of it and machines in there I really can’t think about. It’s gassy, there are sounds you hear that you can never figure out where they come from, there are chemicals everywhere. It’s a really tentative place — people act like every day is the last one there, after years of days like that. Making lightbulbs needs a lot of corrosive chemicals, so there is that too. Remnants of arsenic, mercury, you know they are there. It isn’t a healthy place. 

I had a friend who worked in a d-hook factory. She mentioned long shifts, these same sorts of older coworkers, lots of smoking. How long are your shifts?

It varies. There are lots of ways to configure your schedule. As I was saying before, while there are administrative types that keep the 9-5 thing, the deeper you get into the plant, the darker it gets, you get people who seem like their feet are cemented into the ground, you start seeing cobwebs in the creases in their clothes. If I know I’m only going to be in town for a few weeks I put my head down and work. Sometimes I do the “Da Vinci” rep, where it’s a 16-hour shift, followed by 11 hours off, followed by a 16 hour shift, 11 hours off — for as long as i can stand it, usually about 6 or 7 shifts tops. You really lose track of time obviously, but you start to oscillate through society even — taking the bus the wrong way through rush hour traffic at 5am on the way home, asleep at 5pm — you can really lose your footing if you aren’t careful, just become this unhinged lunatic floating through some strange semblance of of time. 

What are your duties?

Different things, but usually I’m fitting filled bulbs into their screw bases. It’s really boring. Top bulbs come along the line and I make sure they get placed into the right base so they can be fastened properly down the line. I get in, sit down and wait for the bulbs. I have no idea where they come from, or where they go. I know that we get a lot of the individual parts outsourced — filaments, sleeves, vitrit, those are made in Bangalore or something, and probably assembled somewhere in the plant here.

Are you able to zone out at all, or does it require constant attention?

It’s hard to say. When you think you are paying attention you wake up and it’s four hours later. It’s this Zen thing almost; you can zone out while paying attention. I just need to place the bulbs in the bases, bulbs in the bases, bulbs in the bases. I zone out paying attention to that mantra for hours and hours..






Do you like your job?

Well, to a certain extent — but it hasn’t turned me into a vampire yet. I try to arrange my shifts so they end early in the morning so that when I leave everything is already bustling and it forces me to immediately start to re-connect — get a coffee at a busy shop, get the paper in the morning. It isn’t like the plant is this giant room filled with blinding light. It’s the opposite — it’s gray, dark, dingy. You’d imagine if you didn’t know otherwise, that we were making broken lightbulbs, because that’s what the place looks like.

Extracts from interview with 'French Zine' (LFG Post Aug 28 2007):

What keeps you busy in daily life?Well, I work in a small room at the bottom of a lightbulb factory. Its my job to make sure the filaments, which are actually tiny coils, stay coiled up during the heating process. When you are affixing the coiled filaments to the base of the bulb, you're using a lot of heat because you're basically soldering them on there. I've got to take random checks to make sure the filaments are still coiled. I have to basically sit infront of this massive microscope all day watching these tiny coils go by on a converbelt, because we're making so many bulbs each day, our plant alone is putting out more than 8000 a day. It's really boring, and i've got to be in the sub-basement because at that point in the manufacturing process the filaments can't be exposed to any light, so instead of installing fixtures to keep too much light out on the ground floor, the filament-checking room is way in this creepy bottom corner, because the plant was built in 1889, just a few years after lightbulbs were invented. So basically i do that during the day and try my best to stay out of any light during the rest of the day. Its like if you watch movies at your job at the video store all day, you don't want to watch movies in your spare time, well its the same with light, honestly I just get bored of it. 

What's the role of David Eliade in Fucked Up?David is the coiled filament himself. Our job is to sit infront of giant microscopes to make sure he doesn't come unraveled. He is the electric DNA at the bottom corner of our music factory. 

Is there a connection between David Eliade and the song "David Comes to Life"?David told us that he was born with 3 strands of DNA instead of just 2. He said the third one was covered with an osmium coating, and made him the first living cyborg. When he came to life it was like he was born backwards, so we had to write the song in reverse order and upside down by having some people hold mirrors to mirrors in our practice space. Decoding the upsidedown backwards lyrics was a huge pain in the ass. David claims to be able to do all these crazy things like see gas and oxygen molecules. We sometimes think he's kind of retarded, but then also like a wierd genius. No one has ever met his father, if you know what i'm saying. Anyhow, the connection is that "David Comes to Life" is about jesus christ.

''The Other Shoe''

Happiness always comes with a price

Sleeve-Front:

Sleeve - Back

Vinyl - 'A' Side

Vinyl - 'B' Side

Lyric Sheet:
David and Veronica dying on the inside.

Lyric Sheet:
Nick Fenstle - Ego

Stats:

General:
Tracks: The Other Shoe B/W The Truest Road
Released: 2011
Label: Fucked Up records (Self release) FU: 010
Matrix A: FU010-A   92460H1/A
Matrix B: FU010-A   92460H2/A
Pressing Info: 500? TBC
Inserts: Regular insert as pictured above
Variants: No variants



Notes:

''The Other Shoe'' 7" was a limited release, originally sold on tour and via Rough Trade Records UK, remaining copies were available through the FU Webstore. The title track is taken from the David Comes To Life LP and the lyrics form part of the narrative to the album.

The sleeve image shows David and Veronica, the couple are pictured apparently outside; the sun behind them, their hair swept by wind Veronica is dressed in pink and is wearing opal & gold rings.

T-shirt version - image by Jason Gilmore

Nick Fenstle (''The Truest Word''):

The 'B' side ''The Truest Road''  is not an album track, it forms part of the prologue, along with three other 7"s. The prologue includes songs about the DCTL characters:

''Each character in the thing has their own song, and a side of a 7" devoted to them. The lyrics tell a bit more about their motives and why they do what they do in the story.''

 ''The Truest Road'' tells the story of Nick Fenstle, who owns the light-bulb factory; strangely he doesn't get a mention beyond this song. It seems he created the environment in which the events unfold, but doesn't get mentioned beyond the prologue. It's almost as if he doesn't exist, or if he does then it's in a different place to the other characters - maybe the boardroom.

Sleeve image taken from Nick's Facebook Profile
DCTL is set in the 1970's before the advent of paperless offices...

On the desk are a number of light bulbs and  a lamp /  (The Sun?)

More Nick Fenstle:

The Other Shoe / The Truest Road (From FU Webstore)

We released this record because there was a spare song that didn't fit anywhere - it's called The Truest Road, it's about Nick Fenstle, a Stirnerist / judge / factory owner / lawyer / Veronica's ****** / energy drink entrepreneur / Josh's dad.

Notes:

1. Nick Fenstle was also the band's roadie.

2. Veronica's ******   Father / Killer (Delete as applicable, or choose your own alternative)

The lyrics include Stirnest terminology and subliminal advertising.

Nick Fenstle: Stirnest (From Wikipedia):

Max Stirner, was a German philosopher. He is often seen as one of the forerunners of nihilism, existentialism, postmodernism, and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism.

Egoism:
Individual self-realization rests on each individual's desire to fulfill their egoism. The difference between an unwilling and a willing egoist, is that the former will be 'possessed' by an empty idea and believe that they are fulfilling a higher cause, but usually being unaware that they are only fulfilling their own desires to be happy or secure, and the latter, in contrast, will be a person that is able to freely choose its actions, fully aware that they are only fulfilling individual desires.

The contrast is also expressed in terms of the difference between the voluntary egoist being the possessor of his concepts as opposed to being possessed. Only when one realizes that all sacred truths such as law, right, morality, religion etc., are nothing other than artificial concepts, and not to be obeyed, can one act freely. For Stirner, to be free is to be both one's own "creature" (in the sense of 'creation') and one's own "creator" (dislocating the traditional role assigned to the gods). To Stirner power is the method of egoism. It is the only justified method of gaining 'property'.

Anarchism:
Stirner proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions – including the notion of State, property as a right, natural rights in general, and the very notion of society – were mere illusions or ghosts in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality." Stirner wants to "abolish not only the state but also society as an institution responsible for its members."

He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in 'unions of egoists' only when it was in their self-interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." And, "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing." He says, "I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!"Stirner considers the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint – that rights do not exist in regard to objects and people at all. He sees no rationality in taking the interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believes is the only legitimate reason for acting. He denies society as being an actual entity, calling society a "spook" and that "the individuals are its reality" (The Ego and Its Own).

Notes:
1. Applying the above to Nick Fenstle's role as Factory Owner, needs some further thought...





Nick Fenstle: The Video
Nick Fenstle doesn't actually get mentioned on the album, but he does appear in the video for ''Turn The Season''

0.03 - Opening Scene (almost) - The viewer / camera looks into a camera, with four people behind, including Octavio, reading on RHS. The background music at this point  is ''The Other Shoe''', with the refrain 'Dying on the Inside' playing the end of the song. 

0.15 - A slightly different camera angle reveals that Nick Fenstle is there too,  looking out of the window, his attention apparently taken by the world beyond. The background music has changed to ''Turn The Season''
('Fenstle' is the German word for window. Actually it's fenster, but fenstle dosen't seem to mean anything, so it will have to do for now)

1.25 - After panning around the room, taking in various characters from the story and other DCTL videos, the camera finds Nick, still looking out of the window.  Whilst none of the band, or 'crew' seem to notice they are being filmed, most of the DCTL characters look  into the camera as it pans around.

1.32 - Nick turns from the window and heads to the table, without acknowledging the camera. Included on the table are a tray full of small lights and notes directing what has happened and what  is about to happen.

2.56 - Camera pans down to see these notes... Damian notices something out the window...

3.34 ...Damian looks out of the window as the bomb explodes, (Veronica dies in another story) the lights go out and the sound is deadened.

4.00 - The camera pans back to Nick, still sitting at the desk, with the plot in front of him and his lights still illuminated.

4.15 - Closing moments. The bomb having detonated, Nick turns to the viewer.

Nick Fenstle: Josh's Dad 
(More spooks / taking the search for meaning one step too far):
From Wikipedia:  The English name Joshua is a rendering of the Hebrew language "Yehoshua", meaning "Yahweh is salvation"... "Jesus" is the English of the Greek transliteration of "Yehoshua" via Latin. In the Septuagint, all instances of the word "Yehoshua" are rendered as "Ἰησοῦς" (Iēsoūs), the closest Greek pronunciation of the Aramaic "Yeshua". Thus in Greek Joshua is called "Jesus son of Naue" (τοῦ Ναυή) to differentiate him from Jesus Christ. This is also true in the Slavic languages following the Eastern Orthodox tradition (e.g. "Иисус Навин" (Iisús Navín) in Russian).

Note:
In terms of Tabloid Headlines, Nick Fenstle's son is Jesus. Further research (Mixtape 2) confirms that Josh (Jesus) has a hairy ass (arse) because he's Jewish. This is clear proof (subject to minor theological technicalities) that Nick Fenstle is God.