Town Of Hardcore (Split with Think I Care)

Straight Up...

(Matrix Message)

Sleeve - Front:
Blue paper dust sleeve, with screen-printed artwork

Sleeve - Back

Vinyl - FU Side:
Black labels with hand-stamped band initials

Vinyl - Think I Care side:Black labels with hand-stamped band initials

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Fucked Up recorded live at CBGB's 29/05/2006 B/W Think I Care  recorded live at Sound & Fury 28/07/2006.
Released: 2007
Label: Town of Hardcore / Eating Rats (Not on Label)
Matrix A: U-61243M-A "Straight up..."
Matrix B: U-61243M-B "town of hardcore" PCMTR

Pressing Info:
250 or 300 or maybe 500

Inserts:
No regular insert.

Variants:
No Variants

Notes:

TOHC Zineography

Zineography Book:

The record came with  pre-orders of the ''Town Of Hardcore Zineography" book. The Fucked Up tracks are ''Colour Removal'' and ''Police'' recorded live at CBGB's 29/05/2006.


LFG Post (Sept 14 2007):
Some other cool news I just learned from the internet is that we have a split 7" coming out with the defunct band Think I Care, who we played with a few times. Its coming with the Town Of Hardcore book, and is gonna be taken from a live show we did at CBGBs. Not sure when it's coming out, but you can stay ahead by going to this website and waiting.


'Teetill Death' Post (May 2011) (referring to ebay listing):

Kind of bummed to see the Town of Hardcore book languishing at 99 cents with a day to go. Especially since it includes the live ep and t-shirt. Usually you only see the book, or the book and the ep, but never all three. Definitely a trip to bummer town. Then again, (the) seller attributes the limited edition “dust jacket” artwork to Damian from Fucked Up, and you know what? Ol’ Pink Eyes didn’t draw that bad Larry. I did. So, maybe I'm not so bummed that this is going cheap after all…

I’m kidding, of course. Obviously this deserves better than 99 cents, it’s a collection of the best zine since Hardware. And since I’m here, here’s some more info on the dust cover…

TOHC Package:

Left: Shirt

Middle: 7"

Right: Dust cover (with book behind)

Like the auction says, only 200 came with the “dust cover”. I use “dust cover” loosely, because while this was originally drawn to be a full size wrap around dust jacket, I guess it wasn’t feasible for Eating Rats to make. So they went with the paper slip on. Kind of a downer, but understandable. Yes, that is supposed to be Steve fighting Colossal Man. Caricatures were never my strong point.

Limited Edition dust cover (200 copies)

Above: Numbered stamp on back of  dust cover

Close up of the stamp

Commodity Fetishism:

Test Press - Sleeve Front:
Guillotine execution scene, with 'Eating Rats' head superimposed

Test Press - Sleeve Back:
Fold out sleeve, with 3/4 back panel. 'Eating Rats' character bottom RHS

Test Pressing - Vinyl

''Toronto FC'' (Split with Hard Skin)

You've done it now son woven the tapestry of legends and fables to create a Nick Knight fantasy...
(Lyric)

Sleeve: FU side

Sleeve: Hard Skin side

Vinyl:
Left: FU side
Right: Hard Skin side

Insert:
Left: FU side
Right: Hard Skin side

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Toronto FC (Fucked Up) B/W 1-2-3 / New Age (Hard Skin)
Released: 2007
Label: ''No Future'' - Oi 28 (Fake No Future Release)
Matrix A: 70894H1/A   0128 A
Matrix B: 70894H2/A   0128 B

Pressing Info:
'Regular' fold-out sleeve 300 or 600
Pocket sleeve 30 or 50
Test Pressings 10 (See below)

Inserts:
Regular insert

Variants:
Fold-out 'regular' sleeve - matt card
Pocket sleeve - glossy card
Printers proof sleeve (see below)




Sleeve Variants:

Fold-Out Sleeve: Front (folded out)

Fold-Out Sleeve: Back (folded out)

Fold out & Pocket Sleeve Comparison:
Left: Fold out sleeve (matt card)
Right: Pocket sleeve (glossy card)

Notes 1 (Fucked Up):

From LFG Post (April 15 2007)

Lastly, we've recorded two new songs, and both will appear on a strictly "gig-only" 45 rpm that will be available for purchase at the following show:

(the fine print at the bottom reads: "If we come to the show with a moustache the Brits will think its hilarious". Also this is called a "pass-out", not a flier.) Full update on the UK dates in May as soon as Jase finished watching football.















Interview extract copied from Punknews.org (Post July 2 2007)

Oi! just doesn't seem like a very popular style of punk rock to draw from these days, so it's all the more interesting that a band that's reached your level of popularity is influenced by it so proudly. This might sound like a weird question, but what aspects of it do you believe the band draw most strongly from?

SANDY: Well, I wouldn't say Oi!...maybe some in the guitar, maybe in some of the musical sensibilities. I don't know. [sighs] There are the [basic influences]: Black Flag, Motörhead, Buzzcocks...

JOSH: I think the Oi!/skinhead culture has kind of seen this light... I mean, it seems like people from time to time...[pointing to bald drummer walking by, likely joking]...yo, our drummer for instance really got into us by the whole skinhead thing.

SANDY: He just got a haircut [mild laughter].

JOSH: ...What am I trying to say? We were in England recently, and there's this new movie called "This Is England"...

Yeah, I think I saw a poster for that.

JOSH: Yeah, it's a decent movie, I actually downloaded it and watched it. It kind of like, shined the light on the skinhead culture. It was one of the few working class, punk cultures that was really thriving, really mainstream. In the U.S. it's kind of getting recuperated as this memory, which happens in punk from time to time, and [they've] finally done it to the skinhead/Oi! scene.

I don't think we really have any relation to that, but it's kind of an interesting thing to watch. I think every sector of punk and hardcore eventually gets swallowed up, and re-broadcasted in a new way.

But I guess for us, it's [just] a [mostly musical case] and some kind of aberration for the kind of aesthetic they had


Couple Tracks LP Insert / Inlay:
Toronto FC is the name of Toronto's new professional football (soccer team). The song has nothing to do with sports - I'm not actually sure what it's about. What I do know is that when we released it on a split 7'' with Hard Skin, limited to 350 copies, someone in the Toronto FC fanclub found out about it , and got really uppity about us trying to become famous on the backs of our amazingly successful new sports team , who have yet to post a winning record, or enter the playoffs.



Notes 2 (Hard Skin):

Hard Skin contribute 2 cover songs to the split - ''1,2,3'' originally by 'The Professionals' and ''New Age'' originally by 'Blitz'. The sleeve & insert art feature plenty of Blitz images and references.

The defunct No Future label was a Punk & Oi label active in the early 80's - their first release was the first Blitz EP (Catalogue number:- Oi 1). The catalogue number of this record follows the last one used while the label was active (Oi 27). Subsequently someone else picked up on this and used Oi 29 on a No Future bootleg.


Hard Skin (They're hard)

Blitz (UK band inspired by Hard Skin):

Sleeve Notes:

The credits on the insert describe this image as''Photo of Fat Bob with Hair'' by Gavin Watson:
The picture was taken  at one of the ''Stop the City'' demos, London, 1983 or 1984 and shows Fat Bob at the very moment he decided to become a skinhead.

"Stop The City" Poster 
Stolen from ''Everyone is an Anarchist Post'' on KYPP article

Fat Bob loves Fucked Up

Commodity Fetishism:

'Printers Proof Sleeve'
Sleeve and insert art, all on one four-panelled sheet + stamped dust cover & gig flyer.
This is a 'printers proof', i.e. a test sheet to check print quality ahead of the 'proper' sleeves being printed

Test Press - Sleeve Front:
'Hoxton Cunts' style design

Test Press - Sleeve Back:
Picture showing Fat Bob and Damian at the Luminaire in London. New Year Eve (2006).
They covered Blitz with Fat Bob singing.

Test Press vinyl: FU side:
From LVEUM: (The labels) were white but I put 1p coins around them and spray painted them. Once the labels dried I removed the coins leaving white circles. Then I used rub-on letters from lots of different sets to make the lettering. There are 10 tps and 2 sides in each record so they amount of time I spent (and the spray smell in my flat) was insane. 

Test Press vinyl: Hard Skin side

Test Press insert: 'No Future' Goko Print numbered on reverse out of 17

Same image as above, but with colours inverted (included for illustrative purposes)




Tests For Tests 

Proofs / artwork for test-press sleeve

''Couple Tracks''

Anthems that should have toppled Kings, now preserved in collections of precious things...

Sleeve - Front

Sleeve - Back:
Band shot pre Ben Cook & Ben Sherman 

Vinyl

Stats:

General:
Tracks: Couple Tracks B/W HeirApparent
Released: 2009
Label: Matador Records OLE 925-7
Matrix A: OLE 925-A GOLDEN
Matrix B: OLE 925-B GOLDEN

Pressing Info:

First pressing 2500 on December 11, 2009.

Second pressing 250 on April 6, 2010

Inserts: No regular insert

Variants: 

• The first pressing has the labels and matrices on the 'wrong' sides of the vinyl. It is unclear if the labels were corrected for the second press... TBC.
• A 'one off' sleeve was made as prize for a competition - see notes below. Several pictures on this site have been cropped from Steve Witsels winning collection

Notes:

Initially came free with pre-order of album of same name (and same sleeve image). Note on reverse of sleeve states: 'This 7" is not available for individual sale'. Subsequently available for individual sale via band webstore and on tour.


From Mixtape 4 Side A Notes:
8) “Heir Apparent” - From the Couple Tracks 7” single

This song is about Holden, Damian's young son. I'm not sure how many people actually got a copy of this single, because it was designed and executed strategically as a marketing tool, released in tandem with our second singles collection album, with which it shares its name. For some reason this song made it regularly into the set list throughout 2010 and 2011. It is a “sweet little ditty” and resides purely on the “ripped off the Undertones” side of the FU tracks.

Contest Sleeve - Text From LFG Post (Jan 29 2010):
We pretty much spent the rest of the day at the office just trying to think of what kind of contests we could layout in anticipation of our new singles comp, that is actually out NOW.So we shot down almost all their ideas for contests, and settled on this kind of cool, but pretty obviously derived from The Simpsons contest, where the winner will get his or her face on a Fucked Up 7".

All you have to do is have the best collection of Fucked Up records in the world (other than me, because I have the best one), take a picture of it Tall-Rob style, and send it into the ceo of the Matador Contest Debt. Matadors Contest Master General will pick the collection with the most heft, and the owner will have his/her likeness memorialized on a limited to ONE version of the already-limited Couple Tracks 7", which will then be sent to that winning person. Take a look at the link HERE for more details.

'Tall Rob Style'  -  Extract from interview: 
MRR: Can you also tell me what those ‘Baiting The Collectors’ pictures you and Matt Clarke did were for?
Tall Rob: Haha, sure. The band I was in at the time (Reflect) was playing a show with them and I decided to make a few flyers showcasing my collection. Decided to go with the Man is the Bastard slogan/font and "Baiting the Collectors" just made sense. Matt Clark made one in response for the show in Chicago on that tour. Just both of us being nerds I guess.

Sleeve Notes:

Self Reference:

The ''Couple Tracks'' artwork revisits ''Epics in Minutes''; both titles refer to a compilation and a 7", both have the same layout for the artwork, both compilations are primarily collections of 7" tracks and the songs on both 7"s are about collecting 7"s (Assuming that's what the ''Epics in Minutes'' song is about...)

''Couple Tracks'' & ''Epics In Minutes'' 7" singles and CD compilations.

Commodity Fetishism:

'Contest Sleeve' 

''Hoxton Cunts''

YOUR FUTURE LIES HIDDEN AMONGST THE LEAVES

Sleeve - Front: Most are numbered out of 30

Sleeve - Back: FU logo spray-paint stencil

EC2A
Vinyl: Hand-pasted labels, most do not have centre hole.
In some cases the original label can be seen beneath the new one, as above.

Stats:

General:
Tracks: 'Various Artists'
Released: 2006
Label: Bootleg (LVEUM)
Matrix: Most have the matrix scratched out

''Pressing'' Info:
30 + a few extras

Inserts:
No regular insert

Variants:
30 + vinyl variants. The sleeves and labels were individually handmade, so there are a few quirks with those too

Notes:

General:
'Novelty item / art piece / curiosity / joke / fake record thing. Vinyl is random used 45's, with handmade FU labels stuck over the top of the original label, e.g. for 23/30, the vinyl is a copy of "NME Readers' Poll Winners '84''. The sleeves are inside-out Humos Peligrosos, with a goko printed (Japanese home silkscreen method) image on the front and FU logo aerosol stencil on back.

The jackets and labels are mostly numbered out of 30. Sold at Old Blue Last gig; a couple of additional copies were put together after the show by '2 DIY enthusiasts' who had access to the materials used for the originals. These are numbered with different handwriting to the original ones. 32/30 is on green vinyl. It is unclear if the later ones count as a second  press, or fake fakes...  There are probably also a few other stray copies out there as some additional jackets were made and given away. See also post on James Knight (Vice) Blog:

More Cunts:

2/30 - Includes postcard insert

4/30

6/30 - Includes beer stains

8/30 Sleeve - Front

8/30 Sleeve - Back

8/30

15/30 in bed 

17/30

28/30

32/30