Joyce Voice

After he woke me up last night same dream or was it? Wait. Open hallway. Street of harlots. Remember. Haroun al Raschid. I am almosting it. That man led me, spoke. I was not afraid. The melon he had he held against my face. Smiled; creamfruit smell. That was the rule, said. In. Come. Red carpet spread. You will see who.

Looking For Joyce

Dangerous Art

These pictures show different connected uses of the boardwalk / bodies / bathtub scene at Jonestown, where lots of people died of believing the same thing.

Left top: Full image used for Fake DF  (2005)
Left bottom: Image cropped to remove bath tub, used for regular DF sleeves (2006 onwards)
Right top: Cartoon image with Jim Jones 'Kool Aid' jug-man, drawn by Brian Walsby for Cheap Tragedies 7" (2008)
Right bottom: Cartoon image with Damian jug-man, drawn by Brian Walsby for a DF test pressing (fan commission 2013)

Hidden Weird

Thanks To Seamus for letting us know about is Hidden World 'Mixed Press' variant... This is a combination of 1st press (monochrome label) and 2nd (coloured label) discs, packaged in a 2nd press sleeve...

The record came from a distro sometime around 2010-2011, so it's unclear if the two were put together by Deranged to use up the last of the 1st press vinyl, or if the distro stores their records and sleeves separately and muddled things up. We're calling it a variant for the time-being, because we like variants.

Fucked Up

JADE HAIRPINS don't seem to have existed before FUCKED UP covered their song "Tower on Time", but that hasn't stopped them contributing a song to the latest Merge Sampler CD

The CDs are going out free with Merge orders - my copy had been cast to one side for possible future listening... Thanks to Steven for getting in touch and pointing it out! Finally we get to hear what the "Hoxton Cunts" techno 7" might have sounded like if it wasn't fake.

The Plot Thickens

In the News this week: New record leaves FU superfans & stalkers intrigued. 

Recorded in Toronto by some weathered but familiar statues in the Toronto punk community... 

Produced by The Green Man and Timmy Scumbag  

Orchestration Davi D'Eli Ade, Overseen by a Mad Man 

Available now on available HERE at Quality Control HQ.



Weirdos wondering about apparent Ulysses references in blurb accompanying recent FU releases will probably also note the following:

Jellicoe and Woodbury are the twin dogs of Doubt and Fear, a poetic interpretation of James Joyce’s 'Ulysses', where dogs seemingly are ready to attack at any moment, based on Joyce’s well known fear of dogs. Doubt and Fear channel 'Ulysses' through a Bastard ‘Wind of Pain’ like lens. These self-created monsters use capitalism to keep us afraid to really move forward in life, and scared to connect with each other. They chase us back and 'breath down our neck’.


Also, this is true:

"The name Jellicoe and Woodbury comes from an intersection of two streets in the west of Toronto where two large dogs, Rhodesian Ridgebacks - a breed of dog bred for hunting and killing lions - lived in a friends house many years ago. These dogs terrified Mike from FU as a child. The dogs were mostly friendly and just curious even though they were this snarling violent breed used to kill the most fearsome thing in Africa - one lets their own fear of dogs dictate their relationship with these creatures. The names Jellicoe and Woodbury are the formal names of Doubt and Fear in the world of this story."

LIVE

If you love listening to FU records, you probably love looking at FU gig posters. Here's one from the time they played on a bridge in 2007.

Dream on

(Sit down and allow yourself plenty of time for this one - Mike's replies are again italicised, so you can just focus on those, if you're in a hurry)

Big Interview # 2 - Mike Haliechu(c)k: 

Me (by email): Here we are, a little more than a month after you said the Tower 7” would make more sense and now David Eliade is back, but apparently stuck in someone else’s story. Is that him speaking on ‘Tower of Time’ and is it relevant that his words were penned by a fake band called Jade Hairpins? 

Mike: there's no evidence to suggest that jade hairpins is a fake band 

Me (thinking): This is the second time in two days I've been picked up for describing something FU related as 'fake' and both times realised they might be on to something. What I really meant was, having spent several seconds searching for 'Jade Hairpins' and finding nothing but jade

hairpins, concluded the band probably didn't exist before this record was conceived. Which IS different to it being written by a fake band. Anyway, after several more seconds on google, searching 'Jade Hairpin' found a Kung FU movie franchise and a love story, with a happy ending. Now this might, or might not make the first part of the next question redundant, but he doesn't answer it anyway, so just skip to the boldfaced second part below and the interview will join up neatly, keeping things concise, so you don't have to read a lot of pointless, time-wasting, small-space-filling words, all in the same font, with just one tiny little word of joy. 

Me (By email again): Why Jade Hairpins and not Hairy Custard? You’ve used different colours symbolically in the past, can you tell us what’s inspired the colour themes on the new LP and maybe David Comes to Life? Reading can be a way of getting out of a story, so please mention a few titles / writers that you think might help. Just tell us your favourite colour, if you can’t think of any books.

Him: my favourite colour is creamfruit

Me (thinking, again): Shall I ask what creamfruit is? maybe it has special powers, like that transcendent shade of pink, experienced by the author, narrator and protagonist of Valis, or does it just make the records look like nice big wobbly eggs?

Me: Some of the press describes the LP as an ‘odyssey’ and the first new character is Joyce. Is there an enormous Ulysses reference going on here, or is Joyce the most joyous name out there?

10K: because it contains joy

Me (over-thinking before managing to stop): But... oh

Myself: A mysterious 80’s punk compilation just appeared on Static Shock Records. It’s reminiscent of David’s Town, but has a different emphasis; the ‘revolting woman, a constant through history’. So, in terms of FU history, is it safe to say that the ‘Mother Forever' 12” marks a significant change / development in FU content, in much the same way as ‘Looking For Gold’?

Him: that's not really up to me to decide

Me (dream-typing): 

Part 4, Chapter 1 - Mother

'Mother Forever' marks a...

Me: (real-typing my last and as it turns out, best question): Lastly, please rate the birthing of the following LPs from 1 -5 , with 1 being natural / comfortable and 5 being complicated / painful:


Mike (adding numbers to the provided list of LPs):

CHEM COM 2

DAVID COMES TO LIFE 3

DAVID’S TOWN 2

GLASS BOYS 4

ZANZIBAR 2

DOSE YOUR DREAMS 2

RAISE YOUR VOICE JOYCE i wouldn't know

Anyway, this is meant to be a discography, not an inane personal blog. I'd better add some more relevant nerdy stuff, like these two below. The record on the left is an 'epics in minutes', the one on the right is the 'baiting  the public' (with epics labels), but it's got a picture sleeve. I've seen a few of these with different epics sleeves, the dust jackets aren't numbered, but they otherwise look the same as the real thing. Maybe they should be called fakes, but I own a couple so am calling them 'variants'.

The "secret" 7" and the secret variant

Also, at last, after 8 years managed to get one of these:

"Tour Sleeve" - 50 or so copies exist. This one also comes with
a second sleeve, the highly sought after 'spare copy variant' 

Which marked the end of the futile quest to make a collection containing all the FU vinyl variants that were available in 30 or more copies. Or at least it would have done, but still need ''Hare'' on black and gold and ''Live at Third Man" on black and blue.

Incomplete collection of FU 12"s