FUCKED UP has done a few April Fool’s Day themed releases that function as sequels to their first few singles (e.g., “Cops” from 2023 is the sequel to “Police,” and 2024’s “Being Annoying” is the sequel to “Baiting the Public”). “Disabuse” has no such jocular tone. Of course, it’s not yet April Fool’s Day, either. Last year, they teased live versions of this song on their three one-day-only Bandcamp downloads from their summer tour. I knew then that this song was something special. In between songs, Damian explained how it was a tribute who his daughter who recently came out as trans. As if I wasn’t sold on the sonics of the song already, hearing that personal testament of a father’s love made it all the sweeter. He gets honest about his shortsightedness when explaining the song’s meaning at those gigs, saying that he thought that simply by enrolling his kid in an alternative school in a major world city that the people his daughter interacts with on a daily basis would be understanding of her gender identity. Turns out that’s not the case, so he lets us know that “This one’s for Dorothy” as the song begins. The flip is just a powerful; Mike’s lyric critiques the automated nature of not just vehicles but our lives in general. A self-driving man is nihilistically self-centered by definition. Maybe you know someone like that.
The songs themselves are strong enough for me to recommend the record on those merits, but where it truly reveals its depth is in the connections it makes to other records that are important to the band. I’m thinking specifically of the BROTHERHOOD record on Skate Edge and POISON IDEA’s Sub Pop single. I bring up these intentional references because FUCKED UP is a band that prizes the 7” as a format. They have a poster you can buy that has the a-side labels of 56 of their singles on it in neatly arranged rows (and, yes, it already needs to be updated). The point of punk is that on a 7”, you can get a few ideas across in a small amount of time and that there is power in that economic punch. For all their long-playing records and the Zodiac 12” releases, it’s on the singles where FUCKED UP shines the brightest. Don’t just take my word for it, Mike, Damian, and Sandy said just about the same in an interview in issue #2 of Not a Game in 2003. When the zine editor asked why they do singles instead of EPs or LPs, Mike said “When bands put out punk records at the start they were all singles, right? It was weird to have more than two songs on a record. There was a couple of UNDERTONES four-song 45s and shit, but the two-song 7” is the format for that kind of music.” Damian added, “It makes you listen to the song harder and it’s not like eight crappy songs. Plus they feel cooler.” Sandy closed with the observation, “And also you are able to trace the progression because they were each released at different times. Rather than releasing a ton of songs at one point and getting lost.” So, it’s been their plan to have cool singles for a long time. This interview was from when they only had the first three singles out, too. Do you remember?
Damian blogged about the BROTHERHOOD record in 2009 and said it was the best straight edge record of all time. (TURNING POINT and CONFRONT rounded out the top three.) Of the BROTHERHOOD record, he wrote, “Before Gregg Anderson of SUNN 0))) discovered pot and boring music and before William Goldsmith discovered terrible college rock in SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE and The FOO FIGHTERS, they were the axe-man and bass-tard in the Greatest Edge band ever. Cool harsh vocals and illest gang vocal part ever: 'More than music... IT'S A WAY OF LIFE!!!'” That record is titled “No Tolerance for Ignorance,” but it’s commonly referred to as the “Fuck Racism” 7” because those words appear in bold, red capital letters in front of a swastika on the cover art. On “Disabuse,” when Damian barks “Still ‘no tolerance for ignorance’ / let them make their recompense / but if not then there’s no debate / this argument has one side / humanity over bigotry / every single time,” he’s calling back to one of his favorite records while updating and recontextualizing its message for his own needs.
The other single from the Pacific Northwest that is relevant here is the POISON IDEA record on Sub Pop. There are plenty of places where members of FUCKED UP have mentioned the importance of Portland’s longest running HC band (from the music to the records themselves), so I can only imagine how excited they were about the prospect of getting a two-song single on Sub Pop that they could use to pay homage to them. In true record-collectors-are-pretentious-assholes fashion, they created a limited cover that mimics the hand-drawn band portrait on the original record. It’s a nice touch.
Around the same time that POISON IDEA released their Sub Pop single, they also did a two-song single on their own American Leather Records, “Discontent” b/w “Jailhouse Stomp.” The a-side is memorable for its refrain of “Listen, Nazi, never again” as well as late guitarist Pig Champion’s absolutely brutal guest vocal. It’s easy to see the connection between “Disabuse” and “Discontent,” from the similar titles to the anti-fascist stance to the memorable refrain. Instead of calling out Nazis, Damian repeatedly says “zero fucks left to give” after telling homophobes, xenophobes, and transphobes to fuck off. Well, I should clarify, on this recorded version, the first line of the song is “and by ally, I mean until the day I die / taking out those fascist fucks like it’s 1945.” In the live versions from this summer, he says Nazi instead of fascist. Not sure why the line changed, but either way, the song is a rager.
The b-side is a killer track, too. It’s got a similar go-for-the-throat tempo and equally harsh lyric as its partner. The promo blurb from the label references PAINTBOX’s “The Door,” which I don’t hear as a very clear influence. There’s no horn section at the beginning of the song, for instance. But it does have the power and momentum of the faster PAINTBOX tracks. Damian even calls out “Take it, Michael!” as Mike conjures a melodic, Burning Spirits-esque lead that would do Chelsea (RIP) proud. Beyond all of these cool moments, it also has a mosh part that Damian sets off with a “BUST!” It’s silly to try to explain how incredibly happy that made me when I first heard it. You see, I interviewed Damian in May of 2023 for the zine I was doing at that time. Because I am a complete nerd for this band, I asked him why he says “watch out!” instead of “BUST!” on the single version of “Generation.” The original recording of “Generation,” which is from the Toronto Omnibus compilation, features a “BUST!” in all its mosh-call glory. This little callback detail in a record full of neat parts and thoughtful references is what sent me over the top. I just love these songs and it’s incredible how they make me feel like 19-going-on-42. More important than any silly autobiographical connection is the fact that this record contains the fist-in-the-air trans rights anthem that 2025 needs so dearly.
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