Hear this now. Fucked Up.

Fucked Up is ostensibly a hardcore band from Toronto Canada, but that's really no descriptor for their sound. Though their vocal barks and howls certainly bring to mind hardcore groups, they frequently use female guest vocals for more melodic choruses, and their song lengths hardly fall squarely into the two-minute hardcore rant range. It's no wonder they can comfortably share a stage and a label with Mission of Burma. (See: the Williamsburg Waterfront show in NYC in July)

Man, that is Fucked Up.

Roger's sunglasses can see everything, even the future.

In fact, I came to Fucked Up through Mission of Burma, seeing that both were on Matador records. Their songs don't sound very similar, but the same ethos runs through both bands in totally different and exciting ways.

Mission of Burma's fastest songs and hardest material suggest hardcore, psychedelia, art rock, even heavy metal from time to time. (Fun World is pretty metallic, you could say.) Their anthems are pop-pretty, but ragged, impassioned, sophisticated, and intelligent. Geek punk for those too rational to be angry, but too dissatisfied to just sit down and shut up. I've already waxed poetic on these guys before, so, long story short, they're smart, they rock, kickass bass lines, fuck yeah.

Fucked Up have cultivated mystery and invited controversy since their inception. Their records sport fascist imagery on the sleeve. They take pseudonyms like Mustard Gas, 10,000 Marbles, Pink Eyes, and Concentration Camp. Interviews with the members of Fucked Up have contained incredible distortions and bizarre tall tales told to further the mystery of the group's identities.

Their music is explosive and highly conceptual, combining whip-smart lyrics and hardcore's usual forward-lunging bam-thwok with obtuse arrangements and unexpected moments galore (lounge music, flute solos, strings and whistling). If hardcore bands wrote epic prog-rock anthems... well, I guess now they do.

They've got a style all their own, energy to spare, humor and intellect, and a charismatic front... thing.

Remember how Henry Rollins ate your children? This is the guy that got your dog.

Pink Eyes, a.k.a Damien, is a woolly, growling man-beast who loves puppies, smiles at the laughter of children, and is no doubt a productive member of society. But, just to be careful, stay far away from this man. You just never know. He might just emit the first vocal from this song, then kill you.

New Mission of Burma album gets title, release date (Updated with first single)

October 6th, 2009, Mission of Burma's new LP drops on Matador. I've put my preorder in on matador's website. You should too, if ya know what's good fer ya. $12 for CD, $18 for vinyl. Tell 'em altron2095 sent ya.

First single from the album, y'all. "1, 2, 3, Partyy!" is pure joy, pure bliss. Hear it, love it.

1, 2, 3, Partyy!

Happy Fourth, everyone!

Wow! Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been busy at work...

So, on this, the most American of holidays, let's all remember the treaty of Tripoli of 1796, article 11.

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

So, we are not a Christian nation. Glad we're all clear on this. We are a nation of Christians... and Jews, and Hindus, and Muslims, and atheists, agnostics, and just plain apathetic types. All types and creeds and delicious flavors, one big nation. So, I'm going to take this moment to show my own pride in a display of solidarity. It is my belief that patriotism consists not just in national pride but in pride in one's state's ideals, and as America prizes freedom and liberty as its chief ideals, I hereby exercise my own freedom of speech.

I am an American, and I am an atheist. I take great pride in the rights granted to me in this nation, and I faithfully serve my duties as a citizen by remaining an informed voter and a productive member of society. I look today with great sorrow at the state of religious discourse in this country, and at the hijacking of this society by religious zealotry in politics and the general public sphere. However, I know that a new day will dawn, and soon. We secularists, progressives, liberals and moderates will win, and not because we will fight for ourselves, as the conservative theists would. We will fight for all, so that everyone, including our opponents in this debate, will benefit.

Freedom of religion, and freedom from religion, is not best just for secularists, but indeed for all people of every religion in this country. When religion is concerned with the private sphere, with people and not movements, society and not politics, that is where it shall do the most good, and the largest variety and number of people will profit spiritually and socially.

The only religion that should be minimized, marginalized, and shunned is that dangerous beast of literalist or inerrantist religion, the vitriolic, and hateful speech the "true believers" call their domain. It is a fetid cesspool of anti-gay bigotry, anti-woman and anti-liberty speech, anti-scientific and anti-intellectual nonsense, and oppressive, self-righteous arrogance. The problem is not so much that these people believe as they do; it is that they want no one to believe differently. In the name of America's ideals, they must not win.

My tone is meant only to be indignant and righteously impassioned here. Know that I have no enmity for any person for their group affiliations or opinions, but I do have little patience for bigotry or anti-intellectual sentiment. I only ask that the privately held beliefs of those who denigrate or prejudge homosexuals, atheists or any other minority group not be given respect, as they promote hate.