If you call your band Fucked Up, it’s clear you’re trying to send a particular message (is “we love swearing” one of them?) However, while working on their third LP, the followup to 2008’s Chemistry of Common Life, the Toronto, ON-based punk outfit is looking to clean up their image a bit by making a “relatable and happily attainable punk record”, according to drummer Jonah Falco in an interview with Exclaim!. Hey, they did cover “Walking on Sunshine”, so anything is possible!
David Comes to Life was produced by Shane Stoneback (Sleigh Bells, Vampire Weekend) at his NYC-based Treefort Recording Studio. With the background of Stoneback probably helping to steer the way, Falco said the album turned out quite pleasing to the band in that it kept to their high-energy, minimalist ethos while still moving toward a fresher sound, an approach that Falco said the band made all that much more difficult just by being themselves.
“The whole feeling of this record revolves around things that are somewhat familiar and relatable, but with our difficult take on it,” Falco said. “Difficult in the sense that any other band who decided to write a poppier, shorter, less complex record wouldn’t have had to endure much frustration or conflict. When we listened back to the rough mixes and heard, in fact, a poppier, slightly more brief, relatable and happily attainable punk record that still sounded like Fucked Up, you can imagine how pleased we were.”
As full of sugar, spice, and possibly everything nice as the record may be, that doesn’t mean it won’t be just as weird and eccentric as the rest of Fucked Up’s releases. Case in point, this effort will be a full on rock opera, complete with a “meta-plot, meta-parts, meta-leads and self-referential quirks. Actual stage production and possible embarrassment to follow.” We can totally relate to that for sure.
No word yet on when David Comes to Life will be released, but it should hit stores in early 2011 via Matador Records. In the meantime, check out a clip below of the band playing a men’s room from November 2008. How sweet.
