Fucked Up

Prepare For An Unmentionable Cover Of A Holiday Classic

As Christmas approaches, lots of artists will take up the annual challenge of creating a seasonally inspired single, with many donating their proceeds to charity. This year the Bob Geldof-penned classic charity anthem Do They Know It’s Christmas is being honored by a cover, and the band prepared to rise to the challenge of equaling its success is a little known punk band from Toronto with an unmentionable name. In spite of, or perhaps because of, their profane name, the punk provocateurs fronted by lead singer Pink Eyes have recently courted much media interest, culminating in them being awarded the 2009 Polaris Prize for their album The Chemistry of Modern Life. Now they are generously using the $20,000 prize money to fund this charity endeavor, and they’ve already enlisted the help of many fellow musicians to re-create the sing-along tune including the GZA, and members of Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio, Broken Social Scene, No Age and Yo La Tengo. But the riotous band have confirmed that they do not intend to ‘punkify’ the original: when asked if they were planning to write new lyrics to the song during an interview with New York magazine, Pink Eyes a.k.a. Damian Abraham assured the charity-supporting public of no material changes saying, “Oh, God no. The lyrics are tasteless enough as it is.”