I'm currently on my eleventy-jillionth listen to Fucked Up's Hidden World, which came out on Jade Tree this Tuesday. They're from Montreal, they all have terrible stage names, and they write hardcore songs that regularly pass the five-minute mark without getting boring, which I don't know has ever happened before.

The other big talking point on Fucked Up is that its members are all seriously mentally ill -- or, at least they want you to think they are. They supposedly get into big fights with each other, and they can't fly on planes, and all this other stuff. Which I could really care less about. If they're really crazy, that would probably help explain why they decided to write seven-minute long punk songs, and if they're not it's just another made-up band gimmick. Whatever. Half the reason people put bands together these days is so they can make up catchy fictional "band facts." The other half is coming up with a good band name, and if coming up with a good band name was a video game, I think Fucked Up may have gotten the high score.