| The F.U.'s | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Genres | Hardcore punk |
| Years active | 1982-1990 |
| Labels | X-Claim, Restless, Taang! |
The F.U.'s were an early-mid 80's Boston hardcore punk band, who later changed their name to Straw Dogs, moving towards heavy metal.
The band initially consisted of John 'Sox' Stocking, Steve Grimes, Bob Furapples (Robert Hatfield), and Wayne Maestri. The band name was taken from a comment made by Wendy O. Williams in an interview in which she said something to the effect that "Punk rock is a way of saying 'F you' to society." The F.U.'s started out playing fast, thrashy hardcore punk, and their first recorded output was on the 1982 Modern Method compilation, This Is Boston, Not L.A.,
which also featured tracks by Gang Green, Jerry's Kids and The Freeze. A companion 7-inch EP, Unsafe At Any Speed, included another F.U.'s track.
Their second album, also on X-Claim, entitled My America, saw them labelled as right wing nationalists due to its patriotic lyrics (which were half-sarcastic), and artwork. The band were mentioned in The Dead Milkmen song "Tiny Town", about a conservative small town in a southern US state. The verse that references them has the song's narrator [a redneck Klansman] stating "...We hate blacks, and we hate Jews, and we hate punks, but we love the F.U.'s".
The band's final album as The F.U.'s, Do We Really Want To Hurt You? followed in 1984, on Gasatanka/Enigma. With this album, the band had begun to take a more heavy metal direction, which was taken further when the band changed name to Straw Dogs, now with guitarist Steve Martin and drummer Chris "Bones" Jones added to the line-up.
As Straw Dogs, the band released an EP followed by three albums.Drummer Jones died in a car crash the day after the debut Straw Dogs EP was released.The F.U.'s material has been re-released several times, on Restless Records, and more recently on Taang! Records.
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- Flipside Interview - The F.U.'s interview from 1984
- Maximumrocknroll Interview - The F.U.'s interview from 1983
