Though Jon Rybicki, singer and guitarist for the Fucking Cops, stands behind his band's name, he worries whether or not it could cause listeners to overlook his art. “I'm not sure how the name came about,” he explains, “but I've always kind of regretted it. I had the same exact problem with [my previous band] Vietnam Werewolf. Some people love it, and some people think it's totally stupid, but people definitely remember it."Fuck You Up With Some Truth, the band's second EP, the Fucking Cops perform exactly the sort of searing, staggering pop-punk that one might expect to hear from a band with such a startling, seemingly defiant title—a visceral, raw, teetering stack of sound reminiscent of punk-rock's infancy. The Fucking Cops are more than their moniker suggests, though—more than even their punk-rock aesthetic insinuates—but it may take more than a single listen to tease out.
The story of the Fucking Cops begins with the end of Vietnam Werewolf, a band in which Rybicki performed alongside drummer Andy Merrill. “We did one tour and our van got stolen with all of our equipment in it on the last day,” he remembers. The band disintegrated shortly thereafter, leaving Rybicki and Merrill wondering whether (and how) to proceed. “A year went by, and Andy and I really wanted to play the same music,” Rybicki continues, “but we didn't want to start Vietnam Werewolf again with new people. I had songs written—kind of for Vietnam Werewolf, but also because I write even if I don't have a band—and we decided to start working on the songs together.”
They developed these songs without deciding if this project would blossom into an actual band or if they would even find other band members. After only two practices, though, Rybicki and Merrill were offered an opportunity to push this project towards some sort of formalization. “My friend Paul, who runs this place called Now That's Class, asked Vietnam Werewolf to play this show with Off With Their Heads,” Rybicki says. “I told Paul, 'Vietnam Werewolf can't play. We're not a band anymore. But we're going to come up with a new band and play that show.'” In a month's time, Rybicki and Merrill had found a guitarist and bassist, taught them the songs, and fulfilled his promise by opening for Off With Their Heads.
This spur-of-the-moment maiden performance inspired Rybicki and Merrill to approach their band, and especially its lineup, differently than they did with previous projects. “We had this idea with the Fucking Cops that it would be me and Andy and whoever,” Rybicki explains, “and, for the first three shows, that's how it was. We didn't have a set lineup."
Slowly, though, a lineup did start to solidify; bassist Shannon Sullivan and guitarist Josh Durocher-Jones began to perform regularly alongside the Fucking Cops' core members. “Shannon played the first Fucking Cops show,” Rybicki explains, “and it has been so long since we've played with someone else because he's an amazing bass player and an amazing singer. It's the same thing with Josh, who played guitar on both records.” Both Sullivan and Durocher-Jones are unable to tour with the Fucking Cops, at least for now. “Shannon has a full-time job that's difficult to get out of,” Rybicki continues, “and Josh has a lot of other things going on too. He's in this stoner-metal band called Howl that's on Relapse, and he just started to do that full-time."
Though both members will likely return to the lineup as their availability increases, it's frustrating for Rybicki to lose talented musicians like Sullivan and Durocher-Jones, even if it's only for one tour. At the same time, though, it's liberating to be able to rotate musicians in and out without having to worry about hurt feelings or breaking up the band, and he hopes it will help set expectations for his audience. “I remember when I was in high school, I really liked Bright Eyes,” Rybicki explains, “and Bright Eyes was always Conor Oberst and whoever. There'd be lots of tours with the same drummer and same guitarist, but no one was going to see Bright Eyes and expect it would necessarily be the same lineup. I think that's a very good thing because it can help a band have longevity and maybe a more concrete vision.
Despite their impermanent positions, Sullivan and Durocher-Jones were seminal in the construction of the Fucking Cops. Both contributed to You Have the Right to Shut the Fuck Up, the band's debut EP, and Fuck You Up With Some Truth, their most recent EP. Released by Kind of Like Records, Bermuda Mohawk Productions, and Big Purple Records, the band's own label, Fuck You Up With Some Truth contains six songs that express the same raw, unrefined spirit captured on the previous EP, but feel more cohesive and consistent. This is likely due, at least in part, to the record's opening track “Gloria” and complementing closer “Gloria Pt. II”. With its bright guitars, fizzing like a bottle full of beer, and frantic, frenetic tempo, “Gloria” tells the story of a man who comes home to find his safe emptied and his girlfriend gone. Matching the protagonist's pain, Rybicki wails, “Now that she left me / I feel broken and empty / I have nothing anymore / I'm getting smashed outside the liquor store.”
“I had started working on a script that had this film noir storyline,” Rybicki explains, “but we never made the movie. I've always wanted to write a song from someone else's perspective, but I've never known how to do it.” Rybicki took this risk by turning his script into the song “Gloria” and was encouraged by the outcome. “I knew right away that I wanted to come back to it, but I didn't necessarily know I was going to write another song for that record, but that's what 'Gloria Pt. II' became.”
With a slower and more sinister musical mood than its counterpart, “Gloria Pt. II” continues the story of this character, who, within the first few seconds of the song, notices a cigarette in his ashtray that isn't his. With the dull buzz of guitars and droning bass draped across Merrill's plodding, apprehensive drumbeat, Rybicki's lyrics inform his listeners that, “Gloria doesn't smoke.” One by one, voices drop into the background, dangle and sway as the song and story climbs towards its tense conclusion, where Rybicki's hero learns that Gloria may not have left him—that “Shawn from the south side smokes that kind of cigarette” and that she may have been abducted.
Rybicki admits, though, that using lyrics to tell a story is somewhat limiting. “I feel like my idea of the story doesn't completely come through in the lyrics,” he says. “If there were pictures to go along with it, I feel like people would get a little more of an idea of what was going on.” Rybicki asked Cleveland artist John G to create a comic to accompany these tracks, which will be included with the physical release of Fuck You Up With Some Truth. The result is dark, dirty, and cold, capturing effectively the conflict and menacing mood of both “Glorias”.
In addition to this fictional narrative, Fuck You Up With Some Truth features songs of a nonfictional nature. “Sweating or Freezing”—the EP's measured and contemplative second track—reflects on a theme that Rybicki addresses several times on the record: the struggles of being in a band on the road. The song's first line, “Forgetting what it feels like / To not be in motion,” was inspired by an eighteen-hour drive that Rybicki spent with his band Sun God on their way back from South-By-Southwest. “When I got back, I started to write the song, but I didn't have that much done,” Rybicki explains. “I was hanging out with Ian [Graham] of Cheap Girls in Lansing and he asked me if I had anything I was working on. I showed him basically that line with the chords I had in mind, and he was like, 'Let's write this song.'” Graham helped Rybicki develop the song further so, when it came time to record it, Rybicki asked Graham to record vocals alongside him.
The song, like the album as a whole, is, aesthetically, chaotic. Rybicki's guitar growls lazily and Durocher-Jones' leads entangle themselves wildly around the ends of lines. Vocals, including Graham's croon on “Sweating or Freezing”, climb on each other like third grade boys at recess. The moods are occasionally cacophonous and catchy, sometimes all at once. In essence, it sounds exactly how a record called Fuck You Up With Some Truth by a band called the Fucking Cops should sound.
But Rybicki doesn't worry about this in the same way that he worries about his band's name. He understands that the occasional chaos is part of the art that his band is presenting—not perfectly performed or produced music, but raw conflict and frustration. The Fucking Cops present these moods and ideas through fictional and nonfictional narratives as well as visual art, which is why they have called upon John G (and other artists, including Lauren Denitzio of The Measure [SA] and Jason Lubrano of Iron Chic) to contribute art for songs on Fuck You Up With Some Truth.
To Rybicki, it's the mood and ideas that his band presents through their music that makes it punk-rock, not the music itself. “This might be true for more than just punk-rock,” Rybicki argues, “but expressing something, whether it be a noise or a feeling, is definitely more important than musical perfection and playing something intricate or demonstrating talent.”
It's what makes the Fucking Cops an effective punk-rock band and what makes Fuck You Up With Some Truth meaningful art.
Rybicki recorded these tracks with Sullivan on an evening in the early spring. Because it was the only landline available, they recorded them at the funeral home owned by Rybicki's family near Columbus, OH.
"Gloria Pt. II" appears on the Fucking Cops' 2011 EP Fuck You Up With Some Truth. "I Wasn't There" is a Fucking Cops song that, at the time of its recording, is not intended for any release. "J.A.R." and "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly" are by Green Day and Weezer respectively; both songs originally appear on the soundtrack to the motion picture Angus.
Visit the band's Bandcamp page for more music.
Sorry, but these songs were taken down due to space constraints. Please download The Switchboard Sessions, Volume Two for a track from this and other sessions recorded in 2011. If you're desperate for a copy of these tracks, please see the "About the Switchboard Sessions" page for info on how to contact the author.
