Fuck

Formed in Oakland, California, during 1993, the quartet Fuck accepted that their name alone would likely confine them to marginal status. Vocalist Timmy Prudhomme, guitarist and violinist Kyle Statham, bassist and pianist Ted Ellison, and drummer Geoff Soule first connected as detainees in a local police holding cell. They soon established operations across the bay in San Francisco, though Prudhomme’s relocation to New York City later required the band to sustain a transcontinental arrangement. Their initial release, the 1994 single “Monkey Beauty Shotgun,” led to additional 7-inch singles and various compilation tracks whose melodic refinement stood in marked contrast to the group’s provocative title. The debut album Pretty...Slow surfaced in 1996 via a tripartite arrangement involving Rhesus, the band’s own imprint, along with Walt and Esther—the last of which soon became Lamplighter—with production and distribution expenses shared evenly among the three. The identical arrangement supported that year’s Baby Loves a Funny Bunny. In 1997 the band moved to Matador for Pardon My French. Conduct appeared the following year, and early 2001 brought Cupid’s Cactus. Three years after that, Future Farmer Recordings issued Those Are Not My Bongos.