TORONTO - When the Juno Award nominations were announced at a Toronto hotel last month, only one name drew gasps, applause and a few whoops of appreciation.
The reaction was understandable. It's not every year a band with a name as attention-grabbing as Fucked Up gets nominated for a Juno.
The Toronto hardcore group's singer Damian Abraham says he was equally startled when he got the news.
"Surprised doesn't even begin to cover it -- shock and awe was a far more accurate way of putting it," Abraham said in a telephone interview.
"A band like us is not supposed to get nominated for a Juno. I'm tickled pink that we were nominated, but definitely, you know, something's not right in the world when we get nominated for something like that."
Yet the Juno nod for alternative album of the year is only the latest accolade for a band that has taken off since the release of last year's "The Chemistry of Common Life."
The record received rave reviews and was featured in year-end lists in Spin Magazine, Pitchfork and the New York Times, which printed the band's name as eight asterisks but said that their record approached the power of the Who's classic "Who's Next."
Even considering all of that positive press, Abraham was still amazed at the Juno recognition.
"We have a swear word for a name, I'm 300-plus pounds and balding, and hairy, and I scream," said the affable 29-year-old Abraham, who performs as Pink Eyes. "Those things do not add up.
"Hedley, that's a band that normally should get nominated for a thing like this. Us? Not so much."
Nickelback leads with five nominations going into Sunday's show (airing on CTV), followed by Sam Roberts with four and Celine Dion and, yes, Hedley, with three apiece.
Abraham was so sure his band wouldn't get nominated, he said he made a wager with guitarist Ben Cook while on tour on the eve of the nominations.
"I bet Ben $1,000 that we would not get nominated," Abraham said. "He chickened out of the bet and was like, 'Let's just make it for an In-N-Out burger.' I was like, fine, fine, an In-N-Out burger it is.
"I guess I still owe him an In-N-Out burger."
The band is still planning on rounding up some of their countless seven-inch vinyl singles into a compilation, but they also have another intriguing project in the works.
Abraham says they're in the process of writing a stage musical based on their song "David Comes to Life," from their 2006 record "Hidden World."
He says the group plans to put together two separate soundtracks for the musical -- one in their trademark breakneck style, the other with a more typically Broadway-esque arrangement.
Abraham says the musical treads some familiar themes for the band -- "it's about trying to find faith in a faithless world and trying to understand the secret worlds that exist within our own worlds" -- and they're aiming for a 2010 release.
"I'm going to be as shocked as anyone if it actually comes out," Abraham said. "It's going to probably be the weirdest thing we've ever done."
The band also just returned from a tour of China, which Abraham says gave him a "new lease on music."
"I had an unbelievable time," he said. "It was like punk rock in all its glory in China.
"You meet so many bands in North America and Europe, and punk rock is very much a vocation for them, whereas you meet kids over there and punk rock is their life. And they're doing it under less than ideal circumstances, to put it mildly."
The band isn't planning on attending the Junos, due in part to a busy touring schedule, but Abraham says they're going to watch the show at guitarist Josh Zucker's parents' house.
And while the Juno Awards ceremony sometimes get flak from independent artists for its commercial leanings, Abraham says the organizers do a fine job.
"I think it's as relevant as any award show is," he said. "A Grammy definitely doesn't represent any music that I listen to, that's for sure. At least the Junos acknowledge bands in Canada that people actually seem to care about."
Of course, that includes Abraham's band. In fact, the band with the naughty name even has fans among its competitors.
"I think it's cool that (the band) got nominated," said Black Mountain frontman Stephen McBean, whose group is also up for alternative album of the year, "because they're just going to have to say (their name) on television."
That opportunity appeals to Abraham too, even if he considers it only a remote possibility.
"I definitely kind of wondered that myself," he said. "I think it's fairly safe to assume we're not going to win the award, so they're not going to have to really cross that bridge.
"That being said, I'm going to be watching. The whole band will be watching."
