Did you know that Sum 41 front-man Deryck Whibley "hates" the band's
second full-length album? Or why the punk rock band made a tough
decision to stop drinking while on tour? Or which song from the album is
more relevant today than ever before? Watch the video below to find the answer to these questions and more!
10 Fun Facts about Does This Look Infected? by Sum 41
1. Stevo the Zombie
Drummer Steve Jocz, is affectionately known as "Stevo" No, he's not the same Steve-O from Jackass Although we hear he is quite a character in his own right. Take the album cover for example, where he can be seen wearing the zombie mask with fake blood pouring down his face. A photograph which was created months before a title was decided upon.
Speaking of which... The album cover has always reminded me of the popular John Travolta and Nicholas Cage film from the 90s.
2. 11th Hour Wisdom
The album's title was
thought of by Deryck Whibley on a whim at the last moment. The album was
almost delayed by the label until Whibley casually pitched "Does This
Look Infected?" the rest of the band thought it was funny so they went with it.
3. Deryck Whibley "Hates" the Album
Ok, so hate is a strong word. But
front-man Deryck Whibley has confessed that he is quite unhappy with the
way the album was mixed.
"I've always, always hated the way this album sounds. I hated it in the studio and it still bothers me. The demo I made myself at home sounded better than the final mix... And it’s not anybody’s fault necessarily. I don’t think I knew enough of how to explain what I wanted to the mixer... I wouldn’t redo anything. It’s all there. It just needs to be mixed right." - Sum 41's Deryck Whibley looks back..., Deryck Whibley; AZCentral, April 29, 2018
4. Party Poopers
Normally people associate punk rock tours with a party animal atmosphere. However, the band stopped drinking and staying up late while on tour promoting All Killer, No Filler to record their second album.
In 2008, Stevo told MTV: "When we realized the recording time was coming up, we actually stopped partying... That made touring a whole different world... It's strange to spend the last two months on the road and go, 'Well, it looks like I'm going to bed early again, and I'll be up all day,' because, usually, you don't really have much to do until the show... So if you drink all night, you'll sleep all day until you're about to go on. And that occupies, like, 18 hours of the day. Then you only have to be up for one." Steve Jocz, - D'Angelo, Joe. "Sum 41: Testing Their Metal (Part 2)". MTV. April 8, 2008.5. War in Iraq
"Still Waiting" is an anti-war song.
"“Still Waiting” was all about George W. Bush and going into Iraq and what a disaster it was gonna be. It was an anti-war, anti-Bush song... And I didn’t explain it. I didn’t talk about it in interviews... In those days, there was so much focus on our humor and our drummer at that time... He was always the joking guy. So that became the focus of our interviews. We never really spoke about the music. And a lot of those themes I was trying to talk about, they never really came across." - Deryck Whibley; Sum 41's Deryck Whibley looks back..., AZCentral, April 29, 2018
6. Diss Track
"No Brains" is a middle finger salute to a former band member.
7. Anna Nicole Smith
Speaking of diss tracks... "A.N.I.C." or "A**hole" depending on which version of the album you're looking at, is a tribute to Anna Nicole Smith.
The former Playboy Playmate received a lot of attention in the early 00s for her notorious marriage to a wealthy senior citizen who she was often accused of marrying just for his money. The band stopped performing the song following her drug overdose in 2007. However, as of 2012, the band seem to have returned to including the song in their sets.
8. Talk of Shame
"Better Off Dead" is not a song about being drunk or wasted...
However, it is a song about dealing with it's aftermath; "It's not about being f---ed up or drunk... It's more about the aftermath when you're hearing everything you've just done the night before, and you're like, 'Ah, f---, I'm better off dead.' I don't regret any of the things I do and I don't mind doing them, I just hate hearing about it. Being told every morning, 'Dude, what did you do last night?' drives me nuts." - Deryck Whibley, Sum 41 Sober Up On 'Does This Look Infected?, Wiederhorn, Jon, MTV, (Nov 14, 2002)
9. Living Hell
"Hell Song" is about a friend of the band who caught HIV.
"It's about this girl I used to date who I've known forever. Just last Christmas she found that she was HIV positive, and it was so brutal. She doesn't sleep around. She's only had two or three boyfriends and one of them used to cheat on her all the time, and then he got it and gave it to her. It's the heaviest thing that's happened in our group of friends." - Deryck Whibley, Sum 41 Sober Up On 'Does This Look Infected?, Wiederhorn, Jon, MTV, (Nov 14, 2002)
10. "Mr Amsterdam"
With lyrics that read "I can't stop believing there's something to be said
What are we achieving with the bullshit that we're fed?" "Mr Amsterdam" is perhaps a more relevant song today than it was when it was written.
According to Deryck Whibley, the song is about complacency in pop culture. In 2002, he told MTV: "We depend so much on new technology to make sure that we don't have to do anything... Everything's being laid out so we can sit at home and do nothing and never leave our homes. You can order all your groceries from the computer. You can do anything you want. You can just sit there and become fatter. And I think that's bad." - Deryck Whibley, Sum 41 Sober Up On 'Does This Look Infected?, Wiederhorn, Jon, MTV, (Nov 14, 2002)
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_This_Look_Infected%3F
D'Angelo, Joe. "Sum 41: Testing Their Metal (Part 2)". MTV. April 8, 2008. - https://web.archive.org/web/20080408214754/http://www.mtv.com/bands/s/sum_41/news_feature_080202/index3.jhtml