lit a candle 2h ago56. The F.U.'s records still on a shelf somewhere in this house.
Their story
Ian Aubrey King was a Boston hardcore guitarist and backup singer best known for his decade with The F.U.'s, the pioneering Massachusetts punk band that returned to stages in the 2010s and took him from New England clubs to dates as far as Berlin and Osaka. Away from the amplifiers…
Ian Aubrey King was a Boston hardcore guitarist and backup singer best known for his decade with The F.U.'s, the pioneering Massachusetts punk band that returned to stages in the 2010s and took him from New England clubs to dates as far as Berlin and Osaka. Away from the amplifiers he worked as a title examiner in Boston, read widely, and kept a deep collection of records and films that friends remembered as a map of his curiosity.
King was born on 6 November 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Stephany Tiernan and Patrick King. He grew up in and around the city, finding theatre and the local punk scene early. He later earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts, and built a working life as a title examiner with the Boston firm Marsh, Moriarty, Ontell, and Golder.
From 2015 he played second guitar and sang backups with The F.U.'s, whose current lineup Wikipedia lists as John Sox on vocals, Steve Grimes on lead guitar, King on second guitar, Jimmy Foul on bass, and Bob Furapples on drums. The reunited band, formed originally in Boston in the early 1980s, revived its hardcore reputation with New England shows and overseas festival runs. King's role sat inside that second chapter of the group's life: steady rhythm work, harmony vocals, and the camaraderie of a scene that still packed rooms decades after its first wave.
People who knew him spoke of a sharp mind, a ready sense of humour, and a gregarious streak that filled his address book across continents. He was an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction, and history. At the time of his death he lived in Salem, Massachusetts, where he raised his son Rowan.
King died of heart failure on Saturday, 12 September 2026, in Brooklyn, New York. He was 56. Visiting hours and a service were held on 25 September 2026 at Murphy Funeral Home on Federal Street in Salem, with burial at Greenlawn Cemetery. The funeral home asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations go to the Greenhouse School in Salem. He is survived by his son Rowan King of Salem, his mother Stephany Tiernan of Woburn, Massachusetts, and his father Patrick King of Exeter, New Hampshire. He was predeceased by his stepfather Tom Plsek and by his cats Southpaw and Toile.
In Boston hardcore circles King is remembered as part of The F.U.'s later lineup that kept a formative local band travelling and recording into a new century. For family and friends the quieter portrait remains the English graduate, title examiner, and collector who treated music, books, and company as one continuous conversation.
Biography adapted from Murphy Funeral Home obituary; Wikipedia (The F.U.'s, CC BY-SA 4.0); Wicked Local death notice reporting.
Photos
1Ian Aubrey King
by People Forever
