NOFX stops being polite
Band’s new album putting the punk back in punk rock
Punk rock got its name for a reason; the people playing it were punks, miscreants, ne’er-do-wells, complainers, protesters, agitators, objectors and misfits.
Sometimes that gets lost in the wake of pop bands that use punk’s speedy song dynamics and adopted some of its fashions. But as far as Fat Mike is concerned, there is very little punk rock left.
“None of these bands is singing songs that are offensive to anybody. You have all these bands running around afraid to say anything that might offend 2 percent of the fans who might buy their record. I’m taking on Christianity, and what, something like 80 percent of the country has that as a religious belief,” explained Fat Mike, who with his band NOFX takes down Christians, conservatives and assorted hypocrites on the forthcoming “Never Trust a Hippy” EP, which paves the way for the band’s next full-length, “Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing” due April 14.
NOFX, which Mike described as “spoiled brats” who don’t like to tour much, is in the midst of an East Coast romp that brings the band to The Palladium tonight for a sold-out show (something of a homecoming for Mike, who was born in Newton and lived there until his family moved to California when he was 4).
Formed in 1983, NOFX is among the last of the true believers that punk rock has a point, which is to shake things up. NOFX may sound like some of the bands you hear on the radio, but listen to what the band is saying and it is no surprise why you don’t hear NOFX on the radio; what Fat Mike calls Ann Coulter in the song “You’re Wrong” would make Michael Moore blush.
And NOFX gets away with songs that can be, as Mike pointed out, arrogant because the band rarely, if ever, loses its sense of humor, nor puts itself beyond the wave of ridicule. One new song, “The Marxist Brothers,” for instance, pokes at well-heeled liberals who seek out punk rock records as badges of rebellion. And there is no shortage of NOFX songs about how drunk, befuddled and confused the band members themselves are.
“We’re equal opportunity offenders,” Fat Mike said.
Fat Mike, guitar player Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin started the band when they were teens and tapped into the punk scene around Hollywood. The band followed the lead of Bad Religion, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Descendents and Misfits, and by 1988 was putting out its music on Epitaph Records.
NOFX was never a critics’ darling, making the point to reprint some of the crappy reviews it received over the years in the retrospective “The Greatest Songs Ever Written (by us),” but perfectly tuned in to successive waves of disenchanted music fans. With its music more or less outside the mainstream, NOFX easily blasted through all sorts of musical styles, running its tunes through ska, metal and jazz-punk patterns regardless of how those particular trends were charting at any given time.
In 2003, NOFX, which has been a quartet with second guitarist El Hefe since 1991, moved from Epitaph to Fat Wreck Chords, an independent imprint Fat Mike started years earlier, and released “War of Errorism,” a broadside on the Bush Administration that garnered notice far beyond punk circles (one wonders if the CNN talking heads mispronounced the band’s name.)
The attention, though, didn’t persuade NOFX to seek a better business deal with one of the big record labels.
“From 1983 to ’91, I made about $8,000 a year. I said, ‘I can live off this,’ ” Mike explained. With the occasional world tour, Warped appearance and back-catalog sales, Fat Mike said that he and the rest of the band now make a bit more scratch, though he jokes about missing out on punk rock’s big money years.
“Ever since ’95 it’s been all downhill,” he said.
But downhill for whom? NOFX, who puts out records on its own little label, or the bands that made the decision to, as Mike put it, “sing about girls and emotions?”
With the pending arrival of “Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing,” NOFX is uncharacteristically making a music video to go along with the new song “Seeing Double at The Triple Rock,” a tune about heavy-duty drinking exploits in a Minnesota nightclub.
“We shot the video in Minneapolis. We made it a free show. But people had to come dressed as a priest or nun, and then hang around, drink and play pool,” Fat Mike explained.
And he admitted that he will not be the least bit surprised if NOFX has to put out this video on its own rather than being able to have it aired on TV, because let’s face it, such images may be found offensive.
Scott McLennan can be reached at tgmusic1@yahoo.com.
When: 8 tonight Where: The Palladium, 261 Main St., Worcester Cost: Sold out