One Of the greatest pop-punk bands of all time? Certainly right up there, despite a love hate releationship with many in this forum. Discuss the band and anything else sensibly, without getting too hung up on punkvoter, or having Fat Mike is teh dick head vs Fat Mike is teh sexor posts.
Recommended Songs:
Stickin In My Eye
Bob
Please Play This Song On The Radio
Liza And Louise
Linoleum
Leave It Alone
Seperation Of Church And Skate
180 Degrees
All Ouuta Angst
Green Corn
Moron Bros
El Lay
Etc etc
Line Ups:
1983: Erik Sandin (drums), Eric Melvin (guitar), Fat Mike (bass and vocals)
1985: Scott Sellars (drums), Erik Sandin (drums), Eric Melvin (guitar), Fat Mike (bass and vocals)
1986: Scott Adahl (drums), Dave Allen (vocals), Eric Melvin (guitar), Fat Mike (bass)
1986: Erik Sandin (drums), Dave Casillas (guitar), Eric Melvin (guitar), Fat Mike (bass and vocals)
1989: Erik Sandin (drums), Steve Kidwiller (guitar), Eric Melvin (guitar), Fat Mike (bass and vocals)
1991 to present: Erik Sandin (drums), Eric Melvin (guitar), El Hefe (guitar), Fat Mike (bass and vocals)
Releases, and Album Notes by Fat Mike:
http://nofx.org/albums/albums.html
Detailed Discography:
http://www.no-eff-eks.com/disco/
Photo Gallery:
http://www.no-eff-eks.com/gallery/
Following the traditional punk beginnings they formed from, NOFX’s inspiring career has spanned many generations and is far from over today. Steering clear of mainstream labels, and making decisions true to the ethics of punk rock has always been a feature of NOFX’s attitude as a band, and they are continuing to be a massive influence on the punk scene even today.
The first hint of the formation of NOFX began back in 1983, when Eric Melvin and friend Dillon sat around discussing the dismal state of their current bands. They decided at that time to begin a proper band, that has songs, goes on tour, and a band that they could work on. The pair discussed who else they should have in their band. From going to gigs around their native LA area Dillon had come across a guy named Mike who played bass in a band called False Alarm, and they both knew a bloke named Steve who hailed from Orange County, and they both agreed he would be a perfect front man. A first practised was arranged.
When Melvin first met Mike, he was the biggest Misfits fan of all time, describing him as having the biggest Devilock of all time. Mike rolled up to the first practise with a song they could play, with it apparently having more than a passing resemblance to Minor Threat’s cover of the Monkee’s Stepping stone. Steve never made it to the first practise, after failing to get a ride up from Orange County. Dillon quit afterwards also, and was immediately replaced by Mike’s friend Erik on drums. Erik, Melvin and Mike continued to practise as a three piece as Steve had not managed to get to any practises yet.
The next thing was to come up with a name. Melvin explains that he came up with the name after a band named Negative FX, whom they would listen to when hanging out at Mike’s house. To them, it represented being against all the gimmick bands that appeared to be around at that time.
NOFX played their first gig at a place named Cathay de Grande. The various members of NOFX had seen many popular punk bands there over the years, including DRI, Minor Threat, Reagan Youth and Social Distortion. On Tuesday nights new bands were allowed to play there for the fee of $1. Asking if they could borrow equipment, NOFX played a four song set (the only 4 songs they knew) as a three piece. Finding out that they had played without him, Steve quit the band at this point, a band he was never really a part of. Nonetheless, the show went down really well with many claiming that this was their best performance for many years. The original plan was for Melvin and Mike to take turns in singing the songs, but seeing as Melvin (by his own admission) could barely even play guitar back then, Mike became the official vocalist for NOFX.
NOFX’s first demo was, by a huge slice of luck, produced by Don Bolles (of Germs fame) in return for filling up his car with gas. NOFX spread the word about their debut release, and placed an advert in Flipside. The feedback the band got from the demo enabled them to go on their first tour in 1985. A guy named Brad from Boise said he’d pay $200 for the band to play in his basement. After a lot of phone calls they secured more gigs in Reno, Portland, and Ashland, Oregon, touring around in Melvin’s parents Country Squire.
In 1985 Erik moved away to Santa Barbara, and so was replaced for the band’s LA tour by a drummer named Scott. Scott was not too smart, and the band discovered he had left for the tour with only $6 in his pocket!
Mike has sold his car to buy a Dodge van for this tour, and unfortunately he didn’t buy a very good one. It continually broke down and was also a ‘cop magnet’, who were possibly eager to find out who drove the van with a massive graffiti style NOFX logo spray painted on the side. The tour consisted almost entirely of playing garages or naïve people’s homes for whatever money they could get.
After this tour Scott was replaced on drums by another Scott, and Dave Allen was tried and taken on as singer. The winter of 1985 was spent touring the mid west with the band Enthropy, with 12 people packed into the little Dodge van, including girlfriends and roadies.
After this tour, more changes followed. Mike moved to San Francisco to go to college, and Dave tragically was killed in a car accident. Scott also quit on drums, prompting Mike and Melvin to talk Erik into rejoining the band. However they still wanted to add a second guitar player. This was to be Dave Casillas, who joined and played on a couple of tours and on the Liberal Animation record.
NOFX went on their first European tour due to another stroke of good fortune. The Adolescents had pulled out of a German tour, and a promoter who had met Mike at a show a few weeks before decided to book the band despite them being no where near as popular as the Adolescents.
Dave quit after a little while, as the band felt he was not as dedicated to playing in a punk band, as they would’ve liked. He was replaced by Steve Kidwiller a month before they recorded S & M Airlines. Before that record was even out they embarked on a three-month tour of the US and Canada, and then a month and a half tour of Europe after about a months’ break. Then after about another month’s rehearsal the record Ribbed was recorded. Then they went back out on tour, across the US and back to Europe with bands of the stature of Bad Religion.
Soon after they returned from touring the record Steve quit the band, after apparently becoming un-able to cope with the amount of drug use within the band. El Hefe was the result of the auditions that the band held in San Francisco named El Hefe after his musical abilities.
Over the years NOFX continued to make a conscious effort to steer clear of the mainstream they despised. Mainstream success for Epitaph label mates Bad Religion and the Offspring, as well as the huge publicity surrounding Rancid led to a number of offers from major labels. However the band stayed true to their punk rock roots, releasing records that were clearly anti-mainstream for example 1992’s White Trash, Two Heebs and A Bean, which contained the terrific and sarcastic Please Play this Song On The Radio. The band followed this masterpiece with another, 1994’s Punk In Drublic regarded by many as the bands best. El Hefe’s guitar playing seemed to be the final cog in the NOFX bandwagon, and good albums became a given.
Heavy Petting Zoo was a grungier and slightly strange album. Released in 1996 it has a much rockier feel to it, despite containing classics such as Philthy Phil Philanthropist and What’s The Matter With Kids Today?
Custom brilliance returned again with 1997’s So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes (the first punk record I bought), which featured a fair amount of ska based tracks. The next release was one that would take the punk world by storm. Inspired by legendary UK punks the Subhumans, NOFX recorded an 18-minute marathon of political rage, entitled the Decline. Released on Fat Wreck chords, this song is possibly the defining moment of the band’s musical career. This was followed by 2000’s Pump Up The Valuum, complete with misspelled title in order to avoid a law suit.
Sifting through hours of unused material resulted in 2002’s B-side release 45 or 46 Songs That Weren’t Good Enough To Get On Our Other Records. Un-suprisingly this still contains some blinders, including an excellent cover of The Misfit’s Last Caress and the superbly random Bath Of Least Resistance. Disc 2 of the release contains a live recording of the band playing through a set of songs written in 10 minutes or under, and songs such as Party Enema and Three On Speed show what a great song writer Mike really is.
This was followed by 2003’s War On Errorism and 2004’s The Greatest Songs Ever Written By Us. They are currently in the middle of a unique 7-inch of the month club, where they are recording and sending out to subscribers a swiftly written and recorded set of songs, to be kept on vinyl.