Artist of the Week I

NOFX

Current Lineup: Eric Melvin, Erik Sandin, Fat Mike, El Hefe

NOFX is one of America's best known punk bands from San Francisco, California. Formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin, NOFX has been trash talking for nearly thirty years now.

NOFX released their self titled debut EP in January 1985.

Track listing:

1. Live Your Life

2. My Friends

3. Six Pack Girls

4. Bang Bang

5. Hit it

6. Hold it Back

7. I.D.

In 1988, the band recorded their first album Liberal Animation with songwriter and guitarist for the band Bad Religion, Brett Gurewitz. The title toys with the phrase "animal liberation" and the cover features a family of cows sitting at a dinner table eating a human carcass:

Though the album mocks animal rights and vegetarianism, Fat Mike claims he became a vegetarian after writing it.

NOFX's second Album, S&M Airlines, was released the following year on Gurewitz's label, Epitaph Records.

Fat Mike and his wife founded Fat Wreck Chords in 1990.

In 1991, the band released their third album, Ribbed. The cover featured only a picture of a condom. This was also the year that NOFX welcomed their current lead guitarist, El Hefe.

The Longest Line 12" EP was released in 1992 and was the first recording to feature El Hefe.

1994 saw the rise of pop punk in the mainstream media;  Green Day released their major label debut, Dookie, in February and NOFX released their most successful album to date, Punk in Drublic, in June. Because of the album's popularity, NOFX were approached by major labels but the band declined.

In November of 1994, NOFX released their first video album titled Ten Years of Fuckin' Up on VHS. It includes 19 live performance tracks. The DVD release features a commentary by the band.

In '95, the band released their first live album I Heard They Suck Live!! which contains 19 tracks (two of which aren't songs, but audio from the concert). The album was recorded at the Roxy in Hollywood.

NOFX released their sixth studio album Heavy Petting Zoo in 1996. It did not reach the commercial success of Punk in Drublic, but was the first NOFX album to make a spot on the US Billboard charts. In the credits of the album, the band tells major labels to "leave us the fuck alone." The title combines the phrases "heavy petting" and "petting zoo," suggesting bestiality. The CD and cassette versions of Heavy Petting Zoo featured a man touching a sheep inappropriately, while the LP version, alternatively titled Eating Lamb (another play on words), featured the same man performing oral sex on the sheep:

Heavy Petting Zoo, released on CD and cassette

Eating Lamb, released on vinyl

In November '97, the band released So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes. The title refers to the common practice at punk rock shows of throwing shoes lost by crowd surfers on stage.
In 1999, NOFX released a single track EP titled The Decline. It is the longest NOFX song recorded,  at 18 minutes and 19 seconds. The song is cynical and satire, firing at American law and politics; it discusses conformity, religion, and the constitution. Fat Mike says that recording The Decline was a nightmare. It is rumored that the Pink Floyd movie The Wall and The Decline can be played together.
NOFX released their eighth full length album in 2000. Titled Pump up the Valuum, the word "Valium" was misspelled to avoid a lawsuit because of the registered trademark of the name. This was the last album released by NOFX on Epitaph records before moving to Fat Wreck Chords.
In 2002 NOFX recorded BYO Split Series Volume III. It was a split record with fellow punk band Rancid in which both bands covered six of each other's songs. NOFX also released their double album 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records.

The War on Errorism was released in 2003 and was the beginning of the NOFX anti-George W. Bush campaign. Following this record, Fat Mike organized punkvoter.com, which encouraged young punks to register to vote in the 2004 election. The activist groups supporters are mainly left-liberals. Fat Mike also organized Rock Against Bush, hosting a national tour and releasing two CDs. The War on Errorism is NOFX's best known album.


NOFX launched the NOFX 7" of the Month Club in 2005. Subscribers received an EP almost every month on colored vinyl. Since then, Fat Wreck Chords has released sets of the EPs.
Never Trust a Hippy EP was released in March 2006. The cover featured an illustration of Jesus holding a bottle of alcohol in one hand and throwing up a peace sign with the other.
The next month, their tenth studio album Wolves in Wolve's Clothing was released.
NOFX recorded three live shows in San Francisco for their second live album, They've Actually Gotten Worse Live!, in January 2007. The album was released in November of that year.
NOFX  launched a world tour in September 2007, which was documented on the Fuse show "NOFX: Backstage Passport."
The band released Coaster in April 2009, as well as an EP titled Cokie the Clown in November. The band launched their Fermented and Flailing tour in the spring of 2010.
For an acoustic set at SXSW, Fat Mike adopted the Cokie the Clown persona and played what some call a very intimate and emotional show. Fat Mike told disturbing stories of his past such as taking a woman upstairs after a show and milking her like a cow. At the beginning of the set, drinks were poured and passed around by Fat Mike, and at the end of the show a video was shown of him peeing inside the bottle of alcohol from which the drinks were poured. He was banned from the venue. It was later revealed that Fat Mike switched the bottle of pee with the real drinks before the show.


NOFX released a compilation album earlier this week titled The Longest EP. It features 30 songs from 1987 to present, outtakes and rarities.