NOFX debut sets trend for punk bands
Zachary Zoeller - Art and Entertainment EditorTuesday, March 28, 2006 issue
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I hope everybody had a great Spring Break, whether it was on a sunny beach or back home saving cash. I opted for the latter, sitting around for a week on the couch, eating Swedish Fish and planning what the Budget CD Review would bring to your eager minds. Bad puns aside, hear goes …
1. NOFX, “Maximum RocknRoll” $1.25
The liner notes for NOFX’s debut features a June 1991 interview in the punk magazine MaximumRocknRoll with lead singer Fat Mike, who says he sees the future of NOFX as “progressing ... but not changing our style.” Upon listening to “Maximum RocknRoll” in light of subsequent albums, his prediction was right on. It contains the same irreverence and breakneck tempos that NOFX has brandished throughout its career. First track “Live Your Life” attacks religion, singing “Live your life with decision/ Live your life not religion.” It sounds preachy compared to “Happy Guy” from 1994’s “Punk in Drublic,” which again bemoans the “writings on the wall,” but recognizes that the religious man’s “happiness is real.” Much of the material is juvenile, such as “Cops and Donuts” and “Drain Bramaged.” Most of the time the music can’t even keep it afloat as it sounds typically so-Cal punk, and Fat Mike does his best Johnny Rotten impression throughout the disc. It sets the groundwork for a long career of political and comical rants that would influence a generation of punk bands.
2. Sebadoh, “Rebound” $1.25
While Nirvana’s and Pearl Jam’s radio accessible sounds were broadcast from Seattle to Timbuktu, a thousand indie bands were hiding just beyond the reach of the radio dial. Sebadoh was one of the best and most successful of all the indie bands of the ’90s, and without its sound and influence, the world might have never experienced the Cobain and Vedder juggernauts. “Rebound” is an EP featuring the electric and acoustic versions of “Rebound” from Sebadoh’s 1994 album “Bakesale.” It also includes “Social Medicine,” which is a delicate song about just being drunk, rhyming “bread soda” with “get to know ya.” “On Fire,” which was reprised in the band’s next album “Harmacy,” is an all-acoustic version that focuses on Lou Barlow’s great melody and lyrics. The acoustic “Magnet’s Coil” is a new, intimate look at one of the band’s hardest songs, but it ultimately does not improve upon the original. The “Rebound” EP was released almost at the height of the band’s commercial popularity and is by no means a complete representation of a great band, just a footnote for diehard fans.