NOFX history

NOFX is a punk rock band that's been together since 1984 (not all of them, El Hefe wasn't in the band from its start). They started their career in Berkeley, CA and later moved to Los Angeles.

First they started recording for Mystic records, but they had some problems with the guy at Mystic so they made a deal with Mr. Brett who was then playing in Bad Religion and they moved to his record label, Epitaph and they stayed there. They also have some releases on Fat Mike's label, Fat Wreck Chords, like The Longest Line, I Heard They Suck Live and The Decline.

As every other band, they were not popular in the beginning and they have released some stuff that not a lot of people liked. Even Fat Mike says that he hates their first releases, that later all came out on one CD, Maximum Rock'n'Roll. After that they released Liberal Animation, that was later re-released on Epitaph, which was also hard to listen to and people usually don't like it. Their first Epitaph release was S&M Airlines, which I think is a great record with a lot of funny stuff, but the first widely liked NOFX release was Ribbed, which made them popular. 

Old punk-rockers will say that that is their best release and that after that they went mainstream, but i think that they were just getting better and better because El Hefe joined the band and he changed their style, which you can hear on their first full-length album they have released after he joined the band, White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean. He sings all the weird stuff on that album, like Straight Edge and Buggley Eyes and that brought some innovation in old NOFX style, which made them more interesting to listen to.

Even though White Trash was GREAT, after that came one even better album, which is a real piece of art, the punk album of the century: Punk In Drublic. I think that the vast majority of NOFX fans think that that is the best NOFX release, and I also think that it may compete for the best punk album ever.

After that they made a break in releasing new stuff and released a live album I Heard They Suck Live, which brings in the feeling of being on a NOFX show right into your room. That album rocks some serious ass. They have also released some other live albums like Together On The Road and Back In The Garage but you will hardly find these releases because they are rare.

In 1996 they released Heavy Petting Zoo, with a guy heavy petting a sheep. That was funny, I think that there is a message behind this cover that says "Don't kill and eat sheep, make love to them." A lot of people had a problem with that cover and I heard that that album had some problems with crossing the French border. The album itself is very strange and the opinions about it are different. I like it even though even Fat Mike says it's not really good.

After that, in 1997 they released So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes, as in Douglas Adams book So Long And Thanks For All The Fish (from that series is also Zaphod Beeblebrox from song Food, Sex and Ewe, from Ribbed album). It's shoes instead of fish because of all the shoes that get thrown at them during they shows and once they decided not to give the shoes back to the people who threw them. That album is full of slow songs and ska, some of them are really cool and I gotta admit that if it wasn't for Punk In Drublic, this album could compete for the best NOFX album. Only nobody actually expected a ska album from NOFX. Shortly after that they wrote a song named We Don't Play Ska Anymore.

Their last release is The Decline which consist of one 18 minutes long song that kicks ass and everybody tells me that they just can't stop listening to that song. Their new album is now in works and is expected to come out in February 2000. 

You've probably been wondering what NOFX actually means. A lot of poeple think that is stands for No Effects or NO Fucking sXe. Fat Mike wrote on the official site that it doesn't mean anything, that they just ripped of that name from an old band called Negative FX. He also says he hates that name.

NOFX, except for a lot of music, recorded also a video named '10 years of fuckin' up', which is pretty cool, with a lot of stuff from their tours, history and with those few videos they have recorded. If you get a chance to get it, I recommend watching it. 









Some facts about NOFX
Fat Mike writes almost all music (even for trumpet he can't play) and lyrics for NOFX. 
They always sing The Brews and Buggley Eyes at the end of their shows. 
Buggley Eyes is dedicated to the beautiful girls in the world. 
The Brews is for kids in Fairfax ghetto in California which is full of jews that look like skinheads. 
El Hefe joined the band in 1992 for The Longest Line. 
Erik is White Trash, Fat Mike and Eric are Two Heebs and El Hefe is a Bean. 
Fat Mike of NOFX owns Fat Wreck Chords, the record label which can be found at http://www.fatwreck.com/. Recently he found another record label, Honest Don's, I think it's at http://www.honestdons.com/. 
Eric Melvin of NOFX used to own coffee shop Melvin's (Melvin's, 8205 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, 213-653-6118). 
El Hefe of NOFX owns a night club called Hefe's. 
August 8th was the day hippie Jerry Garcia died and Woodstock was on. 
Jarry Garcia didn't die on August 8th, it is just that Fat Mike thought he did. 
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (1908-1957) was an anti-communist and Catharine McKinnon and Andrea Dworking were some big feminists (as in The Black And White). 
Fat Mike except in NOFX plays with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes with Spike (Fat's shipping guy), Jake Jackson (No Use For A Name), Joey Cape (Lagwagon), and Dave (RKL). 
Eric Melvin except in NOFX plays with his punk rock karaoke band. 
Malachi Brothers are bad guys from Happy Days show. Each of them crunched the opposite side of Fonz and Pinkie Tuskadaro's car so they would not participate in a derby. 
NOFX stands for NO Fucking straightXedge. 
I don't know about the others but El Hefe and Mike are married (El Hefe has a kid also). 
El Hefe does all the strange vocals like in Kill All The White Man, Johhny Appleseed and Straight Edge. 
Fat Mike has his nickname since college days when he could eat for free so he kept gaining weight. 
Liza & Louise don't exist. It's just that Fat Mike likes lesbians. Still, Lori Meyers does exist. 
Fat Mike likes golf and plays it all the time. 
Song Please Play This Song On The Radio is soundtrack in the movie The Chase. 
Jeff from Jeff Wears Birkenstocks is a hippie who works at Epitaph. 
Cathay De (from The Desperation's Gone) is a punk bar where Mike used to hang when he was young. 
Vincent was originally written by Don McLean. 
Scavenger Type is soundtrack of movie Nirvana. 
Olive Me is a Frank Sinatra song. 
Electricity is originally written by the band OMD. 
In the PC game Xgames Proboarder is the NOFX song All His Suits Are Torn.