Albums I Loved In High School: NOFX & 'The War On Errorism'
"How was the band? They were okay. Not great, but pretty good. They played the songs I knew they would." - NOFX, "Medio-Core"
The music we listen to between ages 13-18 literally imprint on our brains. Anything you listen to outside of that window? You might eventually like it more, but it won’t make an impression like the stuff you jammed from middle school to high school.
I have no idea if that’s true, but I read that they did studies that concluded something like that once (Cracked article?) and it feels true. I can feel it in the way lyrics and guitar parts come flooding back into my memory, the way I’ll pound out drum fills with my thumbs without consciously intending to do so while hearing something I haven’t thought about for two decades.
So here’s the first in a series revisiting some records I liked in high school. Up first is NOFX, a band I never stopped liking but kinda stopped listening to after this record dropped (it wasn’t them, it was me). Don’t worry, I will eventually re-listen to something embarrassing, like Relient K or Slick Shoes.
Separation of Church and Skate
No one in punk rock plays a Tele like El Hefé. Or single coils, I guess, he plays a Jaguar in this video. Still.
I thought we were past the need for these types of anti-prude anthems, but the most powerful political party in the country wants all of society to go back to the 1850s. So let your freak flag fly. God, what an opener this song is.
The Irrationality of Rationality
This song, Ben Folds’ “Fred Jones Part Two,” and Office Space taught me all I need to know about corporate culture.
Franco Un-American
Legitimately some of the funniest lyrics ever written. Read this:
I never looked around, never second-guessed
Then I read some Howard Zinn, now I’m always depressed
Now I can’t sleep from years of apathy
All because I read a little Noam Chomsky
Ban libraries, they’re killing our kids’ mental health!
Idk how many Gen Z readers I have, but France thought the US and UK’s 20023 invasion of Iraq was unhinged and unfounded and unjust. They even told the UN they felt this way. So Republican Rep Bob Ney renamed “French fries” “freedom fries” in three congressional cafeterias, and it became a national joke. Listen, Gen Zers: I know the US went to war with Iraq anyway, but trust me when I say lots of us were feeling “Franco-unAmerican” back then. I’m pretty sure this is how Emily In Paris got made.
The Idiots Are Taking Over
Look, I’m not going to quibble with the title. It’s undeniably true. BUT I wish people would stop using this Idiocracy trope of “the stupid people are breeding too much.” If y’all were really so smart and above it all, you’d realize how eugenist and determinist and plantation ownerish and Calvinist you sound. Take it from an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, you don’t want to sound Calvinist.
She’s Nubs
It’s maybe a little facile, but this song was one of my first introduction to punk’s inclusivity. The story goes that “Nubs” is a real person, a NOFX fan without arms or legs who goes to their shows strapped to some guy’s back. Being champions of the different and welcoming to most anyone outside society’s normative spaces, they wrote a song honoring her.
In our current parasocial, “what’s up guys I love my fans like and subscribe” YouTuber, inauthentic online relationship era, it’s maybe hard to explain how cool it was to learn the story of Nubs and NOFX when I was in high school.
Mattersville
It rules that they’ve made 10000 records since this song. Hey, anyone under 30: your 30s aren’t a death sentence. You actually get to keep living, until you don’t. You can’t help getting ripe, but it’s your fault if you get bored.
Decom-Posuer
Eric Melvin might not be able to play guitar, but NOFX can still do some sick two-guitar stuff.
Medio-Core
An important message about constantly pushing yourself creatively that backs it up with a few weird chord progs, key changes, and a killer title. Killer title, unfortunately, applies to the song itself.
Anarchy Camp
I like ska and I don’t care what you all think of me.
American Errorist (I Hate Hate Haters)
Sick palm muted intro, man this song gets me GOING, and also a sentiment I always get in trouble for expressing. Yes, it is okay to hate injustice, to hate war, to hate racism and sexism and homophobia and transphobia, to hate Republicans, to hate Aubrey Drake Graham. These things that happen in the world should make you angry.
As a more mellowed out man of peace these days, though—don’t laugh, I’m being serious, I am a more mellowed out man of peace these days, and aspiring to remove the “more” modifier from “mellowed out”—hatred can consume your heart. It will eat your heart without you noticing, realizing it’s happening. So unless you want to become the people you hate, learn how to counter that anger with positivity. Be the change you want, and all that, can we get back to punk rock now?
We Got Two Jealous Agains
“Will this relationship work or not, based on our record collection?” is some regressive, High Fidelity-ass thinking. But idk, also cute.
13 Stitches
Here’s the punk rock nostalgia track on this record I really get down with. This is “Roots Radical” for Southern California. Rad guitar tone, too.
The next time I went to The Whiskey
It was DOA with Millions Of Dead Cops
The latter band played faster than I could believe
But those songs sounded the same and kinda sucked
Said “John Wayne was a Nazi!”
And Joey Shithead was a drunk
My NOFX predecessor was listening to Weird Al with my friend Scott while playing Legos after school. These guys are so goddamn funny. That verse ends with “having long hair was a mistake,” though, and I’m here to say having long hair is never a mistake.
Re-Gaining Unconsciousness
I never watched One Tree Hill, even though some woman whose music was once featured in the show once randomly followed my MySpace page when I was trying to be a singer-songwriter (dark times). Anyway, from the The War On Errorism Wikipedia:
In an episode of One Tree Hill, several lines from "Re-Gaining Unconsciousness" were read aloud,[18]…
It’s truly incredible in context. And apparently these characters really like NOFX, because there are other scenes! Where other characters talk about NOFX! This show is basically “what if The OC took place on a hill, perhaps in Ohio” so far as I can tell. Yet every character’s favorite band is these cross-dressing, BDSM-celebrating, anarchist skate punks who won’t shut up about Reagan.
Whoops, I OD’d
Always loved that they did the “end of album acoustic song” with bass chords. Fat Mike may not be a great bass player, but I think he’s a super interesting bass player, and sometimes that’s what’s important.
What Scratches This Itch For Me Today:
Nostalgia is embarrassing, because do you really like music or were you just happier when you were 16? One answer is depressing. The point of looking back at records I liked in high school is to see where I am today, too. Like said, I haven’t listened to much new NOFX, but I will. Kevin Devine might be my NOFX successor, with his poppy political anger and punkish roots. Before Candace Owens joined, I might’ve said Run The Jewels (I still jam RTJ2 and RTJ3, Think Progress can’t take those records from me). Point is, while I am still into punk, I’m not looking for new NOFX comps. Right now, I’m into The Interrupters, Turnstile, Aye Nako, and Petrol Girls, as far as punk goes.
Verdict: I still like it. A lot.
NOFX is still rad to me. I admittedly haven’t kept up with much since this record—couple songs here and there, but not much. This is me saying if there’s anything cancelable that’s happened in the last 21 years, I genuinely don’t know about it. I know Fat Wreck Chords has a great YouTube channel and does one-record deals with people, which seems good.
This record and The Decline influenced a lot of my righteous anger punk sensibilities about politics, and while I don’t know how much either would say about my politics now, the foundation isn’t one I run from.
Let’s go skate.
And throw a shoe at a Republican.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris
