.Managing to cajole our way inside the adjacent old Club Detroit for a little pre-show libation, we're delighted to join an ever-ebullient El Hefe seated quietly at the abandoned bar.
A talented multi-instrumentalist and child actor (his most famous role: chubby, monolingual benchwarmer Miguel in "The Bad News Bears"), his rather late addition to the band proved the catalyst for an unprecedented degree of melodic sophistication from a band perhaps best previously known for boneheaded if cathartic rants along the lines of "Food, Sex and Ewe".
And so now - out of left field and the esteemed Epitaph label (home of The Offspring, Pennywise and Bad Religion) - emerges a new and improved NOFX, retro hardcore band supreme and (aside, perhaps, from latter-day Rancid), easily the best of the bunch. Like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Replacements and Descendents before them, this quartet of irony-addicted skate rats aims to plant its cliche of influences (speedcore, rreggae, arena lounge metal) not on torn sleeves or funny haircuts but somewhere in the no-man's-land betwixt gut and tappy toe.
The band's most recent release, the painfully-titled "Punk in Drublic," is a hot dose of vitriol just catchy enough that it could prove fatal. For those healthy stirrup-bearers whose introduction to modern punk rests squarely on the shoulders of "Nevermind" and Green Day, a word of warning: The singer ain't real tuneful, the rushed melodies sometimes hard to catch. As for the rest of you: Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance.
El Hefe thanks us for all the kind words and finishes his drink, leading us to hastily gather our belongings in pursuit. By the time we've fought our way back through the throng, he's cursing from the stage in Spanglish. Perhaps we'd stolen his lighter.
As anyone who's lived through the original explosion might attest, anarchy can be an ugly thing, its results often less than listenable. What the best of the hardcore do-it-yourselfers always understood, it seemed, is that all the jet-propelled cadences, billious ranting and guitar noise in the world doesn't mean squat without a decent tune to hang your hat on.
Seems NOFX has learned that lesson well.
Despite a penchant for ripping off all the right heroes - add vintage Pixies and the beer-fueled quotations of local favorites Dogs On Ice to that equation - five albums and a decade of tours have seen the group forge an infectious brand of irony all its own.
"Yeah, we've been around for ten years," vocalist Fat Mike has been quoted as saying, "it's just that we sucked for the first six."
For all its hubbub and noise, "Punk In Drublic" manages to toss off on some pretty weighty subjects, what with "The Cause" and "Perfect Government" flaunting delightfully catchy and thoughtful odes to progressive politics, "Happy Guy" and "The Brews" religious and ethnic pride, and, in the Police-like lilt of "My Heart Is Yearning", a genuinely infantile (beavistic? buttheadeasque?) sense of humor
After the show, Kent is kind enough to lead the way past the rentacop guarding the club's balcony, up and around a familiar flight of steps to a worn, drapery-covered sofa.
Fat Mike arrives alone, giving the joint a good once-over before joining us at a rickety table. He looks good if a little tired, a ragged bucket hat atop his sweaty bean. I can smell him. Not a bad smell, really, but firm.
You're not as fat as I'd imagined.
I used to be like a hundred thirty pounds and really skinny. I went on tour in '85 and then to college for a year. We had a food card, and I gained about forty pounds in like one, you know, one sitting. [Laughs] I mean, like one semester. We went back on tour again and every town we went to they said, "You got fat." Not that I'm really that fat, but it's...
Speaking of pleasantly plump, how'd you guys come to acquire the services of El Hefe?
He'd been playing in the Mark Curry Band. Mark's his brother, and we'd known Mark for a long time and so we just got him. Actually, Eric [Melvin, lead guitar] met him originally in juvenile hall when they were like real little. That's how we met everyone in the first place. They hadn't seen each other in like fifteen years or something.
And so he just picked up and started playing trumpet in a punk band? That's pretty strange.
He's the only trained musician, you know.
Really? Where'd you get started? How old were you?
L.A. Late '83. Sixteen. A couple of us had played in punk bands before, you know. I just bought a bass guitar and tried to play it. And as they say in their press kit, we really sucked for the first ten years.
I thought that quote was attributed to you.
Yeah, I said it.
Oh, you said it?
Yeah. It's true. If you get any of our real early albums, it's awful.
I've been looking for those. They're kind of hard to find.
Yeah, well, we like it that way. We don't see any money off our first album, anyway. Then, with "S&M Airlines", I figured out how to sing a melody. I wasn't very good at it. I still have a long way to go, but I think all our albums progress that way. You know, people think we're a real funny band, but we just get that because we have some funny songs and most bands don't. I just wish I had a better voice, you know? I think we'd be a lot bigger if I did.
So what do think of some of your fellow Epitaph labelmates, making it to the big leagues and all while you guys are still sweating it out in places like this?
I think it's great. Well, at first I didn't think it was great, but now I think it's great. Because, you know, we've really sold a lot of albums. We've sold more than Bad Religion - the first five Bad Religion albums - which, you know, is really great and we should be really stoked, and we would be, except Offspring sold three million. So it's kind of a bummer. They were under contract and they were cool about it. They're all millionaires now. So we're all happy.
We're like the second biggest band on Epitaph, you know? And I'm really happy with our success. I have a problem wiritng for radio. I just can't do it. I hate being obvious. I write a song, it's like, "Alright, this is totally poppy, this is perfect". And then I go, "I can't do it, I gotta put some... I gotta stick a wrench in it or something. "
It's like once you put [the word] "fuck" in a song, you can't take it out, you know? It just doesn't work. And like we did "Please Play This Song on the Radio" [from "White Trash, Three Heebs & A Bean], which I really did write to be on the radio. And then I fucked up the ending, because I said I can't be this obvious, you know? Fuck that.
Yeah.
And like "Leave It Alone". We spent all this money on a video, and then we had a little meeting and said, "Let's not send it to MTV." Because we really don't want to do it. It's just, you turn into a different sort of band. Personally, I don't find anything wrong with it, it's just like any other medium for people to hear our music, but our audience doesn't want us to do it. And, you know, we have to respect that.
I don't know if I really want it to get much bigger than we are right now. You know, I say that, but it's like I'm kinda scared of it. All we really want to do is put out good records. And we're making really a ton of money right now, so we're not gonna, you know, we don't need anything else. We're like, I mean, we're playing these huge places, you know? This is ridiculous.
I like to hear music that you don't expect. You know, I love Green Day. I think they're a great band, but everything they play is really expected. They actually do one thing that I think is rad, and that's their hit. What's that song?
I think we'd be a lot bigger if I did."
- Fat Mike
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Oh yeah, "Basket Case". [Sings] "I went to a whore / Who said my life's a bore." I was like, yeah!
I was really floored by "Punk In Drublic". Let's say you put out one perfect album. What's next?
You know what? Eighty percent of the people I've talked to like "White Trash, Two Heebs And A Bean" better. And when that album came out, everyone liked "Ribbed" better. I think "Ribbed" is people's favorite album still. Everyone says that is the NOFX album. It happens a lot. I'll go to the Bad Religion section, right? And I think "Against The Grain" is their best album, and that was their third album, you know?
Uh-huh. Anyway, back to "Drunk In Public". Who is this "Happy Guy" you sing about? Anyone in particular?
It's not about a real person, really. I knew this lady in the pharmacy behind my house, you know, and she was like, she always used to give me shit about how I dressed and stuff when I was a kid, telling me I was listening to the devil's music, shit like that.
She was pretty screwed up, but the thing is, she was always happy, you know? Singing "nuh, nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh." She was just happy, you know? If she'd found happiness in the way that she was brainwashed or whatever, who cares? If she's happy, that's what everyone's looking for. And if you can find it, then you're set. It doesn't matter. There's no rules.
As a contemporary entertainer about my age, what do you perceive as the condition of our so-called Generation X?
I don't really know what that is. I went to college, you know. I got a B.A. And every one of my friends - I have probably twenty or thirty friends that all got degrees from college - none of them have a job that's worth mentioning. Retail. Retail clothes. Used to be, you could get ahead. And you can't anymore. You need more than just an education. But you know, I don't think people realize that you shouldn't have to work very often. That's what I'm shooting for.
Just like in your lyrics for "Reeko". We were listening to that on the way over.
Yeah. All metaphores for polluting the earth. How's it go? [Sings] "The keg has been sucked dry..."
Frat party atmosphere. Fuck tomorrow. That sort of thing.
We used to do all those things. With Ex-Lax and all that.
But then you chime in with "Mr. President, please understand..." It's almost like another song has been tacked on to the end.
The other song is about the economy, actually. Oh yeah, it is about that. You know, I've been to England a lot, and I see this country turning into England. England is like so depressing. You go downtown and all the stores are closed. It's a fish and chips shop, a couple of clothing stores and everything else is closed and everyone's out of work. This country is bound to have that happen.
And then what?
I don't know. [Getting visibly excited] People have got to... this is going too far. It's just all consumerism, you know? People ought to just stop wanting things. If you don't want anything, then you don't have to work so fucking hard.
But then that puts you in an interesting position, doesn't it? I mean, you're pushing a product just like anybody else.
Entertainment is different. Entertainment is something that... it's not a hundred-dollar shirt, you know? Even though a CD's overpriced. Look, I was trying, I actually was going to try to set up Fat Wreck Chords, my label, in a lot of libraries, you know, across the country?
You know, you could get so much music in a library. A library's like what America is based on. It's almost like the most communist thing there is, you know? There's no profit in it. And, you know, like everything you see on TV is a gadget. You get it and you don't want it, you know?
Everyone who's making these things is pissed off 'cause they're sitting in some factory making some weird device, and the one who has to sell it on the fucking phone is pissed off, too. No one is enjoying this at all, so why don't you just get rid of every part of it? And then you have people who aren't so fucked up.
So how was it touring with Fishbone? That's an odd match.
Pretty shitty. It was our first opening tour, and we'll never do it again. We were offered the Green Day tour and turned it down. Which, I kinda kick myself in the ass sometimes, but we didn't want to do it because half the people weren't gonna like it. You play in front of ten thousand people every day and you know what? It sucks. [Green Day] are not really an arena band. Actually, they're like one of the best bands I've ever seen. They're like so good. It's pretty simple to play what they're doing, you know? It's like real easy stuff, but they do it so well.
And then you have a band like The Offspring. They suck live, you know? We did a tour with them, they opened the tour, and they're like the worst band we've ever had open for us. They're really boring.
I'm not excited about going to Europe anymore. This is the first tour where our crowds are just as good as Europe's. Our last headline tour in the U.S. was like shitty, we made five hundred bucks a night, which is good for a lot of bands. And now we're making tons of money. It's really nice to be big in the states. We've done like ten U.S. tours. We like touring with Lagwagon a lot, took them to Europe with us. There's a band called Bracket you should check out...
Says here there are also plans in the works for tours of Argentina and Australia while "Punk In Drublic" is well on its way to becoming an instant classic. Any whispers of sellout?
What I consider a sellout is a band that's doing what they really don't want to be doing just to make money. Like Seven Seconds. They tried to sell out, you know. East Brigade tried to sell out. You remember that? [Not really.] They had their first album and then like in '83 they released this album called "The Brigade". It's really East Brigade, but they wrote like all these pop songs.
I mean like Rancid, they seem like, sold out. Because the only reason they signed with a major was for the money. I mean, they liked everyone at Epitaph, they got a big offer and want fame and fortune. And they sold out to a major.
Rat bastard pieces of shit.