Fat Mike of punk band NoFX creates punk rock rental property in Las Vegas
May 30, 2011 10:44 PM   Subscribe

Welcome to Vegas Punk House. Don’t break shit! Frontman, Fat Mike, of the punk band NoFX recently opened a "Punk House" available for renting while staying in Vegas. Complete with a mini golf course, 3 bedrooms (one with six bunk beds), punk flyers all over the walls, beer vending machine, and a "paltry" museum, for $400 dollars per 3 day stay, you can maintain you're punk lifestyle, albeit in luxury. (VIDEO)
posted by Leisure_Muffin (70 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I hear the complimentary breakfast includes Country Life butter.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:48 PM on May 30, 2011 [4 favorites]


Sub out the sunken bar and the hipster beer for the White Hen parking lot, and bottles of A&W mixed with cheap tequila, and bongs made of apples, and all the mattresses are bare... Turn the salt-water pool and the hot tub into the frigid Atlantic Ocean, sub the vinyl with copies on 3rd generation cassette and you're getting warmer!
posted by not_on_display at 10:56 PM on May 30, 2011 [4 favorites]


I appreciate the fact that as a nod to diversity the vending machine features Budwiser as well as PBR.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:04 PM on May 30, 2011


Ooof ... dag ... just when you thought punk couldn't get any deader ...
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:04 PM on May 30, 2011 [6 favorites]


That is the least punk thing I have ever seen.
posted by dersins at 11:15 PM on May 30, 2011 [27 favorites]


I'm just glad it isn't in my mom's neighborhood. Then again her HOA is run by a bunch of fascists.
posted by birdherder at 11:22 PM on May 30, 2011


Just don't drink the complimentary tequila. Or anything there, to stay on the safe side.
posted by idiopath at 11:22 PM on May 30, 2011 [6 favorites]


cite
posted by idiopath at 11:23 PM on May 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


i really hate nofx.
posted by rainperimeter at 11:33 PM on May 30, 2011 [3 favorites]


It isn't really a punk house until every couch has been pissed on.
posted by Betty_effn_White at 11:48 PM on May 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


it isn't really a punk house.
posted by rainperimeter at 12:07 AM on May 31, 2011


I envisioned something a little more squatter-friendly...
posted by XhaustedProphet at 12:07 AM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


I love NOFX, but this is stupid. Or maybe that should be "I love NOFX AND this is stupid"? Hard to know.
posted by 1adam12 at 12:16 AM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


So is that $400 for the whole house, or $400 for one of those bunk beds in Fat Mike's doss house?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:22 AM on May 31, 2011


$400 dollars per 3 day stay
God this raises so many questions. For a glorified hostel, out by the old sunset suspirilla factory? Don't people know that Fremont is punk as fuck and has private rooms for 30-50$? Don't they know the only people that will really want to stay there will be sporting tapout, ed hardy, and Affliction duds? Don't they know nofx is about as punk as Ray Romano*?

*every year one of my new year's resolutions is to not bitch about what is or isn't punk, and ever year society conspires against me fulfilling that resolution
posted by Betty_effn_White at 12:32 AM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]




'Punk' has always been partly a fashion statement from the start of the Sex Pistols. But 'punk house' makes me think of that awesome squat I played and the warm, low-rent vibe of milk crates, cheap beer, and anarchist zines. This is bullshit.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 12:41 AM on May 31, 2011


Yes, this is about as punk as a thing that isn't punk at all. However, if you get ten people together, you're looking at thirteen dollars per person per night for a house with a nice-ass pool and a decent-looking kitchen. Plus they allow pets. This works out a hell of a lot better than the possibly-bed-bug infested "luxury cabin" in Gatlinburg I rented with a bunch of my friends last year - pool the size of a largish bathtub, hot tub that never got hot, $60 each per night for eight of us.

I understand why this is so hateful to anyone with any appreciation of music but fuck it, I'd go in a heartbeat.
posted by Wroksie at 1:00 AM on May 31, 2011 [5 favorites]


La la la la la la
posted by klangklangston at 1:05 AM on May 31, 2011 [6 favorites]


This is about as punk as buying into the idea that a look popularised by Vivienne Westwood and a sound created by Malcolm Mclaren is the music of rebellion.
posted by rodgerd at 1:27 AM on May 31, 2011 [11 favorites]


Now, everybody be sure to give the heads-up to any traveling crusties you come across, I'm sure they've got $400 for such accommodation!
posted by autoclavicle at 2:49 AM on May 31, 2011


It's in Las Vegas, so the fact that it's not really "punk" isn't that surprising.
posted by unmake at 4:19 AM on May 31, 2011


By the garish standards of Las Vegas I'd imagine this is very punk. Baby steps for the city, people.
posted by solarion at 4:29 AM on May 31, 2011


uh solarian, Vegas has parts that are a million times more punk than anything i've ever seen.

this isn't even close to one of them.

but i'd still stay there. looks like a fun vacation. though 4 miles from the strip is brutal.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:47 AM on May 31, 2011


meant to include this link with that last admonition
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:47 AM on May 31, 2011


It's not really a punk house. More of a punk B&B.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:48 AM on May 31, 2011 [6 favorites]


I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas once. The whole place appeared to be one giant homage to the rock and roll lifestyle. So, I threw the TV out the window, drove my rental car into the pool, and tried to snort blow off the reception's tits - AND THE FUCKERS CALLED THE COPS ON ME!

I don't have high hopes for Fat Mike®'s Punk House™.
posted by kcds at 5:04 AM on May 31, 2011 [5 favorites]


Given the stark contrast between the relative luxury of the master suite and the relative comfort and privacy of the "couples bedroom" and the cramped quarters of the plain-wood bunk beds (I'm not sure how the people in the middle bunks would even get in), you're looking at the scenario where the band has had some success and there's a shake-out between the Big Star, the Secondary Star (usually the lead guitarist), and Everybody Else.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:43 AM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


He's more punk than me.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 5:50 AM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


....well I think its kinda cool.
posted by ShawnString at 6:01 AM on May 31, 2011


I'm cracking up as much as anyone here. But in all seriousness, I work with and am friends with a whole bunch of guys who are between "grown up" and "middle aged," have jobs, kids, pets, houses, trucks, all that shit, you know, American middle class lifestyle as mediated through a countercultural youth. And every so often in a (serious, professional, etc) meeting someone will drop a Circle Jerks or Black Flag or whatever reference, and a set of us around the table will all make eye contact and grin, and everyone else is all "huh?"

So what's my point? That punk rawk was goddamn formative for a lot of us, but unlike the fucking Beatles© or that Margaritaville© guy or Aerosmith©, it hasn't transitioned well with age. The commodification mostly hasn't worked (I mean, take a look at how dumb the "punk house B&B" looks -- now imagine a Trump "Punk-As-Fuck Hotel," right?), and even though I'm 37 I still have to listen to the college station because that's the only place on the radio that plays music I like. Classic rock is pure old fucker boomer music, and then it skips over to Justin Bieber or whatever. What the fuck?

In other words, I kind of sympathize with the punk hotel guy, because Marshal Mc-whatever and the Sex Pistols aside, no one has managed to commodify this stuff very well, and I imagine that the NOFX guys are looking front and center at retirement with only their declining music royalties, while all those crappy mainstream musicians get all kinds of promotion deals and can open a hotel without being laughed at.

And even though I think this place misses the mark, the reality is that me and the guys I mentioned above are being ignored by the market in many ways (because we don't aggregate to enough money, I guess). We are old farts now and don't want to stay somewhere dirty and dangerous, but Caesars Palace isn't exactly our aesthetic, either. And what could be more punk rock than wanting the aesthetics of your lodging choices to be perfect for your tastes, right?
posted by Forktine at 6:06 AM on May 31, 2011 [15 favorites]


oh crap his bowling shirt says GUTTER PUNKS.

fat mike putting the pun in punk.

can't... roll... eyes... high enough...
posted by entropone at 6:09 AM on May 31, 2011




I admit I'll never quite understand the "punk" ethos, (if there even is one) like listening to punk music means that you have to maintain the mindset of an angry, naively idealistic 19 year old forever. I'm a white suburban guy who listens to tons of rap music, and while I prefer loose-fit pants, I have no illusions that I'm "gangsta", so why do so many people insist on pretending to be Ian McKaye well into their middle-age despite usually being the very kind of "sell-out" they accused everyone else of being right up until their first paycheck?

I admit that my view may be biased; maybe it's a DC thing, but half the older "punks" i run into are same annoying gun-loving "fuck you got mine" conservatives I run into everywhere else, just with more boring stories about how awesome they were 20 years ago.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:19 AM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


I admit I'll never quite understand the "punk" ethos, (if there even is one) like listening to punk music means that you have to maintain the mindset of an angry, naively idealistic 19 year old forever. I'm a white suburban guy who listens to tons of rap music, and while I prefer loose-fit pants, I have no illusions that I'm "gangsta", so why do so many people insist on pretending to be Ian McKaye well into their middle-age despite usually being the very kind of "sell-out" they accused everyone else of being right up until their first paycheck?

Because they're making money off of it.
posted by entropone at 6:31 AM on May 31, 2011


This is about as punk as buying into the idea that a look popularised by Vivienne Westwood and a sound created by Malcolm Mclaren is the music of rebellion.

Wow, I guess you set us all straight! Let me guess- - Clash fan?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:39 AM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


There are two kinds of punks -- people who try to categorize what 'punk' is and people who don't give a fuck.

If the guy wants to call it the punk house, so what? Go resort your vinyl collection.
posted by incessant at 6:44 AM on May 31, 2011 [8 favorites]


I'm 49. At age 14, The Ramones changed my life and I still feel the charge I got from that first wave of punk, but for many, many years, I foolishly bought in to the idea that any art I consumed was required to stem from a "punk ethos". Although I do find this sort of punk marketing silly, enough time has passed that I can now accept that even the punk I knew and loved back in 1977, was largely a marketing exercise. I'm OK with that. I've reached a point in my life where I can listen to Al DiMeola one day, and Bad Brains the next. This "Punk House"? If someone wants to feel edgy staying at some sort of Hot Topic Motel 6, go for it. Cash from chaos.
posted by davebush at 6:55 AM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Bitching about what is or is not punk isn't very punk.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 7:02 AM on May 31, 2011 [4 favorites]


Bitching us the soul of punk.
posted by zippy at 7:22 AM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


I'm pretty much laughing at everyone who says "this isn't punk", because (old fart alert) in my day, punk was pretty much doing/acting like you wanted that made you happy, and not giving a fuck what other people thought. So by so many people saying that this isn't punk, they are being the mainstream, and him doing this is punk. Or something. ;) It is always funny when self proclaimed punks try to set limits on what is or isn't punk. (not fast enough, not angry enough, not vandalizing enough, etc) No different than the ones they are complaining about really.
posted by usagizero at 7:26 AM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


me and the guys I mentioned above are being ignored by the market in many ways

... so we made our own.


Not where I'd want to stay, but if that ain't DIY, nothing is.
posted by benito.strauss at 7:28 AM on May 31, 2011


A cheap holiday in other people's misery.
posted by w0mbat at 7:29 AM on May 31, 2011 [5 favorites]


It isn't really a punk house until every couch has been pissed on.

To compare and contrast, in the city i lived in back in the early 80s, there were two 'punk houses'. The one i lived in, five people, kind of chaotic, but where people came to hang out and party, but nothing got majorly destroyed. The next door VFW hated us with a passion. The other "punk house" was basically destroyed, doors got nailed shut and people got into it by crawling up a tree. They had a 'piss room' because the toilet was broke. Basically less punk and more a cliche. funny how they always came over to hang out at ours, and behaved there, had fun but didn't fuck shit up. We also got more shit for being how we were because we confronted the hate, didn't live up to stereotypes.
posted by usagizero at 7:34 AM on May 31, 2011


/books holiday in Cambodia instead.
posted by Artw at 7:59 AM on May 31, 2011 [4 favorites]


fuck Vegas Imma going to Boreno
posted by The Whelk at 8:11 AM on May 31, 2011


This is about as punk as buying into the idea that a look popularised by Vivienne Westwood and a sound created by Malcolm Mclaren is the music of rebellion.

Malcolm McLaren created Johnny Ramone, Greg Ginn, East Bay Ray, Ian MacKaye, Bob Mould, and Dr. Know?
posted by blucevalo at 8:22 AM on May 31, 2011


Fat Mike has long-standing interest in hospitality. I live literally around the corner from Thistle Hill Tavern, his restaurant. It's not bad, although it's a bit overpriced.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:22 AM on May 31, 2011


So what do you do if you grew up with punk rock, listening to it, going to gigs, perhaps playing in a band, and have managed to survive to middle age and acquire a professional career and a comfortably bourgeois middle-class lifestyle with that? Torch your comfortable home Tyler Durden-style and spend the rest of your life freight train hopping and dumpster diving in the name of authenticity? Give up the hypocrisy of liking Black Flag and, like a honest traitor to the cause, start listening to Coldplay or Pat Metheny or something equally appropriate for members of your socioeconomic class, reconditioning yourself to not despise your adoptive culture? Or recognise that the real world is complex, and, while punk belonged to your younger self, and to an extent still belongs to you, punk-as-it-was-back-then is history, and punk-as-it-is-now belongs more to others?
posted by acb at 8:25 AM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Sticherbeast: "Fat Mike has long-standing interest in hospitality."

Yeah he is very generous with his urine filled booze.
posted by idiopath at 8:31 AM on May 31, 2011


Forktine: Marshal Mc-whatever and the Sex Pistols aside, no one has managed to commodify this stuff very well

Well, that depends on whether you allow someone to define themselves as punk when others would classify them as punk pop, or posers or whatever. Green Day has certainly done well for themselves, and hell, even Avril Lavigne called herself punk (although no one else really did) when she was younger.

blucevalo: Malcolm McLaren created Johnny Ramone, Greg Ginn, East Bay Ray, Ian MacKaye, Bob Mould, and Dr. Know?

Well, no, he didn't. The Ramones predate the Sex Pistols, and hardcore punk owes more to them than it does to the Pistols. McLaren turned to punk style after earlier failed attempts to market clothes and stage costumes to the Teddy Boys and the New York Dolls (who were also an early influence on punk rock, basically being the bridge between glitter and punk), and borrowed much of the punk look from Richard Hell.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:11 AM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Bitching about what is or is not punk isn't very punk.

My impression was nearly the exact opposite.
posted by neuromodulator at 9:46 AM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


I fucking love NOFX, but I have to agree this is stupid. Besides deciding what's" punk" or not, $400 for three nights is fucking outrageous (....and not very punk).
Punk houses that I've seen or flop houses generally just have people roaming in and out while offering a plethora of drugs.
posted by handbanana at 10:03 AM on May 31, 2011


Besides, I heard they suck live
posted by handbanana at 10:05 AM on May 31, 2011


They've actually gotten worse live.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 10:11 AM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'm sorry, what were you saying? I was distracted by the blonde hooker in a leather bikini and boots that just happens to be stumbling by in the background at :43 - thus proving it IS a punk house, Virginia!
posted by Muddler at 10:29 AM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Hmm let's make it a punk house shall we. I'll try to get us started, I'm not totally sure this is all correct but that's what crowd-sourcing is for, right?

Unremarkable house in the inner-ring suburbs, 3 bedrooms 2 baths (I see they got that right: it's gotta be just big enough that it makes you question your authenticity) but they're all pretty small rooms. No fucking bunk beds, there are sofas, an incredibly rank bean bag, plus a closet full of cushions so up to 12 people can crash there at night. One of the beds is really nice though. There will be a minimum of 6 people staying at any given time so you are guaranteed to have to negotiate sleeping arrangements. Amenities: basic cable with one soft-porn channel that is overlaid with massive static; Super Nintendo; refrigerator stocked with a maximum of 2 1/2 beers chosen entirely at random, Pace picante sauce and a block of cheddar cheese (overage is speedily devoured by hotel staff, who just wander in and out of the house like who the fuck are these dudes); a basketball hoop on the garage, but if you're sighted actually throwing the basketball into the hoop they kick you out of the house immediately. (You're allowed to miss.) Wall-to-wall carpeting. Water heater is only capable of supplying hot water to one shower at a time. The one next-door neighbor, who is part of the hotel setup, fucking blasts Selena for 3 hours straight starting at 4 p.m. weekdays, occasionally works with power tools on weekend mornings, and has a mean dog. The other next-door neighbor reports you for noise violations 10% of the time whether you have been making noise or not. A continental breakfast is available 15 blocks away at a shopping center where there's a CVS, a Dollar Tree, a local hair salon, and an IHOP where you actually get the food.
posted by furiousthought at 10:36 AM on May 31, 2011 [11 favorites]


If there is toilet paper, it's not a punk house.
posted by padraigin at 10:41 AM on May 31, 2011


Well, no, he didn't. The Ramones predate the Sex Pistols, and hardcore punk owes more to them than it does to the Pistols. McLaren turned to punk style after earlier failed attempts to market clothes and stage costumes to the Teddy Boys and the New York Dolls (who were also an early influence on punk rock, basically being the bridge between glitter and punk), and borrowed much of the punk look from Richard Hell.

Exactly. And let's not forget that the term 'Punk' was coined by John Holmstrom for Punk Magazine

Mclaren was just commodifying a breaking trend, not inventing one.

I've always found most of the Fat Wreck bands kind of insufferable (with the notable exception of the Fat Mike's own Me First And The Gimme Gimme's). However, given that Fat Mike has devoted most of his life to punk, he has a hell of a lot more credibility on what punk is and isn't that anybody here including myself.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:00 AM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


Oh, and the bowling shirt is for his team at the annual Punk Rock Bowling festival. Which you would know if you gave a crap about modern punk rock at all.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:02 AM on May 31, 2011


Punk House sounds like a musical genre that should have been strangled at birth.
posted by Decani at 12:03 PM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


a look popularised by Vivienne Westwood and a sound created by Malcolm Mclaren

Hey rogerd, Joey Ramone, Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, David Johansen, Stiv Bators, Iggy Pop, Wayne Kramer, Fred Smith, and a host of others would like to have a few words with you in the back room. Look us up when you get out of traction.
posted by dersins at 1:52 PM on May 31, 2011


I think what this place needs is an accompanying Reality Show, full of the same drama-prone personalities.

And every week, Jello Biafra gets to deliver a sneering diatribe to the contestants, and boots them all off the show.
posted by not_on_display at 2:06 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


I fucking love NOFX, but I have to agree this is stupid. Besides deciding what's" punk" or not, $400 for three nights is fucking outrageous (....and not very punk).

I live in a resort town, and $400 for 3 nights in a B&B is cheap. You can get vacation rentals here, too, which run about the same or more as the punk house.

But, yeah, not sure what the point is. I still listen to punk myself but gave up long ago trying to fit in with some subculture (never liked skate punk like NOFX much, however). I guess this is how you get to feel punk if you're middle aged with a career and need to scratch that itch. Not sure why it's necessary. When you get to a certain age you might discover that the trappings of punk or some other scene aren't important anymore, even though the music can still resonate.

I dunno, but my times in Vegas were a hell of a lot more fun doing the casino hotel deal and taking advantage of all the perks, including free drinks. The aesthetic was overdone, but it's Vegas, so if that's a problem you might as well not go in the first place. I always considered myself a freak, which means I have no aesthetic but don't fit in well in suburbia, and this feels like suburbia to me ... I think it would be more fun to find a real punk house where nobody's totally sure who officially lives there, but at any time there are maybe a dozen people hanging out, listening to music, drinking and etc.
posted by krinklyfig at 2:48 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


And every week, Jello Biafra gets to deliver a sneering diatribe to the contestants, and boots them all off the show.

I would watch that, as long as they didn't bleep him and left his scorching words unedited.
posted by krinklyfig at 2:51 PM on May 31, 2011


surely this is just Fat Mike's fledgling attempt at establishing Mattersville?


and at the end of my cul-de-sac, Davey Havoc's house is painted black...
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:30 PM on May 31, 2011


I continue to find many applications of "the boiling frog story," even if as a metaphor:

The boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.[1] According to contemporary biologists the premise of the story is not literally true; a frog submerged and gradually heated will jump out.[2][3] However, some 19th century research experiments suggested that the underlying premise is true, provided the frog is brainless or the heating is gradual enough.[4][5]
posted by wallstreet1929 at 5:52 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wow, I guess you set us all straight! Let me guess- - Clash fan?

No, more Dead Kennedys from around that era. Although the punk I've been listening too most recently is Les Vielles Salopes.

Look us up when you get out of traction.

Oooh, Internet Tough Guy By Proxy. That's a new one on me.
posted by rodgerd at 3:12 AM on June 1, 2011


(Also, no "Let's Lynch the Landlord" jokes? Metafilter, I am Dissapoint.)
posted by rodgerd at 3:29 AM on June 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Punk House sounds like a musical genre that should have been strangled at birth.

Wouldn't The Rapture and/or LCD Soundsystem be classifiable as "punk house"? They are in my iTunes collection.
posted by acb at 4:23 AM on June 1, 2011


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