NOFX: Three Chords and Inappropriate Jokes
June 1, 2018 9:38 AM Subscribe
The band NOFX has a reputation for dark and often confrontational humor. Now the LA based punk rock band has come under fire for making fun of the victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting.
NOFX and Fat Mike issued an official apology via twitter.
Naturally in this day and age of social media, the band suffered immediate consequences.
Stone Brewing, major sponsor of the Punk in Drublic Festival and brewer of the same named beer, dropped their sponsorship.
They have announced all proceeds from the Punk in Druplic beer will be funneled to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation that provides trauma counseling to first responders.
(Stone got hit themselves for inappropriate jokes earlier this year with their own apology coming from founder Greg Koch.)
We played a song about Muslims and we didn’t get shot,” Fat Mike said. Another band member then chimed in, “I guess you only get shot in Vegas if you are in a county band” and the frontman replied, “You know, that [shooting] sucked, but at least they were country fans and not punk rock fans.”(source)
NOFX and Fat Mike issued an official apology via twitter.
Naturally in this day and age of social media, the band suffered immediate consequences.
Stone Brewing, major sponsor of the Punk in Drublic Festival and brewer of the same named beer, dropped their sponsorship.
They have announced all proceeds from the Punk in Druplic beer will be funneled to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation that provides trauma counseling to first responders.
(Stone got hit themselves for inappropriate jokes earlier this year with their own apology coming from founder Greg Koch.)
Absolutely tasteless. Certainly makes me look at Heavy Petting Zoo with new eyes.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:53 AM on June 1, 2018
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:53 AM on June 1, 2018
A punk band? Offensive you say?
Well I never.
posted by GuyZero at 10:01 AM on June 1, 2018 [13 favorites]
Well I never.
posted by GuyZero at 10:01 AM on June 1, 2018 [13 favorites]
We all hate each other so much. In the words of a cartoonist I forget: it is difficult to be alive.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:02 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 10:02 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
I heard they suck at life.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:18 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Sys Rq at 10:18 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
NOFX? A punk band you say?
Well I never...
really thought of them as punk.
Just always kinda lame.
The kind of band that people who liked Gun's N Roses would like, and get to feel all dangerous n shit.
I stand by my original impression.
posted by evilDoug at 10:30 AM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Well I never...
really thought of them as punk.
Just always kinda lame.
The kind of band that people who liked Gun's N Roses would like, and get to feel all dangerous n shit.
I stand by my original impression.
posted by evilDoug at 10:30 AM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Your druncle’s favorite band sucks.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 10:44 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Barack Spinoza at 10:44 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
A punk band? Offensive you say?
Well I never.
I mean sure.. but there's still a difference in being offensive by punching up instead of kicking down, no? The former seems to be more in line with what I'd associate the "punk ethos" ideally.
posted by bigendian at 10:47 AM on June 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
Well I never.
I mean sure.. but there's still a difference in being offensive by punching up instead of kicking down, no? The former seems to be more in line with what I'd associate the "punk ethos" ideally.
posted by bigendian at 10:47 AM on June 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
i saw them in 1992 and before the show Fat Mike was walking around the crowd shaking hands and posing for pictures. My friend said, "How funny would it be if I kicked Fat Mike in the balls?"
"That would be punk rock," I said, giving the idea the highest praise. My friend thought about it, but did not follow through with his brilliant idea.
posted by peeedro at 11:05 AM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
"That would be punk rock," I said, giving the idea the highest praise. My friend thought about it, but did not follow through with his brilliant idea.
posted by peeedro at 11:05 AM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Read their autobiography. They're pretty clear that they're all a bunch of fuckups.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:07 AM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by lumpenprole at 11:07 AM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I met them after a show when I was sixteen and they were unfriendly dicks. As someone who also deals with teenagers in a public context now it seems even more unnecessary to me and nothing dickish i have ever heard about them since has surprised me.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:09 AM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:09 AM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
I feel like this is kind of a thing with all of the old punk rockers who occasionally ping the cultural radar these days. Back when punk rock was understood as a radical stance against bland Brady Bunch-era conformism, you could contextualize some of the nihilistic shock aspects of the culture as a kind of frustrated, rough-edged idealism. But nowadays a lot of it just comes across as aimless edgy posing and misplaced hostility coming from guys who never quite got over their adolescent alienation.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:13 AM on June 1, 2018 [25 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:13 AM on June 1, 2018 [25 favorites]
Put it on a plate son, you'll enjoy it more.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:38 AM on June 1, 2018 [11 favorites]
posted by humboldt32 at 11:38 AM on June 1, 2018 [11 favorites]
“This is no light, corporate, tasteless beer for drinking on the beach. We’re still Stone. And punk is not dead yet.”
Yeah, nothing says “punks not dead” like a NOFX craft beer with its own hashtag and music festival.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:05 PM on June 1, 2018 [14 favorites]
Yeah, nothing says “punks not dead” like a NOFX craft beer with its own hashtag and music festival.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:05 PM on June 1, 2018 [14 favorites]
The kids are alright.
These old farts, on the other hand...
posted by chavenet at 12:17 PM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
These old farts, on the other hand...
posted by chavenet at 12:17 PM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Decline is a pretty damn good song that holds up well across the years despite how much of a bunch of tightly-kerned-clicks they are.
posted by nikaspark at 12:36 PM on June 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by nikaspark at 12:36 PM on June 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
"But nowadays a lot of it just comes across as aimless edgy posing and misplaced hostility coming from guys who never quite got over their adolescent alienation"
I always felt like this is why so many adolescent punks "grew out" of punk rock. Punk can be a tremendously eye-opening experience for an adolescent that can lead to so much more interesting stuff (and not just in music), but it's kind of one of those things where you have to branch off at some point or it just becomes a dead end.
I remember reading something in the 90s criticizing the Lemonheads because they started out as a hardcore band and moved toward more pop stuff. Not that they were earth-shattering or anything, but I can listen to the Lemonheads 25 years later and it's still enjoyable, whereas a lot of the punk stuff from that time (especially the NOFX nihilistic toilet humor stuff) seems really dated. I mean, hell, even Blink-182 ended up expanding sonically toward the end of their original incarnation.
I don't want to say punk is a phase, but I'm not sure that the NOFX space is somewhere people are really supposed to stay.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:41 PM on June 1, 2018 [9 favorites]
I always felt like this is why so many adolescent punks "grew out" of punk rock. Punk can be a tremendously eye-opening experience for an adolescent that can lead to so much more interesting stuff (and not just in music), but it's kind of one of those things where you have to branch off at some point or it just becomes a dead end.
I remember reading something in the 90s criticizing the Lemonheads because they started out as a hardcore band and moved toward more pop stuff. Not that they were earth-shattering or anything, but I can listen to the Lemonheads 25 years later and it's still enjoyable, whereas a lot of the punk stuff from that time (especially the NOFX nihilistic toilet humor stuff) seems really dated. I mean, hell, even Blink-182 ended up expanding sonically toward the end of their original incarnation.
I don't want to say punk is a phase, but I'm not sure that the NOFX space is somewhere people are really supposed to stay.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:41 PM on June 1, 2018 [9 favorites]
> nikaspark:
"The Decline is a pretty damn good song that holds up well across the years despite how much of a bunch of tightly-kerned-clicks they are."
Oh, oh, I LIKE that one. Tightly-kerned-clicks. DIBS!
posted by Samizdata at 12:54 PM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
"The Decline is a pretty damn good song that holds up well across the years despite how much of a bunch of tightly-kerned-clicks they are."
Oh, oh, I LIKE that one. Tightly-kerned-clicks. DIBS!
posted by Samizdata at 12:54 PM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Naturally in this day and age of social media, the band suffered immediate consequences.
And they said it in Vegas, where people in the crowd knew victims of the attack they joked about. Also, the shooter originally planned on wiping out downtown during the Life Is Beautiful festival in September, where fans of these bands would have been the victims. Electric Daisy and Punk Rock Bowling weren't deliberately spared, they were just lucky.
posted by Brian B. at 12:55 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
And they said it in Vegas, where people in the crowd knew victims of the attack they joked about. Also, the shooter originally planned on wiping out downtown during the Life Is Beautiful festival in September, where fans of these bands would have been the victims. Electric Daisy and Punk Rock Bowling weren't deliberately spared, they were just lucky.
posted by Brian B. at 12:55 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
They didn't only lose their sponsorship, they got kicked out of their own festival -- which goes on with uncontroversial craft-beer-friendly acts like Jello Biafra.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:09 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:09 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Ugh, yeah. We saw Punk in Drublic in Tacoma last year. Bad Religion was awesome. NOFX was shitty. They wouldn't play, just kept chatting, and did not have their shit together. Then they spotted a black fan in the audience and talked about it in jokey racist terms for a full six minutes. Mexican jokes came up too. It was pretty uncomfortable, so we left. Some guys never do grow up at all.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 7:40 PM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 7:40 PM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yeah this is definitely one of those bands I'm embarassed I had a phase with as a teenager, like Sublime.
posted by cj_ at 9:04 PM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by cj_ at 9:04 PM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
The only shocking thing to me in this is that Stone or anyone is stunned by NOFX or Fat Mike doing something stupid or outrageous. This is a guy who pulled a fake "I peed in tequila and gave it to fans who didn't know" prank. Being upset at them saying something shocking sounds like the line about "I didn't think the leopards would eat my says, says person who voted for leopards eating faces party."
Not shocking: metafilter rushing to claim a genre of music is bad, and its fans either children or having not grown up.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:22 PM on June 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Not shocking: metafilter rushing to claim a genre of music is bad, and its fans either children or having not grown up.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:22 PM on June 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
What? I love punk and hardcore, and it seems like most of the people in this thread do too. We (or at least I) just hate NOFX, and I personally think it’s dumb that there’s a craft-beer-sponsored festival with tasting flights and stuff. It doesn’t seem more punk because Jello Biafra is involved, it just makes me think he sold out. And I definitely know too many punks who never got over themselves and have remained really annoying to be around; Fat Mike is like their mascot.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:27 PM on June 2, 2018
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:27 PM on June 2, 2018
Well, they just released an apology and it's.... ...well it seems pretty sincere. No dodging the issue, no blaming anything but themselves. I can't find a direct link, but here's an article about it.
posted by lumpenprole at 5:22 PM on June 3, 2018
posted by lumpenprole at 5:22 PM on June 3, 2018
Can I still like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes?
posted by AJaffe at 5:32 PM on June 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by AJaffe at 5:32 PM on June 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
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