NOFX

by Dan Weiss • May 5, 2009

NOFX
Coaster
(Fat Wreck Chords, 2009)

2009. The number. Another summer. Sound of... well, in 1989, it was the funky drummer. In 1999, it was Y2K hype. Remember? Web URLs as album titles (www.thug.com is a favorite), Will Smith sampling the Clash for not-quite-a-smash "Will 2K" (on an album called Willennium no less). And in 2009, the decade-shedding skin du jour is, with the release of NOFX's Coaster, mocking the end of the music industry. One of their meanest jokes yet, the band points out their own commodity's uselessness by calling their new album a coaster before I can, and showing how well it complements a scotch on the cover, with the disc itself dressed like the titular drink holder. The vinyl one's called Frisbee. And in the climactic song here, "One Million Coasters" ("One Million Frisbees" on vinyl I assume?), Fat Mike suggests they'd make great "guardrail reflectors" and "Christmas ornaments." So long, labels.

And it's easy to believe their humorous disdain, because they play like they couldn't care less. They play punk-pop that went out of style three waves ago; Green Day's trying to replicate the Who now, but everyone else is wearing eyeliner. Actually, Green Day are too. NOFX is still about beer, lesbians, speed; essentially Beavis and Buttheadrock, without much of an angle this time. Having ousted Bush and the Republicans after a heavy few years of protest-rock and MoveOn.org benefit paraphernalia, mostly bored with ska (though they still indulge from time to time, not that that's hip either), they settle for one jazz-inflected bouncer ("I Am an Alcoholic") and scaleback even the metal-ish shredding of last round's Wolves in Wolves' Clothing.

To read the rest of the review, hop on over to Crawdaddy! Magazine.