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This band Bio is taken straight off the NOFX official website so thanks to the guys there, and it covers many pages, so here we go
Band History, By Fat MikeHere's a great idea, let's get the guy in the band who smokes the most pot to write a band history. That's me. The guy who couldn't remember what was said five minutes ago if his life depended on it. You try and write down the last 16 years of your life and make it seem relevant.
First Practice 1983Here's what I do remember. I was sitting with a kid named Dillon in our usual spot with the other punkers during lunchtime at Fairfax high school. He was a drummer, and we were dissatisfied with the bands we were in. My band consisted of me and my one and only Punk Rock friend both playing guitar and singing and that was it. Neither one of us had finished any songs. Not quite a recipe for success.So I sez to my friend, let's start a band. A real band, a band that does stuff. A band that writes songs, practices, puts out records, and goes on tour. We talked about who else we wanted in this band. We knew lots of good people from going to punk gigs around LA. He knew a Bass player named Mike who used to be in a band called False Alarm. We both knew a guy named Steve from Orange County who we agreed would make a great front man. We made some calls and arranged to meet and have a first practice. That's when I first met Mike. Mike was a huge Misfits fan. He looked like a Misfits fan. His hair was long in front and it was all hairsprayed together to a point down the middle of his face in what was called a "Devilock". Mike had some songs for us to play. I had written a song called "Take Part". It sounded an awful lot like Minor Threat's version of the Monkees' Stepping Stone. Steve didn't go to that first practice, he couldn't get a ride up from Orange county. After that first practice Dillon quit and Mike called up Erik. Mike and Erik had met a couple of years earlier while skateboarding around Hollywood. Erik liked Mike's Black Flag skateboard. It was Punk. Mike had asked Erik to join False Alarm back then, but Erik's mom wouldn't let him do it 'cuz he had no driver's license yet. Later on, when we asked him to play drums with us he was in a band called Caustic Cause. Erik joined us but his other band would have to have priority. We were supposed to be a 4-piece but practiced as a 3-piece, Steve hadn't made it to one practice yet. |
The NameMike and I use to hang out at his house and listen to all of his punk rock records. We tried to come up with good band names. I said No FX after a band who had put out one record and broken up called Negative FX. Mike agreed that it was the best one so far. There seemed to be a lot of gimmicky bands around at the time. We like to think that our name meant we were against that shit. In 1983 three of the four members were into the straight edge movement following Minor Threat's first single, but we were never a straight edge band, OK?
First GigThere was a club on Selma and Argyle in Hollywood called Cathay de Grande. Some of the bands we would go see there were D.R.I., the Stains, Reagan Youth, Minor Threat, Black Flag before Henry, the Bangs who later became the Bangles, and Social Distortion. On Tuesday nights new bands would play and it was one dollar to get in. Some friends of ours from Pomona had a band called Justice League. They were having their first gig one Tuesday and we asked them if we could use their gear and play after them. We were all there, except for Steve. We played all 4 songs we knew. For years after, those Justice League kids swore that was our best show ever. When Steve found out that we had played without him, he quit the band that he was never really in. So we were a 3-piece. Mike and I were going to trade off singing, but I could barely even play guitar, let alone sing at the same time, and that's how Mike became our singer.
First DemoIt was time to record our songs and put out a tape. By some freak act of destiny, Don Bolles, of Germs fame said he would produce our demo for us if we filled up his car with gas. We made flyers advertising our Demo release and placed an ad in Flipside to send your own cassette and a self addressed stamped envelope and we would copy it for you and send it back.
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