Music Review: NOFX CD criticizes American ignorance

Published: Monday, May 19, 2003

Although notorious for tongue-in-cheek songs about lesbians and drugs, NOFX have rounded the corner of a touchstone career move with their politically-throttling album, The War on Errorism.

Despite being aging punk veterans - a status that indicates dying one's hair pink to hide the gray - Fat Mike, Melvin, El Hefe and Smelly's newest release brings a healthy dose of volatile political science to the mosh pit.

Errorism, the group's newest material since 2000, is a healthy departure from its immature and uninspired predecessor, Pump Up the Valuum, which appeared to be nothing more than vulgar cliché bait-on-hook used to attract the newest schools of prepubescent skate punks who think punk rock's motto should be the atavistic cry of "Kill, Smash, Grrr!" Errorism is punk rock for adults, more akin to The Decline - a disgruntled testament of genuine concern relaying NOFX's anxiety for American hegemony and social neglect.

While the songs are full of middle-aged head banging and criticizing plutocratic ideals, a fair number of the tracks also treat punk rock as a kingdom overthrown by stupidity and shallow dreams.

The Decline was incredibly confrontational, but below the surface it said something more - punk rock's anger can be channeled into a worthy cause, that of recovering America's prestige. Rather than being consumed by nihilism and apathy as Fat Mike says in "Franco Un-American," "I don't want to be another I don't care-ican," the scene should represent the hatred of aristocracy and the desire for reconstructive improvements, not just the desire to scream, annihilate, bleed, vomit and pierce.

These ideas continue on the three-page rant that accompanies the CD. The band writes, "WE ARE THE ONES calling attention to the faults of our government and trying to fix them," and "WE ARE THE ONES trying to educate people." These sentiments are elaborated with surprising social consciousness and optimism, creating a new social manifesto for punk rock.

The War on Errorism rivals the quality of So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes, however the B-side is not nearly as strong.

"The Separation of Church and Skate" highlights the band's concern with the neutralization of punk rock, posing the question, "When did punk rock become so safe, when did the scene become a joke?"

"Franco Un-American," possibly the best track on the album, addresses the narrow American dictum that "what lies outside of America is not of our concern," and proposes that American happiness relies on a blindness that should be violently shattered.

The incorporation of saxophones, drum kits, amphetamine riffs and even a kazoo makes the songs enjoyable even without explicit societal despair. The War on Errorism is a fairly elitist effort and the reactionary ideas expressed here will most likely fly right over the heads of the vast majority of their listeners.

It's ironic that an album so focused on the dissolution of ignorance will remain unintelligible to the uninformed and disinterested teenagers who buy NOFX only to annoy their parents.

NOFX is doing its job, but will anybody listen?