Even as NOFX kicked off their tour in October last year, the path was already set, the band simply hadn't had the time to start walking it. The songs for a new album were written and ready to go, it was just a matter of squaring away a little bit of time to sit down and get the job done; but that doesn't mean that singer “Fat” Mike Burkett wouldn't talk about what his band had in the pipe for their forthcoming release. “I don’t think there’s really a theme for these songs I've got for the next album,” said Burkett when conversation turned to the music that would eventually appear on the then-untitled forthcoming album. “It should be out, well, probably in May.”
Things must have gone smoother than expected in the studio because, next month, NOFX will be offering all of their hard-drinking fans a Coaster on which to set their drinks – or to repeat on their CD players as they choose.
On April 28, NOFX' twelfth full-length record, cheekily entitled Coaster (the vinyl release of the album will be called Frisbee), will be unleashed on a salivating public. To titillate their fans, the band released the first single from the album, “The Quitter,” for free download via their web site on March 27. Produced by punk rock institution Bill Stevenson (Black Flag, Descendents, ALL, Only Crime) at The Blasting Room, the album features twelve all-new slabs of the vitriolic sarcasm that fans have come to expect from a band that would write songs with titles like "Blasphemy (The Victimless Crime)," "Best God in Show" and "The Agony of Victory," all delivered in the trademark punk onslaught that one the band their fan base. So what can those fans expect this time out? “I kind of went for religious people more than I normally do, but I’m doing a lot of that on this one too,” explains the singer offhandedly, but with an all-too-familiar sinister glimmer. “Basically, I just come up with a bunch of song titles and that’s how I start writing songs, because of that, you never know what it’s going to be about, but you know, it’ll be a lot of the same shit I always sing about. I wrote a song called “My Orphan Year” which is about my parents dying. They died about two years ago and they both died in the same year. That’s a pretty weird song, and then there's “The Quitter” which we've already put into the set lists.”
Before the album drops, NOFX will hit the road in support of Coaster beginning on April 3rd in the United Kingdom and Europe before joining the Warped Tour this year for a series of dates this summer. In addition, Fat Mike has hinted that there will be another very special release on tap for this year: a vinyl-only release. “We’re putting out is a ten-song ten-inch of ten cover songs of old hardcore bands,” says Burkett. “They’re all from the US and that’s all kind of what we grew up on. That’s already recorded and mostly they’re bands that no one ever heard of and most of their records never made it to CD. It’s pretty obscure – a couple of the bigger bands would be The Necros and Social Unrest and Stretch Marks. We’re just going to put it out and we’re not going to put any information on it; no credits, no song titles, no nothing – just a blank disc – so if you don’t know who it is, you won’t know who it is.
“That will come later though – I'm not sure exactly when.”
Coaster Track List:
1."We Called It America"
2."The Quitter"
2."First Call"
3."My Orphan Year"
4."Blasphemy (The Victimless Crime)"
5."Creeping Out Sara"
6."Eddie, Bruce and Paul"
7."Best God in Show"
8."Suits and Ladders"
9. "The Agony of Victory"
11."I Am an Alcoholic"
12."One Million Coasters"
Artist:
NOFX online
NOFX myspace
Album:
Coaster will be released on April 28, 2009. Pre-order your copy now on Fat Wreck Chords' website or on Amazon.
Download:
NOFX – “The Quitter” [mp3]
