"Somewhere in
Texas there is a village without its idiot" --
The runout groove of The War on Errorism [1]
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| Nothing like some good old fashioned Dubya Punk! |
Before
anyone skins me alive, I just want to say that I'm not going
to be tearing this album apart as something bad. Quite
the opposite, actually. I think this is actually a really great, if
somewhat lesser known album. After all, when people think of angry
punk albums from the Bush Jr years, the one that first comes to mind
is Green Day's punk opera American Idiot. But The
War on Errorism is a fantastic album too.
For
those of you who don't know, NOFX are a punk band who formed in the
San Francisco area in 1983, and are lead by bassist and singer Fat
Mike. Unlike a lot of punk bands at the time, NOFX mostly formed
their identity by doing humorous songs like “Liza and Louise” and
“Shower Days”. There were a few political songs on NOFX's past
albums, like “Perfect Government” and “The Black and White”
as well, but they were never the focus of an entire album.
Part
of why I'm going to be reviewing this isn't just because of the
quality of the music and lyrics, but politics. Really, I can't think
of a timelier album review than The War on
Errorism considering current events. Even though this
album is definitely about the Dubya years, a lot of it is still
surprisingly relevant to the present. In fact, this album was
responsible for getting me through the 2016 horror election
cycle, and will evidently be getting me past the next four years.
Even
though this album is far more focused on politics than
anything NOFX released before it, their humorous side isn't
totally lost. Even the album title is a pun on Bush's “War on
Terrorism” that followed 9/11. Songs like "She's Nubs"
or "Anarchy Camp" still hit that funny spot. But for the
most part, the observational part of humor is typically redirected to
make something far more profound.
Let's
begin this (positive) review...
Track
1: Separation of Church and Skate
The
track begins with a father and his two small children trying to
figure out what to do:
“Hey, kids!”
“Hey, Dad!”
“Well, what do you want to do today?”
“We don't know!”
“Do you want to go to the matinée?”
“No.”
“Do you want to go to the amusement park?”
“No!”
“Do you want to go to the punk rock show?”
“Yeah! Let's go to the punk rock show!”
The
track leads into a fast guitar riff which sounds like something The
Dead Kennedys would have played.
The
song itself is about how the hardcore punk scene was so watered down
by all the pop punk bands in the early 2000s. It's apparently gotten
so bad that punk shows have really just turned into bubble-wrapped
little kid stuff:
Why don't we put pads on the kids, helmets, head gear and mouth pieces
Then we could pad the floors and walls, (put cameras inside bathroom stalls)
We make sure only nice bands play, (make every show a matinée)
In
short, this is a really great album opener. It sets the mood of this
album perfectly, and the energy gets you excited to listen to the
next track.
Track
2: The Irrationality of Rationality
Like
the first track, this album is also really energetic. It starts with
the bass riff for a few measures before the guitars and drums come in
at full force. It's everything a great punk song should be.
The
first section of the song is actually a great commentary about how
atrocities are justified by the people in power. The first is about a
CEO named Frank who commits terrible atrocities for the sake of the
almighty dollar and appeasing shareholders. He exploits thousands of
people just to make a buck off them. And let's just say that Fat Mike
isn't really a fan:
When one makes twenty million, and ten thousand people lose
What keeps that one from swallowing a shotgun?
It's
kind of surprising to see this line coming from the same guy who made
a song about lesbians
having kinky sex 11 years earlier.
The
second section of the song follows a guy named Dan, who commits
atrocities not because of some quest for the almighty dollar, but
because he needed to support his family. In short, doing
the wrong thing for the right reasons.
'Cause Danny had a mortgage, and a boss to answer to
The guilty don't feel guilty, they learn not to
Even
though this section of the song is clearly about the
Military-Industrial Complex, it brought to my mind something
different: the big banks' questionably ethical activities before the
2008 crash. Morality was never a concern for the big banks to begin
with, just supporting themselves and keeping stock holders happy. The
line “the guilty don't feel guilty, they learn not to” has
stuck with me ever since I heard this song as an explanation to those
banks' apparent lack of remorse.
The
song takes a brief break after this section before jumping into the
third section. Helen is a mother who doesn't have a house or a job,
so she's trying to get by via any means possible.
It's hard to think clearly when it's 38 degrees
Desperate people have been known to render desperate deeds
Eventually,
something inside her snaps, and she kills an entire family just so
she and her children can have a home. Just like Frank and Dan, she
also commits an atrocity. Yes, her children do need
a home, but the way she got it was awful. The newspapers,
having no knowledge of all the factors which led to her predicament,
pin it all on “Dementia.”
For
a two and a half minute punk song, there sure is a lot to digest
here. It's kind of a common theme with this album, actually.
Track
3: Franco Un-American
This
song is a bit of a change in pace. Instead of another guitar-driven
track, which may have gotten monotonous, the main piece of this is
driven by a synthesizer. This is also the only track on the album to
be given a music video.
The
song itself is actually about how Fat Mike was driven to care about
politics. Like I said, NOFX aren't a very political band, but were
driven into it because Fat Mike considered Bush to be “the most
ridiculous president in the history of presidents.” [2] So, you
know, he had an opinion about the guy.
Like
Fat Mike before the making of this album, Franco Un-American is a
character who starts off having little interest in effecting change
or getting into politics:
I don't want changes, I have no reactions
Your dilemmas are my distractions
But as the song wears on, Franco begins to become more aware off all the things around him that have gone wrong while name-dropping a bunch of people I keep meaning to looking into:
I never looked around, never second-guessed
Then I read some Howard Zinn now I'm always depressed
And now I can't sleep from years of apathy
All because I read a little Noam Chomsky
The
more the song progresses, the more Franco begins to question his
predicament, Noam Chomsky aside. He realizes he's eating
terrible food, wearing uncomfortable shoes, and begins to
change his ways:
I'm eating vegetation 'cause of Fast Food Nation
I'm wearing uncomfortable shoes 'cause of globalization
By
the end, this song even goes for the if-he-wins-I'm-moving-to-Canada
threat that seems to pop up every four years:
I want to move north and be a Canadian
Or hang down low with the nice Australians
This
caricature is made very well.
Really,
though, this song is about anyone who felt themselves getting pulled
into politics last year. Before 2016, I didn't even know I had strong
opinions about politics, but evidently I do.
Track
4: The Idiots are Taking Over
As
much as I'd like to avoid current politics in this blog, there's
really no escaping it this time. Especially considering how
inherently political The War on Errorism is.
This
song really encapsulates everything wrong with the last couple years
of politics, and the title of the song has a really simple
explanation why:
There's
more stupid people running around!
Lines
like "the world keeps getting dumber/ Insensitivity is
standard and faith is being fancied over reason" honestly
apply to either extreme of the political spectrum today. Neither side
wants to logically look at the data (reason) to reach conclusions,
they would rather rely on their feelings (faith) to determine policy.
And both sides demonize and antagonize the other (insensitivity).
And
considering all the protests over the new president
post-inauguration, the line “now angry mob mentality's no longer
the exception, it's the rule” rings very relevant.
When
the song finally slows down around the middle, more nuggets of wisdom
are dispensed:
There's no point for democracy when ignorance is celebrated
Political scientists get the same one vote as some Arkansas inbred
Majority rule, don't work in mental institutions
Sometimes the smallest softest voice carries the grand biggest solutions
That
last line is especially important. It's all to easy for the soft
voices in politics to be lost in the crowd.
But
don't worry, NOFX doesn't keep the serious mood for long...
Track
5: She's Nubs
What
are nubs?
True
to every NOFX album before it, The War on Errorism has
its share of gag songs. This one is about a girl who keeps showing up
to NOFX shows. She parties, has a great time, and the band
always enjoys seeing her in the audience. She's just like
any other girl with one crucial detail: she has no arms or legs!
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| 'Tis a flesh wound! |
The
song is mostly written speculating about how she can live her life.
The longer is goes on, the more absurd it gets. Honestly, my favorite
part is when she has to leave a bar:
It was time for us to leave, so I grabbed and shook her sleeve
and told her I'd see her at the next club she got into a pack
and some guy put her on his back, she said goodbye and kinda waved her stub
I
really don't know what else to add here, this mental image is
perfect. "She's Nubs" makes for a great addition to NOFX's
museum of absurdly funny songs.
Track
6: Mattersville
I
love this song, although there's definitely a bittersweet mood to it.
It's about a gated community for old punk rockers called
“Mattersville.” They have everything they could ever want: they
can party all they want, they have nice mansions, and fancy cars.
Some of them can still skateboard.
But
it's bittersweet because it feels like the end of an era: never once
do they mention going “against the system” or making music of any
kind, punk or not. They're just content to “spend their
golden years in Mattersville.” It's the metaphorical death
of the part of these musicians which was “punk”.
It's
really a loss because some of the best political punk is satirical.
And I think that satire is a necessary part of society: it points out
the absurdity of the world around us that we don't even realize is
there. The opening track already established that the new punk
rockers are only really focused on love songs, so there's nobody in
the next generation to “carry the torch” of criticizing
authority. A world with less great satirists would be a poorer one
indeed.
Track
8: Medio-Core
In
terms of the instrumentation, this song can be divided into two
halves. The first part of this song is a slow, mellow section made up
of a drum, electric guitar and electric bass.
Just
like “Separation of Church and Skate,” this song could be
interpreted as being a knock against the pop-punk scene, especially
the kinds of bands who copied blink-182. The lyrics are centered
around the fact that all the punk bands sound like they're just going
through the motions. Just listen to Fat Mike's ringing endorsement:
How was the band?
They were okay (okay)
Not great (all right)
But pretty good
They played the songs I knew they would
He
sure sold me! /s
However,
there is definitely another subtext going through
this song. While it's still a song about every band sounding like
watered down versions of each other, it's also cleverly satirizing
American politics. Going back to the lines I showed above, the
Medio-Core bands are a metaphor for politicians; the disappointment
in the bands mirrors our disappointment for politicians. The
line "The melody's been stolen/ Remind me of songs
sung in the 70's" is about how politicians have
repeated the same lies to us for decades, hoping we'd never catch on.
The
second half, meanwhile kicks into a fast punk song. It also has a
tonal shift in the lyrics. It goes from a feeling of disappointment
to one of anger:
(Medio-core) It's under powered
The riffs are all deflowered
(Medio-core) It's spreading faster
Than British tooth decay
(Medio-core) Are you ready to rock?
How y'all doing tonight?
(Medio-core) Your condescending fucks
Make me wanna laugh and puke at the same time.
Just
like the rest of the album, great lyrics abound. “It's spreading
faster than British tooth decay” may be one of the best
analogies I've ever heard put to lyrics.
Track 9: Anarchy Camp
Another
one of The War on Errorism's great gag songs, it
takes the punk ideal of anarchy and ironically makes an entire
camp devoted to making rules on what anarchy is:
Rules of Anarchy Camp: reckless abandonment,
Random acts of dumbness will be rewarded
If you see somebody taking charge, you'll be expected to beat them
Like
“Franco Un-American,” this song features a change in NOFX's usual
instrumentation, this time by using a saxophone and an organ for the
main melody instead of guitars.
Track
10: American Errorist (I Hate Hate Haters)
A
bit of a change of pace from the last two tracks, this song kicks
right back into the high-energy punk that you would expect from NOFX.
This is one of the most energetic tracks on the whole album, it comes
at you like a train.
What
really makes this a great track instrumentally is the guitar work. I
don't know where the stereotype of "punk rock guys don't know
how to play" comes from, because guitarist Eric Melvin's playing
is such a great counterargument. The pre-verse riff at the beginning,
the main riff and the guitar solo at the end are a joy to listen to.
Likewise, Fat Mike's bass playing is also wonderful to listen to;
it's going a mile a minute and doesn't just mirror Melvin's guitar
work. Like any good bassist, Fat Mike does a fantastic job of serving
the song while doing his own thing.
Subject
wise, "American Errorist" is a call to action to expose
"errorists," meaning Bush and anyone who is like-minded:
It's up to us, we must expose,
Humiliate
American Errorists
We'll
start with one
The
war has just begun!
It
doesn't get any more direct than that! This is the kind of song you'd
play before a revolution!
Track 11: We Got Two Jealous Agains
A song that's about a record merger on the surface, and a relationship just under the surface.
Track 12: 13 Stitches
I'll be honest, of all the great tracks on this album, this is the only one that fell a little flat. And I hate saying that too, because this album's been pretty solid.
I want to love you, "13 Stitches," but loving you is so hard!
Production-wise,
they made the odd decision to high pass the entire song so that
there's no bass whatsoever. Granted, I don't have a problem with
bands high passing a song, but it's only meant to be at the beginning
of the song. When you start the song high passed and turn the effect
off, the band will sound even fuller by contrast. It's best used
before a chorus kick in, or sometimes in the middle of an
instrumental. You wait the entire length of "13 Stitches"
for the high pass effect to be turned off, but then the song ends.
So it feels like all build up and no payoff.
Lyrics-wise, my problem with this song is that there's not really a narrative flow to it. It's just about Fat Mike seeing various punk bands. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure they were great shows and bands. But the problem is that there's really no end to the story, it just kind of stops. So you listen to nearly two minutes of a song that sounds like it should pay off, but it never does.
Track 13: Re-Gaining Unconsciousness
Another one of the great songs on the album, NOFX waited until near the end of the album. Lyrics-wise, it's every bit as good as "The Idiots are Taking Over".
There's a really interesting (though pessimistic) message in this song about how people would rather bury their heads in the sand than fight for progress. I can even see a few thematic strings between this track and "Franco Un American," when the other song states "I don't want changes, I have no reactions/Your dilemas are my distractions" it's the same kind of obliviousness, but a lot more intentional.
The
sad truth is
You'd
rather follow the school into the net
'Cause
swimming alone at sea
Is
not the kind of freedom that you actually want
It's
pessimistic, but true. Humans would rather do what's comfortable than
attempt to change the world around them.
This
song also has some of the best metaphors I think I've ever heard.
When is the last time you heard the phrase "mental midgets"
slipped into casual conversation?
Track
14: Whoops, I OD'd
In addition to NOFX putting a few gag songs on their albums, they also have a tradition of putting one emotional track near the end of the album, such as "Falling in Love" or "Scavenger Type." The War on Errorism is no exception to the rule.
Drugs are a common topic for NOFX because of Fat Mike's well known issues with addiction. Quite a few of NOFX's songs are about addiction or trying to get clean, like "Pharmacist's Daughter" and "Quart in Session," respectively. So they've covered a lot of ground as far as the thematics of addiction.
The instrumentation of this track is very simple: it's just Fat Mike's vocals and an electric guitar strumming along. A song like this really does benefit from the simple presentation, it doesn't detract from the message.
The title
of the track basically explains the subject matter: it's about
someone who took too many drugs, and well, overdosed. These
lines don't shy away from the dark details, either:
Whoops
I OD'd,
Shortness
of breath.
Call
ambulance,
Tell
my wife I [love her].
Error
in judgement cut my life,
No
second chance, no guiding light.
Yeah,
safe to say that this probably won't be a
cheerful track. The song goes on, and explains the hospital
trip:
Six
minutes down,
Breathing
machine,
Brain
not feel right.
The
look on you is killing me
If
you haven't taken some antidepressants, now would
be the time! Trust me, you'll thank me afterward.
The
song then jumps ahead a year:
A
year has passed, like photographs.
My life is just a scrapbook,
Of old friends and faded memories.
Looks like I pulled the rug from under myself.
My life is just a scrapbook,
Of old friends and faded memories.
Looks like I pulled the rug from under myself.
There
is no god.
Okay,
that got a little dark. But it's definitely a pretty heavy track to
close your album on.
Conclusion
Overall, while The War on Errorism doesn't have as much focus as a punk opera like American Idiot, I still think this is a very solid album that should have a little more recognition outside of punk rock and NOFX fans. For an album from a band that used to make joke songs, it's surprisingly complex and well made. And if you have a love of punk bands poking fun at Republicans, you'll probably love this album.
Plus you'll know you're not the only one who wonders how a quadriplegic gets around at punk shows!
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Sauce:
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/
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