Reuniting with punk-rock legends Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore for producer/engineering duties, it’s not hyperbolic to say NOFX are making their best music now. But that’s not to imply everything else they’ve done was crap, either. But Double Album reminds both ardent fans and casual listeners that NOFX weren’t born to follow trends. Indeed NOFX—Fat Mike, guitarists Eric Melvin and El Hefe, and drummer “Smelly” Eric Sandin—have carved their logo into the veneer of punk-rock culture for decades. With nearly 40 years in this circus, you’ll meet people and do/see/conspire to get all the wildest shit done. Remember how one of the stipulations of the NOFX book Hepatitis Bathtub was that none of the band members could see what the other ones were writing about them? Well, this time, Mike got permission to blow up the foibles and peccadillos of people in song for maximum velocity and hilarity.
“You have to laugh at everything,” Mike reveals, “because the world is just falling apart and you have to have a good attitude not to take things seriously. So this is how I’ve always done it. I make people laugh every day. I usually do it in a self-deprecating way, it’s just how I go through life: I have as much fun as I can. That’s what life is—trying to find all the happiness you can. And spreading happiness. Which is what I feel like is supposed to be my job in life—spreading joy.” The determination to continue making compelling music, keeping the bar high for punk, and doing the best thing for their punk-rock legacy, makes NOFX simply unstoppable. Double Album is filled with moods, tales, and tempos slightly faster than an ice-road trucker backsliding down a hill. What’s their secret? Quite simply, NOFX isn’t half-assing anything.