NOFX
Formed in Los Angeles in 1983 and led by bassist-vocalist "Fat Mike" Burkett, NOFX helped define 1990s SoCal skate-punk: breakneck tempos, gang-vocal hooks, and lyrics that swing between crude jokes and pointed left-wing politics. Fat Mike co-founded Fat Wreck Chords to release the same brand of fast, melodic punk NOFX itself perfected on albums like Punk in Drublic.
Fat Mike has called Bad Religion's Suffer one of his favorite records outright, saying it "has some of the greatest lyrics I've ever read" — the album that helped push West Coast hardcore toward the faster, more melodic sound NOFX built its whole career on.
listen forBad Religion's tight, three-part-harmony hardcore on "Suffer" and NOFX's own breakneck "Linoleum" both prove a song can outrun most hardcore bands and still land on a genuine pop melody.
NOFX came up in the same Southern California hardcore scene the Descendents helped invent, and the Descendents' template of fast hardcore tempos wrapped around unpretentious, funny, melodic songwriting is the direct ancestor of NOFX's own sound.
listen forThe Descendents' "Suburban Home" and NOFX's goofball singalong "The Brews" both take hardcore-speed playing and aim it at a joke instead of a slogan.
Fat Mike has pointed to the Sex Pistols as the root of punk's political voice, saying "punk rock itself has always been political, since the Sex Pistols" — a lineage NOFX's own explicitly left-wing songwriting draws on directly.
listen forThe Sex Pistols' sneering "Anarchy in the U.K." and NOFX's sardonic "Bob" both use a simple, driving punk backbone to carry a lyric aimed squarely at a target.