More than four years since their first full-length record, NOFX are back with a new album, sharing ‘Linewleum’ as the self-aware first single.
There’s no denying that NOFX are one of the most iconic punk bands of the last 40 years, and while it’s been more than four years since the release of 2016’s Last Ditch Effort, the group have been far from lazy.
Sure, there’s been a bit of controversy, but there’s also been new material, a split album with Frank Turner, and even a long-awaited Aussie tour in the meantime. However, their dedicated fans have spent this time waiting for their new record. Now, they’ve finally put us out of our misery, announcing the forthcoming release of their 14th full-length record, Single Album.
Recorded at San Francisco’s Motor Studios with Descendents’ Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, frontman Fat Mike describes it as an unintentionally “dark album”, with the group having originally written enough songs by early 2020 to make up a double album.
“When you write a double album, you write differently,” Mike says. “I was writing really different songs, and some fun songs, but you have to make a double album interesting enough to listen to the whole way.
“I wanted to make a perfect double album, and I didn’t accomplish that. So I decided to just make a single album, hence the title.”
Check out ‘Linewleum’ by NOFX:
To promote the forthcoming album, the group have shared its first single, with ‘Linewleum’ featuring Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M Shadows. For those who’ve spent some time with the NOFX catalogue, this one might seem a little bit familiar, with the track effectively seeing the legendary punk outfit putting one of their most famous tracks – 1994’s ‘Linonleum’ – out to pasture.
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“I have no idea why ‘Linoleum’ is THE NOFX song that is covered by so many bands while other NOFX songs get hardly any attention,” Mike laments. “‘Linoleum’ wasn’t a single, it had no video, it got no radio play, and most importantly, it didn’t even have a chorus!!! All popular songs have choruses! WTF!
“So, One night I stayed up till 4:00 am checking out all the different versions on YouTube. Watching hundreds of bands from over 28 countries (mostly Indonesia) doing ‘Linoleum’ was a humbling experience for me. So I decided to write a song that was a shout out to all those people that learned those four chords and remembered the non-rhyming lyrics.”
Recruiting M Shadows for the track, the video features footage of artists who have covered the track, including late No Use For A Name frontman Tony Sly, who is name-checked in the lyrics as utilising ‘Linoleum’ for the final song he ever played.
“Then I asked the biggest of all the bands (Avenged Sevenfold) to play some leads on the song,” Mike adds. “Then M Shadows suggested we do a video together. Then I figured I should put all of the bands in the video. Well, I couldn’t fit all the bands, but I picked a bunch of cool ones!
“A song about not playing a song that’s not a hit song with a video about other bands covering the song! This is why I love punk rock writing punk songs. Rules out the door!”
NOFX are on track to release the forthcoming Single Album on February 26th, with pre-orders available now.
Check out the original ‘Linoleum’:
