Cokie The Clown : You’re Welcome
This is something different, If you are going into listening this expecting a Nofx album you might want to think again. You’re welcome is a strangely haunting and vaguely disturbing collection of true tales turned into a collection of songs that will make you think. When I first hit play in my car on the way to work I expected something like a slower Nofx album, not the deeply disquieting song that is Bathtub. The opening track starts out with over a minute of Fat Mikes raspy voice telling a tale of waking to find his wife drowning in a bathtub. This sets the tone for the entire record.
considering the deep dark nature of this record with songs like “Bathtub” and “That Time I Killed My Mom” this entire album is in my honest opinion a breath of fresh air in a world of punk rock solo records. There has been a long standing tradition of old punk guys putting out solo records that basically sound like their bands songs but slower and with an acoustic guitar and maybe a mandolin. (with all due respect but I’m looking at you Chuck Ragan and Dave Haus) You’re welcome is a total departure from that mind set. the only song on here that sounds like it would have been a Nofx song is “Punk Rock Saved My Life”. Even “Down With the Ship” which is a rearranged Nofx song sounds so drastically different that you would never expect that to come from the same band that sang “Moron Brothers”. I applaud Fat Mike for writing a record that is honest and is step outside of the normal musical world he lives in. My first thought when I started this record is this sounds like a Gogol Bordello record but slower, acoustic and with less instruments.
All in all I really dig this record and I think if you are a fan of what Fat Mike and the boys in Nofx are doing you should definitely give it a listen. It might not make you wanna mosh and skate like Pump Up the vallum but its sure as shit gonna make you feel something.
“I peeled my fuckin’ skin off for this record.” - Michael (Fat Mike) Burkett
Tracklist: 01. Bathtub 02. Fair Leather Friends 03. The Queen Is Dead 04. Swing And A Miss 05. Down With The Ship 06. Negative Reel 07. That Time I Killed My Mom 08. Fuck You All 09. Pre Arraigned Marriage 10. Punk Rock Saved My Life
