I harbour a weak spot for No Use for a Name, a band that eventually became a melodic pop-punk band that landed on Fat Wreck records.
What not too many contemporary and younger fans devotees would be aware of, is the fact that No Use for a Name evolved from having started as a much rawer hardcore outfit in the late 1980s and first incarnated on Maximum Rock’nRoll’s now legendary Turn It Around compilation, after Chris Dodge (of Stikky, Infest, Hellnation, Lack of Interest and Spazz fame, among many others as well as founder of the cult label Slap-A-Ham records, which released their second 7”) had first left the band, which is when I first became aware of them.
What followed was a successful career with melodic punk rock records that catapulted the band onto MTV in the mid-90ies and opened the doors to a mainstream audience.
To pay homage to No Use for a Name and indulge in the people behind Fat Wreck’s love love for releasing cover songs, cue Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, this record offers each and every cover song NUFAN recorded outside the confines of their regular records, which explains why the excellent Police cover “Truth Hits Everybody” from their debut album Incognito is missing.
The lion’s share of the songs were recorded between 1996 and 2005, with quite a few not really surprising punk rock staples being paid tribute to, i.e. The Misfits, Social Distortion, D.I., Sublime, The Vapors along with Cheap Trick and some oddities, e.g. Pogues, Kiss, Depeche Mode, TV themes and Don’t cry for me Argentina all presented tinged with the No Use for a Name melodic flavour.
A great addition for the archives of fans.
