The Beauty of Flaw

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My new copy of NOFX’s Punk In Drublic is creased in the top right corner.

It didn’t come that way. This feature was added following the band’s show last Friday when I drunkenly dropped the vinyl while standing outside the Brooklyn Paramount. The actual record—a gorgeous black, white and gray splatter over ginger-ale-gold—is intact, but with the damage on the jacket, the resale is fucked. No longer NM, VG+ at best.

But! I now own the only copy like this. There’s only one version of Punk In Drublic IN THE WORLD that’s crinkled in that corner with those specific wrinkles. It’s the only one that kissed that piece of the sidewalk (as far as I know). At least, it’s the only one dropped by a guy named Jason after he spent the night dancing around like an idiot with his friends.

NOFX didn’t play “Jaw, Knee, Music” during their three-night run in NYC. Bummer. First released on 2004’s Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 and later included in 2010’s The Longest EP, “Jaw, Knee, Music” is a patchwork tale; its lyrics magpied from classic punk songs by Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Reagan Youth, D.I., X, Bouncing Souls, Stiff Little Fingers, Josie Cotton and more.

In the middle of the song, NOFX’s Fat Mike proclaims:

The gross misconception is that punk was created by people who didn’t know how to play (as if Johnny Ramone wasn’t a hardass taskmaster overseeing his band’s practices and the NYC scene wasn’t full of art students, creative oddballs and legit musicians).

But the cacophony of music discourse has painted punk—most notably the DIY-infused ethos of ‘80s hardcore—as a genre that emphasized how you didn’t need to be perfect in sound and execution to be good. So long as you are sincere and you put some effort into it, shit will work out.

Of course, these values aren’t solely within punk’s domain. Hip-hop. House. Any outsider genre is forced to reinvent the wheel with discarded scraps because they can’t afford to buy the ones on sale. And out of that hodgepodge blooms art.

When Charli XCX appeared on Subway Takes in March, she said, “Music is not important. Artistry is important. A great artist, to me, is more than the songs. It’s the entire culture and space that they inhabit.” We can infer from Ms. XCX’s comments that intention is as important (if not more) than the action/result. That if you are demonstrating elements of the culture and that space around you, then it’s art. Otherwise, you’re just singing.

Charli also said that there are some artists who lack artistry, and that’s not the most incorrect thing. Some people are great singers but make shitty songwriters. Some people just want to sing pop songs, and that’s fine.

And there’s nothing wrong with liking a perfectly manicured pop song. Or a party hip-hop anthem. Or that mall punk song from a band’s major label debut. In the same way, there’s nothing wrong with liking grindcore, math rock or whatever King Gizzard is doing on their next four albums. Like what you like.

But I think with the rise of AI-produced “content,” we’re realizing that “art” is not so much the byproduct but the process itself.

A beautiful painting showcases refined talent, a well-educated hand and a distinctive vision. The byproduct—in this case, the painting—usually represented both the creative process as well as the object of creation.

But now? We live in a time where shitty right-wing techbros funnel money into image generators learning off of stolen artwork. Lazy rappers don’t even need to step into a booth to lay down a guest verse; they just have an AI voice model replicate it, and charge a licensing fee.

Hell, you can generate content that resembles your favorite singer, mangaka and your favorite comedian with a single-line prompt. There is no intention. There is no art.

There’s art with NOFX. The band wrote songs without choruses. They sang about shit that made them smile—kinky sex, their dirtbag friends, the culture they were in. When they got old, they sang about getting old. When they got political, they sang about that.

They also knew how to play their music — eventually. Yeah, those first two records are rough at points, but they eventually got there. Bassists Fat Mike, Melvin, drummer Smelly and guitarists El Hefe and Melvin (aka Mike Burkett, Erik Sandin, Aaron Abeyta and Eric Melvin) can fuckin’ play. It may not be prog rock, but it didn’t need to be.

Sure, they weren’t the most commercially successful. They only have a single gold record to their name after 40+ years as a band, whereas other AAA-level artists will pick up another random Platinum certification by the time I finish writing this sentence. But NOFX didn’t care for that shit, or they would have signed to a major in 1994 when Green Day and The Offspring were blowing up with Dookie and Smash, respectively.

Instead, that year, NOFX put out Punk In Drublic. It’s the aforementioned gold record. And now, there’s a copy with a dog-eared corner in my collection, creating a physical memory of a night seeing the band play one of its last shows. It’s a memento of a time I danced around with a friend (and hundreds of other strangers) as some of our favorite music played.  

It’s flawed but beautiful. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Speaking of art, I made a friend recently, and they’re in a band called ARTLESS JESUS. The group is releasing an EP of pop punk titled The Assorted Grievances of ARTLESS JESUS. You can pre-save it now. The duo cites some disparaging remarks from some music industry execs ("Dangerously close to parody." - Former Label President, Elektra Records) but I got a preview. I think it’s good. You may hate it when it comes out, but who knows? Three albums in, they may put out the song you want played at your wedding and you’ll ask why wasn’t I listening to them sooner?

Today (Thursday, July 18), Fatboi Sharif and Duncecap’s PSYCHEDELICS WROTE THE BIBLE is out via Fused Arrow Records (buy it here). I just listened to it. It’s absolutely remarkable.

I wish it was longer. It could be 4-times as long and still be as engrossing and intriguing. But we’re in a time when major stars are flooding streaming services with filler, hoping to overwhelm the charts and rack up as many numbers as possible.

Meanwhile, Fatboi Sharif is proving Charli XCX true: that artistry exists and it matters. These five tracks will carry more weight than a 33-track double LP.

Duncecap’s soundscape work is as transcendent as the title implies. Sharif grabs the mic with the authority of a cosmic herald, an angel with a thousand eyes but one commanding voice as he delivers those terrible truths. It’s fucking amazing.

I’m a dummy when it comes to hip-hop. But I know what Fatboi Sharif is putting out is special, and every one of his collaborators should be on our radar. Steel Tipped Dove. Duncecap. Roper Williams. noface.

And if you aren’t buying Sacred Bones records, your life isn’t as weird as it could be. Get on that.

Also, if you didn’t catch Metal and Coffee’s guest appearance on The Needle Drop, you can watch it here.

Metal and Coffee is a trusted source of metal taste and recommendations. She was the one who turned me onto Keefchamber. It’s cool to see her get some shine from these bigger platforms.

Social media can be a dump but when you find these awesome curators who are here to share all these amazing records? It almost feels like the internet wasn’t a mistake.

Revisit my chat with Fat Mike of NOFX, and learn what he had to say when I asked him what will be the final song that NOFX plays before calling it a career. 

I’ll have a few record reviews for New Noise coming out tomorrow. I’ve been working on a project that should make its debut this fall; something to accompany OUAR in a way that’s similar, but different.

In a follow-up to OUAR’s first Weekend Edition, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department held off Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene to notch its 12th week at No. 1 after debuting atop the Billboard 200.

Billboard noted that TTPD’s recent success was due to Swift’s store restocking seven earlier-released CD variants (including a signed edition). Along with this manufactured scarcity, Swift’s camp released three new digital album download variants (each with a new live acoustic track).

@ChartData on Twitter/X says that TTPD is “expected to not rank at #1 on the Billboard 200 for the first time in its run.” This is likely due to Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady.

 I haven’t listened. thought the Steve Miller Band sample on “Houdini” was kind of uninspired and it didn’t stir me out of my Eminem-bargo. My friends would put The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP on while we drove around the North Country. I bailed by the time of The Eminem Show.

I did see that critics didn’t like The Death of Slim Shady at all. And it might cut off TTPD (an album with mixed reviews) from tying Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life for the longest run at No. 1 from its debut. Of course, Swift’s camp could drop four new variants tonight. We’ll have to wait and see.

Tomorrow, Jimin’s Muse, DenzelCurry’s King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2 and the final Childish Gambino album all arrive.

Jimin’s first solo project (the 7-track FACE) debuted at No. 2 in 2023. His new album, MUSE, will also have seven tracks. Considering how the metrics work (“Each unit equals one album sale or 10 individual tracks sold from an album,” notes Billboard), it probably won’t dethrone TTPD. But I might be wrong. It would be foolish to doubt the power of K-Pop stans.

Stay flawed, friends,
Jason

Thank you for subscribing to Open Up and Read, the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow. It’s free (and whenever it’s not, it’ll be cheap). Support by telling others to subscribe. You can also toss a few dollars his way via Ko-Fi. Be kind to cats. Music is the best.