Okay, let's do a kind of word association type thing. I'm gonna say the following things: famous punk rock singer songwriter who's recently made two albums of Beatles tinged acoustic rock, a rapid seventy pound weight loss brought about by almost dying five times from massive surgeries and gallbladder removals due to pancreatitis, a monster shredder that used to be in RKL, the supersonic drummer from the Mad Caddies and of course a storied reputation of debaucherous awesomeness that spans 9 albums, 5 continents and at least three of the ... Read More

Okay, let's do a kind of word association type thing. I'm gonna say the following things: famous punk rock singer songwriter who's recently made two albums of Beatles tinged acoustic rock, a rapid seventy pound weight loss brought about by almost dying five times from massive surgeries and gallbladder removals due to pancreatitis, a monster shredder that used to be in RKL, the supersonic drummer from the Mad Caddies and of course a storied reputation of debaucherous awesomeness that spans 9 albums, 5 continents and at least three of the wackiest crew members you'll ever see in your life…did you say San Jose's No Use For A Name at any point in our little word association game? Oh, why not? I thought you thought you knew everything there was to know about them. Ah, well then. In the words of Apu: we have much to discuss.

Well, Tony Sly, who's pretty much approaching legend status at this point has been busy the last year or two, writing and putting out two (!) solo records that are pretty fucking weird, in that they're not that folk revival bullshit that every established punk seems to think they can pull off nowadays. In fact, they're much more like those Jets To Brazil acoustic nods to John Lennon, quirky chords, pop craftsmanship and no fake southern accents or tales of train hopping to be heard anywhere. The newest one, Sad Bear (presumably a nod to Tony's nickname at his favorite fetish club) comes out sometime in the fall of 2011. It's pretty mellow, and Tony's said that after the process of putting Sad Bear together he's ''Ready to start writing punk rock songs again.'' That's great news, and he's assembled new and improved squad behind him that is sure to put the 'FAN' back into NUFAN. Heyo! Did you like that little bit of wordplay? No? Jesus. Okay, anyway, my point is, this new lineup is more ready to shred punk rock songs than almost any other lineup in the history of not only NUFAN, but dare I say it: the entire history of the galaxy. No, fer real. Check it:

New axe master Chris Rest was in RKL and Lagwagon and those dudes famously have fast, tricky guitar shit going on, so you pretty much know he's no shithead. If that wasn't awesome enough, Tony recruited bad-ass drummer Boz Rivera (check out his band King City on Youtube if you don't believe me), also from RKL and the Mad Caddies to smooth out the riddims, man. As if that still wasn't enough of an upgrade, Tony went whole hog on bassist Matt Riddle and put him into the hospital where he made him die several times, lose 70 pounds, get rid of his 'diva-like' gallbladder and ultimately emerge lean, mean and full of that brand new angst that only getting a seven figure hospital bill can provide. Well, actually, Matt had acute pancreatitis, so we can't really credit Tony for everything, but you get the idea. This is your uncle's No Use For A Name in useless name only. In every other way, shit's fucking upside down, backwards, faster, tighter, more technical, thinner, and less drunk (which sucks, because you've never lived until you've seen a plastered, shirtless Matt Riddle hugging a giant bottle of Jager in a field in Holland screaming ''Dungeons and Dragons!'' to the heavens, but alas, like his gallbladder, those days are gone), and the end results are the dawn of a new and exciting era from a band of legends, all with fresh perspective and a bunch of new reasons to turn up the flame under the NUFAN kettle. Shit's gonna be pretty righteous when the record that's in the works right now finally comes out and completely reimagines this band's classic sound, but for now, we can be content with Tony's solo tours, an upcoming No Use Australian tour, a pair of virtuosos from RKL lending their chops to the NUFAN canon, and of course, the promise of seeing a newly thin, gall bladder-free Matt Riddle. What do you need? A printed invitation? This shit's gonna be amazing! Don't be a pussy.
See you at the bar, behind the pit.

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