NOFX

Before NOFX became kings of pop-punk in the ’90s, the group was a second-rate, laughed-at leftover of the West Coast hardcore scene. But the seemingly silly band came into its own with clever, irreverent, and immaculately catchy albums like 1994’s Punk In Drublic. Time has once again been unkind to NOFX, although the band’s wit and knack for hyper-speed hooks sound better as pop-punk gets increasingly sterile. Aside from an ambitious EP, The Decline, the band’s output over the past decade has been interchangeable (with its most recent major release in 2009), but when you compare the band with straight-outta-SoCal generational peers like Green Day and consider that it’s still never signed on with a major label, you gotta give respect where respect is due. Lord knows NOFX would never inflict a Broadway musical on the world.

Updated 10/04/2011