NOFX
40 Years of Fuckin’ Up

40 Years of Fuckin’ Up captures the unfiltered chronicle of NOFX and their four decades of DYI punk rock, doing things completely on their own terms, without holding back or cleaning up their chaotic legacy.

Michael Venn, contributor

When you open a documentary about your band’s 40-year career in punk rock with Howard Stern saying, “NOFX? Man, NO Talent is what they should have named the band,” you immediately get a pretty good sense of who NOFX are and what they’re all about. Because, of course, they would embrace that quote and put it right at the beginning of their own movie.
 

Honestly, NOFX is like no other band in the world, and that’s probably what allowed them to become one of the most iconic DIY punk bands of the last 40 years. The fact that they’re still around, let alone still alive, after four decades says a lot about the band, their brotherhood, friendship, drugs, music, dysfunction and, occasionally, bondage.

As I started watching 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up, I actually began second-guessing what I was watching. Is this a real documentary? Is it a mockumentary? Is it an homage to This Is Spinal Tap?
 

Early in the film, there’s a scene with Fat Mike cross-dressing in heels and a miniskirt, floating around his pool while talking about the band’s final tour and getting drunk. It immediately reminded me of Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P. floating in his pool in the 1988 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

But no, this isn’t really any of those things. This is just pure NOFX.
 

No filter. No holding back. No attempt to clean up the story or make themselves look better than they actually were. It’s the origin story of a now-legendary punk band that never really sold out, kinda sucked for a while, remained fiercely independent until the end, did everything their own way, or at least mostly Fat Mike’s way, and somehow managed to do all of it with absolutely zero fucks given.
 

Regardless of what you think of NOFX, or whether you’re even a fan of their music, I think you have to respect their honesty and their journey. And I actually think this movie could make you a fan. Maybe not necessarily of the music, but of the band itself and what they managed to accomplish.
 

Because 40 years ago, nobody started a DIY punk band because they thought they were going to get rich.

The idea of getting signed to a major label, hearing your songs on mainstream radio, watching your videos on MTV, touring the world and becoming a famous punk band wasn’t really the plan. At least it certainly wasn’t the plan for NOFX. And NOFX, decidedly didn't want their music on the radio or MTV, even when they were asked to.
 

And then there’s Fat Mike. Fat Mike is an anomaly.
 

As a kid, he somehow appeared on In Search Of... with Leonard Nimoy. He was always smart. While other members of the band were getting high and living the punk-rock lifestyle, Mike was getting a college degree when they weren't on tour or recording. For better or worse, his serious drug use didn’t even begin until years later, when he was around 31.

Of course, decades later, he’s openly doing cocaine in the documentary, at one point sneezing into it and making essentially the same joke Woody Allen made in Annie Hall. Again: pure Fat Mike.
 

But underneath all of the insanity is a guy who understood something about the music business very early on.

What is success?
 

For Fat Mike and NOFX, success was happiness. It was being able to make the music they wanted, tour where they wanted and live life on their own terms. More was just more.
 

Sign with a major label and suddenly you become a product. You can get lost in the shuffle, have somebody else making decisions about your career and eventually get dropped. Unless, apparently, you’re NOFX.
 

They booked their own tours, well, Fat Mike did. They sold their own merch. They released their own records through Fat Wreck Chords, the label Fat Mike co-founded. They completely embodied the DIY punk-rock spirit, and they continued doing it even as bands that once opened for them went on to become some of the biggest punk bands in the world.

Green Day. Nirvana. The Offspring. They all opened for NOFX. NOFX watched all of that happen around them and basically said, “Nah, we’re good.”
 

Fat Mike was the brains behind much of that business philosophy, and his attitude seemed pretty simple: What can a major label do for us that we can’t already do ourselves? If only every band had their own Fat Mike. Then again, no other band has Fat Mike, only NOFX. And after watching this documentary, you’ll understand why.
 

There’s a moment in the film when Mike believes he may actually be dying. He’s hemorrhaging blood, the room looks like a crime scene, someone has called 911 and an ambulance is on the way. And what does Fat Mike do? He tells his wife to keep filming. Then he calls his daughter to tell her he loves her. This isn't performance, this is real, this is sincere.

That moment, as bizarre, funny, horrifying and strangely touching as it is, might encapsulate Fat Mike better than anything else in the entire film. This is Fat Mike. And this is NOFX. Completely unfiltered.
 

NOFX, Fat Mike (Michael Burkett), Eric Melvin, Erik “Smelly” Sandin and El Hefe (Aaron Abeyta) somehow survived from their chaotic early days, through lineup changes, addiction, enormous success on their own terms and ultimately their farewell tour and retirement.
 

Do I believe Fat Mike when he says NOFX will never get back together? I think so.

Do I believe him when he says one of the reasons he wanted to do one final massive tour was so the rest of the band could make enough money to comfortably retire, with hopefully at least a million dollars each? Yes. I definitely believe that.

Because underneath everything else, there is clearly a deep love between these guys. Maybe not always a healthy love. Maybe not always an easy friendship. But after 40 years together, there is something there that goes well beyond being four guys in a punk band.

And did they go out exactly how they wanted to? Absolutely.
 

On the final nights of their final shows, they invited their friends onstage to celebrate the end of a band that somehow beat the odds, embraced the chaos, refused to play by anybody else’s rules and remained involved in nearly every part of their career until the very end.

They did it their way.

Or, again, maybe Fat Mike’s way.

Is this film for everyone? No.

Is it a film for NOFX fans? Absolutely.

Is it only for NOFX fans? Not at all.

Should everyone see it? Yeah. I think so. One hundred percent.
 

Because whether you love their music, hate their music or barely know who they are, there’s something fascinating about watching four people spend 40 years refusing to become what everyone else thought a successful band was supposed to be.

Will there ever be another NOFX? Nope.

And thank God, because there could only ever be one NOFX.