The Fat Club is a series of twelve 7-inch singles released monthly by Fat Wreck Chords from March 2001 to February 2002. 1,300 of each single were pressed; They were not available for sale individually, but were distributed by postal service to those who purchased a subscription to the series. [1]
Fat Wreck Chords is a San Francisco, California-based independent record label, focused on punk rock. It was started by NOFX lead singer Michael Burkett and his girlfriend at the time, Erin Burkett, in 1990.
Contents
- Summary of releases
- Track listings and personnel
- The Vandals
- American Steel
- The Real McKenzies
- MxPx
- Strike Anywhere
- Randy
- NOFX
- Swingin' Utters
- Strung Out
- Enemy You
- The Lawrence Arms
- One Man Army
- References
The series featured bands who had not previously been associated with the label: Of the 12 bands who participated, only three—NOFX, Swingin' Utters, and Strung Out—were already part of the Fat Wreck Chords roster. Three of the participating bands had other one-off releases with Fat following their participation in the Fat Club: MxPx's The Renaissance EP (2001), Randy's Randy the Band (2005), and Strike Anywhere's Dead FM (2006). Three of the bands—The Lawrence Arms, The Real McKenzies, and American Steel—became long-term additions to Fat Wreck Chords' roster, releasing multiple albums through the label in the years following. Only The Vandals, Enemy You, and One Man Army have had no further releases through Fat Wreck Chords.
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California. They were formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after, and El Hefe joined the band in 1991 to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up.
Swingin' Utters is a Californian punk rock band that formed in the late 1980s. After a seven-year hiatus, the band reformed in 2010 and have since released four more records.
Strung Out is an American punk rock band from Simi Valley, California, formed in 1990. They are known mainly for their musical style, which fuses aspects of melodic punk rock, progressive rock and heavy metal to form their primary sound. They have released eight studio albums on Fat Wreck Chords as well as one Live album, 2 B-sides collections, a best-of, a box set and appeared on numerous compilations and skate/surf/dirt bike/offroading videos. They have played on the Warped Tour and continue to tour internationally.
Though the singles were limited, several of the bands re-released their tracks on compilation albums in the years following, including NOFX's 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records (2002), Strike Anywhere's To Live in Discontent (2005), The Lawrence Arms' Cocktails & Dreams (2005), Swingin' Utters' Hatest Grits: B-Sides and Bullshit (2008), and Strung Out's Prototypes and Painkillers (2009). All of the tracks from the series were re-released as part of the Fat Wreck Chords twentieth anniversary compilation Wrecktrospective in 2009. [2]
A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If from several performers, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.
45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records is a double album released in 2002 by NOFX. There were 47 songs on the CD version, and all the songs easily fit onto one CD.
To Live in Discontent is a compilation album released by Strike Anywhere. It collects various rare, live and unreleased tracks by the band including the entirety of their out of print EP, Chorus of One.
