NOFX Recruit Avenged Sevenfold for New Song ‘Linewleum’
Punk legends NOFX have just announced their 14th studio album, Single Album, and released its first single, “Linewleum.” Dedicated to the hundreds of bands who’ve covered NOFX’s classic “Linoleum” over the years, the new song features a lead from Avenged Sevenfold, who also appear in its official music video alongside August Burns Red, Tony Sly, Frank Turner and others.
Single Album was initially supposed to be a double album, but frontman Fat Mike bailed on the idea partway through the writing process. “When you write a double album, you write differently,” Mike says. “I was writing really different songs, and some fun songs, but you have to make a double album interesting enough to listen to the whole way. I wanted to make a perfect double album, and I didn't accomplish that. So I decided to just make a single album, hence the title.”
Fat Mike describes the record as unintentionally dark and inspired by his own infamous drug use. “I was pretty high on drugs that year,” Mike describes 2019. From Single Album, the song “Grieve Soto” pays tribute to late Adolescents founder Steve Soto, while “Birmingham” addresses the moment Mike finally accepted that he was a drug addict.
“That was a clarity moment in my life when I was by myself, and the sun's coming up, and I'm scraping cocaine off the floor, like, ‘Eww, gross. I shouldn't be doing this. So what did I do? I ordered more.” Following a hospitalization to treat a bleeding ulcer, the NOFX frontman entered rehab in fall 2020 and has reportedly been sober since.
As for “Linewleum,” Mike reflects on the universal love fans have for “Linoleum.” "I have no idea why "Linoleum" is the NOFX song that is covered by so many bands while other NOFX songs get hardly any attention. ‘Linoleum’ wasn't a single, it had no video, it got no radio play, and most importantly, it didn't even have a chorus!!! All popular songs have choruses! WTF! So, One night I stayed up till 4:00 am checking out all the different versions on YouTube. Watching hundreds of bands from over 28 countries (mostly Indonesia) doing ‘Linoleum’ was a humbling experience for me. So I decided to write a song that was a shout out to all those people that learned those four chords and remembered the non-rhyming lyrics.”
He adds, “Then I asked the biggest of all the bands (Avenged Sevenfold) to play some leads on the song. Then M Shadows suggested we do a video together. Then I figured I should put all of the bands in the video. Well, I couldn't fit all the bands, but I picked a bunch of cool ones! A song about not playing a song that's not a hit song with a video about other bands covering the song! This is why I love punk rock writing punk songs. Rules out the door!"
NOFX – Linewleum (Official Video)
Watch the video for “Linewleum” above and click here to pre-order Single Album via Fat Wreck Chords. Produced by Descendents legends Bill Stevenson and Blasting Room co-owner Jason Livermore, Single Album will be released Feb. 26.