So why is NOFX’s White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean makes me think about how eclectic NOFX is.
Usually, eclectic with regard to a band means that their sound is rangy, covering multiple genres or styles. And that’s certainly true in NOFX’s case, with their forays from SoCal skate punk rock into thrash metal, pop punk, ska, and even old timey-ish goofball stuff when the mood strikes.
But NOFX is also eclectic with regard to their lyrics and attitude and tone. For example, within one album, we get the powerhouse earnestness of “Soul Doubt,” the comedic shtick of “Buggley Eyes,” the cautionary tale of “Bob,” and the sarcastic anti-corporate screed of “Please Play This Song On The Radio.”
As with “Linoleum,” off of Punk in Drublic (#492 of best 1,000 albums ever), “Soul Doubt” is NOFX at its wildly unique sneering-yet-earnest best, which is to say it’s a pure adrenaline blast of punk rock (and additionally it has one of the best double entendre song titles of ever, I’d wager).
“Bob,” as noted, is a cautionary tale, but it’s one that packs in a surprising amount of both sarcastic humor and the possibility of redemption through the power of music. It’s also super catchy pop punk, which is itself a NOFX superpower.
He spent 15 years getting loaded
15 years ’til his liver exploded
Now what’s Bob gonna do
Now that he can’t drink?
“Please Play This Song On The Radio” is a much more straight ahead comedic song*, but it contains a potent message all the same about the tension between art and commerce in the quest to get radio play, with the fame and riches that can lead to.
* It also has a shocking amount of commonality with the brilliant theme song for It’s Gary Shandling’s Show.
“Buggley Eyes” is a straight up old timey goof of a song (and a really fun one, too). But don’t let that fool you, as “Fat Mike” Burkett relayed to New Noise Magazine:
What’s interesting is our lyrics have always been pretty serious, social-political lyrics. Not always, but ever since our first 7”, the lyrics are serious. And people think of us as a joke band, because we’re funny on stage and we have a few funny songs, but I mean, our songs aren’t funny. They’re not.
Some stats & info about NOFX – White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Punk Rock, Pop Punk, Punk Revival, Skate Punk, SoCal Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean released? 1992
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #324 out of 1,000
NOFX’s White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from NOFX’s White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
There’s nothing new, no one I want to talk to, nothing I want to think about, I got soul doubt.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.