NOFX

There's nothing like a Republican in the White House to really bring out the best in punk rock. The 1980s, when Reagan and greed ruled supreme, produced some of the best American punk rock. And now with the idiot son of an asshole (as Fat Mike likes to call George W.) in charge of things, punk rockers are getting pissed off again. Their tenth studio album, The War on Errorism finds NOFX at their most overtly political. Fat Mike uses his sardonic and irreverent wit to bash the hell out of American culture in the new millennium. Tracks like "The Irrationality of Rationality,” the ska-tinged "Anarchy Camp,” "Re-gaining Unconsciousness" and the unsettlingly radio-friendly "Franco Un-American" (a winking reference to the legendary canned pasta company) take broad shots at the dumbing down and corporatisation of America set to the band's razor-sharp melodic speed riffing. But they represent only half the story of this album. It's also Fat Mike's love letter to punk rock. On "The Separation of Church and Skate," the 14-track disc's opening salvo, Mike asks, "When did punk rock become so safe?" and over the course of the next 35 minutes he proceeds to show exactly why it shouldn't be safe. He laments and celebrates the punk of his youth with songs like "Medio-core,” "13 Stitches" and "We Got Two Jealous Agains" in which a punker finds love in a woman with a matching record collection. The disc is also about more than the music, though. The liner notes encourage political activism, and the CD itself contains a couple of video clips and a trailer for a documentary called Unprecedented that chronicles the theft of the presidency by Bush. Amusing, entertaining and educational with a beat you can slam dance to. Who could ask for anything more?