No Use For A Name

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Follow @NoUse1 No Use For A Name were one of THE most successful and prolific acts to come out of the 90’s skate-punk scene. But there’s a lot more to it than that. Just have a look at their family tree, it has bands like Spazz, Foo Fighters, and Suicidal Tendencies to count among it’s branches. No really, think about that: the dude from that infamous grindcore band was in NUFAN ?!? Their long, unpredictable journey had been full of twists, turns, and alternate routes that led them to be one of the best-selling outfits of their genre. They’ve done it all: Warped Tour’s mainstage, MTV , a live record, and even a recent greatest hits album entitled, All The Best Songs . Hey, you know you’ve made it when you finally get a greatest hits collection! Not bad for some goofy kids from San Jose who started out with a couple hardcore 7"s… Early No Use releases appeared on New Red Archives, a San Francisco punk label operated by Nicky Garratt of the UK Subs. Believe it or not, in the late 80’s it actually made sense that they would be labelmates with Reagan Youth, Social Unrest, and Christ On A Crutch. An AllMusic review describes their early material as, “…hulking hardcore with mighty fists full of metal.” “Angry” and “Threatening”. This was a gritty, hardcore punk band, known mostly for their growling vocals and dark lyrical themes. Then came the first unforeseen occurrence: frontman Tony Sly unexpectedly developed into a proficient songwriter and mastered melody like few punk bands could ever do. Nobody knows where those gifts came from and you never saw it coming, but suddenly No Use For A Name was starting to make music that people actually liked. As is natural, the band kept evolving, and things changed in a major way for the band when they signed to Fat Wreck Chords in the mid-90’s. Their 8-song Fat debut, The Daily Grind EP, drew comparisons to Bad Religion and was a marked step up, but it was 1995’s, ¡Leche con Carne! , that would cement No Use For A Name as a success