NO USE FOR A NAME “All The Best Songs”
As a collector, compiler, and over-analyzer of all things having to do with mid-90s melodicore and skatepunk, NO USE FOR A NAME is one of the bedrock stones that makes up my punk rock foundation. The band’s breakthrough 1995 full-length Leche Con Carne and the 1997 follow-up Making Friends remain must-have classics, more than 10 years after their initial release. The second decade of NO USE FOR A NAME’s existence has been more controversial as the group has battled through line-up changes, shifting musical interests, and to some extent genre-irrelevance. After a lukewarm reception to 2002′s Hard Rock Bottom, the band struck back with the varied, yet more uptempo Keep Them Confused in 2005. A fuller production sound gave NO USE FOR A NAME a new set of teeth and the group seemed to be invigorated.
This brings us to All The Best Songs, a 26 song remastered retrospective that covers the band’s 20 year run, and includes two previously unreleased songs from the Keep Them Confused sessions (not bad, but you can understand why they didn’t make the final cut). Releases like these may not be as vital in the age of digital downloading, but I still have a strong affinity for them when they’re put together in a serious package with detailed artwork and a major sense of pride. Much like BAD RELIGION’s All Ages, MINOR THREAT’s Complete Discography, and the double-disc collection The Essential Clash, these wide-in-scope offerings have incredible potential to serve as gateways to more obscure media.
NO USE FOR A NAME’s lengthy discography is unique in that the group successfully transitioned from being a smoother sounding BAD RELIGION into a hard-nosed melodic punk rock band with nearly unparalleled hooks. It’s hard to believe that the same group that wrote the septic “Feeding The Fire,” also penned the coulda-been-a-mega-hit, “Life Size Mirror.” Complaints about song-selection are virtually absent (no songs from Incognito or Don’t Miss The Last Train appear, which isn’t such a bad thing) – nothing leaps out at me as a surefire omission, though I do wish “Always Carrie” from More Betterness was on here. Leche Con Carne leads the way with five songs, which is rightfully so, followed by three songs from the Daily Grind EP and four from Making Friends. Even with the remastering, the songs from Making Friends still have an hilarious amount of ‘clackity-clackity’ forbidden-beat drumming that entirely captures the Ryan Greene era of West Coast punk rock. However, songs like “Straight From The Jacket,” “Justified Black Eye,” and “Angela,” burn with an extra dab of polish and thump.
The real treat to All The Best Songs is the thick insert booklet with its photograph collages and detailed comments about each song and full-length. It is this kind of context that makes a collection like All The Best Songs come alive. Tales of woe and success on the road, commentary from studio sessions gone haywire, or just general notes about inspiration – each of these transform what is more or less a well-worn mixtape into something that has a sense of accomplishment. Thinking about this for moment, the word “accomplishment,” couldn’t be more accurate. So few of the mid-90s melodicore bands made a career out of their music; so few were able to move on from writing the same song over and over again. But that was never a problem with NO USE FOR A NAME – with a natural talent for memorable melodies and musicianship that was a cut above the rest, All The Best Songs reflects a creative legacy that rarely let anyone down.
Fat Wreck
