Review: A Fat Wreck salutes 25 years of Fat Wreck Chords and its fans

For 25 years, San Francisco’s Fat Wreck Chords has been one of the most popular and consistent labels in punk rock, releasing classic albums by NOFX, Lagwagon, No Use for a Name, Strung Out and dozens of other (mostly) melodic punk bands.

Founded by NOFX frontman Fat Mike and his then-wife Erin Burkett, the label was the soundtrack to the 90’s punk explosion for many, and one of the few labels that fans followed as obsessively as their favourite bands. Fiercely independent and often run on handshake deals with its bands, the label is one of the most successful examples of DIY there is, with its emphasis on music and friendship over the general corporate shenanigans that permeate the industry.

Timed to coincide with the label’s 25th anniversary, director Shaun Colon’s A Fat Wreck traces the history of the label and its impact on the punk scene by focusing on the label’s first wave of artists that would go on to define the label’s sound and aesthetic for years to come – Lagwagon, No Use for a Name, Strung Out, Good Riddance, and of course, NOFX. What could have easily been a standard talking heads style doc is broken up by scenes of puppets recreating (in)famous moments from the label’s history, from coke-snorting band members to S&M sex scenes. Given the freewheeling attitude of the label, the scenes work in seamlessly between the sets of interviews, and nicely break up the clips of middle-aged Californian punks reminiscing about the good old days when people still bought records.

Despite all the praise from the label’s acts, there are still some dissenting voices that keep the film from simply being a puff-piece, notably from Canada’s own party-poopers Propagandhi, who discuss the beef with Fat Mike over their criticisms of his Rock for Bush campaign in their Potemkin City Limits LP, a contention point for Mike as well given his wide support for the band.

One long-standing complaint about Fat Wreck Chords is that all the bands sound the same. Whether that’s because all of the acts are filtered through Fat Mike’s sensibility, or if that sound was a contrived effort to keep replicating the label’s early success is a sticking point for some. All the subjects are quick to credit house producer Ryan Greene as one of the main architects behind the oft-discussed “Fat Sound,” a mix of slickly-produced breakneck punk layered with catchy multi-part harmonies, though some bands admit that Fat Mike’s tinkering with their albums pushed them towards that immediately-recognizable (and some would say, homogenized) sound.

The major revelation in the film is just how vital Erin Burkett is to the day-to-day running of the label. While diehards know how important her role is in keeping the label afloat, especially give the recent tectonic shifts in the music business, many simply view the label as Fat Mike’s vanity project, so it’s nice to see the film focus on her difficult task of keeping the label running for over two decades.

Nearly every band in the doc stresses how much of a family unit the label is, a notion the film really brings home when focusing on the deaths of No Use For a Name’s Tony Sly, and Strung Out’s Jim Cherry, two tragic deaths that had a huge impact on the label and its fans. (There’s also some fun interview footage with Teenage Bottlerocket’s Brandon Carlisle, who sadly passed away after the film was completed).

A Fat Wreck is obviously a film made by devotees of the label, a fact they actually highlight right in the credits (“A film by Fat Wreck Chords fans.”) Nevertheless, the film manages to be even-handed about the label and its impact, highlighting its success while allowing space for alternate points of view. Montrealers will also get a kick out of some local 90’s footage of Fat bands courtesy of Punk Empire, including Lagwagon’s first Montreal show at the long-defunct club Woodstock.

A Fat Wreck screens at Centre Phi (407 Rue Saint Pierre), August 26th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $11.75 ($9.50 for students) available here.