SNFU. One of our “local” hero bands. Influential to bands as big as metallica and nofx alike. Touring the world and signed to Epitaph back when we were young and impressionable, SNFU left an indelible mark in my teenage mind in so many ways. Shortly before or after seeing them open for the almighty badreligionband in Edmonton, and after having covered “Big Thumbs” in my very first high school band, I “met” Ken Chinn in person at the Warped Tour in Vancouver in 1996. Wandering the crowd, I found myself standing beside a dude with bleached dreadlocks, hocking the biggest loogie I had ever seen onto the smooth concrete floor of the (I think?) pne_playland in Vancouver. I recognized him immediately. No words were exchanged but our eyes met and that moment, for me, embodies the way in which “Chi Pig” was so brilliantly able to capture the absurdity of the human condition in his lyrical narrative. Having read “What No One Else Wanted to Say”, owned and traded (regrettably… I traded my FYULABA CD for Wagbeard’s “Ice Station Debra”… but that’s another story) so many SNFU records, seen them live in sickness and in health, covered SNFU tunes in two bands, and still regarding them so highly, it was important to me to share the news that a new, posthumous, release from SNFU is available at https://rakerecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-blessing-but-with-it-a-curse. Mr. Marc Belke has pulled together session recordings from In The Meantime and in Between Time (I think?) and contributions from incredible talents in @propagandhi_official, among others, to bring some of the band’s unreleased work to life.
I needed this record right now, and if your tastes live in the realm of melodic hardcore / punk, I think you may need it too.
What an incredible band and a perfectly tragic story. Please check them out. In honour of this release, I’ve added “Painful Reminder” to our Rad Mix Tape playlist. Enjoy!
