---
date: 2024-05-20T12:05-08:00
title: This is my favorite band
description: I've called the same band my favorite for a long time and, the older I get, the less likely I feel that designation is to change.
tags:
  - music
---
I've called the same band my favorite for a long time and, the older I get, the less likely I feel that designation is to change.<!-- excerpt -->

<img src="https://coryd.dev/.netlify/images/?url=https://coryd.dev/media/blog/nmn.jpg&w=768&fm=webp&q=85" class="image-banner" alt="Albums and artists" loading="eager" decoding="async" width="768" height="512" />

This is my favorite band: [NoMeansNo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomeansno).

They're a punk band from Victoria, B.C. but they're also so much more than that. They're jazz-inflected, guitar is secondary to their sound and percussion is thrust to the forefront in every recording. Their lyrics range from the touching to the outright hurtful and humorous while *always* being intelligently and thoughtfully written (well, mostly).

> A bold plan drawn up by assholes to screw morons: News at 11!

[I found them, naturally, on the internet.](https://coryd.dev/posts/2024/i-found-the-music-i-love-on-the-internet/)

Their catalog has never been on any streaming service outside of some stray compilations. I spent a few years in college tracking down CDs, ripping and carefully storing each one. Studying it from the first song to the last. Over and over again.

> Nonsense is better, than no sense at all.

They have a few distinct musical periods — they started out as a sibling duo with vocals, bass and drums (so they could play live). They added a guitarist, recorded several essential LPs, recorded one as as a sibling duo (this time with guitar) and added a new guitarist.

> I couldn't remember my name, so I called myself Bob, it's weird being a Bob, but I'll get used to it, I'll have to.

They toured relentlessly, but I never caught them live — I had tickets to a show in LA and missed it. I bought tickets to the next tour, it got cancelled and they retired. That's life.

There are some bands where I *love* a handful of albums and discount the rest. NoMeansNo's discography isn't perfect, but I love all of it. The progression, the artistic detours, the b-sides (including the cover of the Dead Kennedys' *Forward to Death* that they recorded for a tribute compilation using nothing but their voices to recreate the instrumentation).

I've got shirts from them older than my kids and I pick up new ones from Bifocal Media when they throw out a run of 150-300. I've even got a skateboard deck with their art hung on my wall.

> I'm tired of waiting because I find there's a very very fine line between biding one's time, and wasting one's time, you know what I mean?

They're that artist I'll default to throwing on because I know it all so well. I'm not going to rehash their Wikipedia article or either of the books I've read about them recently but they deserve all the acclaim they've received over the years (and more). I love the hell out of 'em.

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