No Use for a Name

No Use for a Name

Left to right: Rest, Sly, Rivera, and Riddle in 2012
Background information
Origin San Jose, California
Genres Punk rock, pop punk, skate punk, hardcore punk, melodic hardcore
Years active 1986 (1986)–2012 (2012)
Labels New Red Archives, Fat Wreck Chords
Associated acts Lagwagon, Foo Fighters, Spazz, Face to Face
Website nouseforanamemusic.com
Past members John Meyer
Doug Judd
Chris Dodge
Steve Papoutsis
Rory Koff
Tony Sly
Robin Pfefer
Ed Gregor
Chris Shiflett
Matt Riddle
Dave Nassie
Chris Rest
Boz Rivera

No Use for a Name (sometimes abbreviated NUFAN or No Use) was a punk rock band from San Jose, California, United States[1] formed in 1986[2][3] by Chris Dodge (guitar), Steve Papoutsis (bass) and Rory Koff (drums). The band's sound evolved considerably through its career, starting off as a Bay Area influenced punk band then moving on to a much heavier metallic tinted sound to finally taking on a much lighter brand of melodic punk as the years passed. After Sly's death on July 31, 2012, the remaining members chose to disband.

History

No Use For a Name was formed in 1986 by longtime friends Chris Dodge, Steve Papoutsis and Rory Koff. The early rehearsals of the band had taken place at a warehouse in Sunnyvale owned by Koff's father where they also came up with the name for the band. During this era of the band, the band was fronted by Papoutsis' friend John Meyer. Initially a four piece they later expanded to a six piece; adding co-vocalist Ramon Gras and second guitarist Doug Judd. The band experienced many line up changes during this period. In 1987, Chris Dodge left to play in fellow Bay Area punk band Stikky while in the summer of that year, both original vocalist John Meyer and Doug Judd left the band with Tony Sly replacing Judd on guitar duties. This line up of the band was first featured on Maximum RocknRoll's 1987 Turn it Around compilation, with the song "Gang Way." In 1988, Gras had a falling out with the rest of the band and left before an important show at Gilman and a live appearance on the KFJC radio show. In a tight spot, the band asked former guitarist Dodge, who prior to the formation of No Use had experience singing in other local bands, to rejoin as vocalist to which he accepted. This lineup of the band recorded two EP's; an eponymous EP on Woodpecker Records and Let 'em Out on Slap A Ham Records. In 1989, Dodge once again left the band which allowed Tony Sly to take over vocal and songwriting duties.[2][3]

NUFAN's debut album, Incognito, was released in 1990 through New Red Archives. It was the only album by the band recorded as a trio.[4] In 1991, Chris Dodge rejoined on second guitar and they released their second album Don't Miss the Train in 1992 before signing up with Fat Mike's label Fat Wreck Chords in 1993. In late 1992, Chris Dodge left the line-up,[2] and was replaced with guitarist Robin Pfefer, who took over on lead guitar so Sly could step down to rhythm and concentrate on singing. No Use for a Name also released their first record on Fat that year, The Daily Grind, which turned out to be a highly successful album.

Ed Gregor replaced Robin Pfefer on lead guitar soon after the release of The Daily Grind. In 1995, after the release of Leche Con Carne, their fourth full-length, Chris Shiflett and Matt Riddle joined the band to play guitar and bass, replacing Ed Gregor and Steve Papoutsis respectively. With the punk music breakthrough in 1994, No Use for a Name received a larger audience after releasing this album, compliments of their video for the song "Soulmate" which was played on the MTV show 120 Minutes. This was the first video on Fat Wreck Chords to ever be aired on MTV. In 1997, after the success of Making Friends, the band went on a worldwide tour through the U.S., Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan.

After releasing More Betterness!, Chris Shiflett left the band in 1999 to join the successful Foo Fighters, being replaced by Dave Nassie. Two years later, the band contributed to Fat Wreck Chords with the release of their live album, Live in a Dive: No Use for a Name and during the following year in 2002 No Use for a Name released its seventh studio album Hard Rock Bottom.

The band released their 8th full-length studio album titled Keep Them Confused June 14, 2005. It takes a more political position than earlier releases. A greatest hits collection titled All the Best Songs was released on July 10, 2007. A new fourteen song full-length studio album entitled The Feel Good Record of the Year was released on April 1, 2008. In 2009, when promoting the album in Europe, Dave Nassie left the band to join the ranks of Bleeding Through.[5] In August 2009 the band announced, that they replaced Nassie with Lagwagon's guitarist and founding member of RKL, Chris Rest.[6] In December 2010, Rory Koff announced to the band he would need time off from touring to go full-time with his snowplow business[7] and eventually was replaced by new full-time drummer Boz Rivera (of King City, RKL, and The Mad Caddies.)[1] Koff was the last remaining member of the original 1987 No Use for a Name line up.

Tony Sly died in his sleep on July 31, 2012.[8][9] Riddle, Rest, and Rivera played a tribute performance to Sly at the Envol & Macadam Festival in Québec City on September 8, 2012, featuring former No Use for a Name members Dave Nassie and Rory Koff.[10] This was the band's final performance, with Riddle commenting "This is the last No Use for a Name show ever. No one wants to do this without Tony."[11] The band's final show before Sly's death had also occurred in Quebec, at the D-Tox Rockfest in Montebello on June 15, 2012.[12]

Band members

Tony Sly, lead singer and chief songwriter from 1989 until his death in 2012
Chris Shiflett, lead guitarist from 1995–99
Dave Nassie, lead guitarist from 1999–2009

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

References

  1. 1 2 "Bands: Fat Wreck Chords". Fatwreck.com. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
  2. 1 2 3 "NO USE FOR A NAME - debut 7" - 1988". chrisdodgesounds.blogspot.ca. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  3. 1 2 Dodge, Chris. "Tony Sly Music Foundation". tonysly.org. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  4. ↑ Incognito (Booklet). No Use For a Name. New Red Archives. 1990.
  5. ↑ "Dave Nassie confirms No Use For A Name departure". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
  6. ↑ Lagwagon-ba harapott a No Use for a Name ShortScore.net (August 22. 2009.)
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 2, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  8. ↑ Flynn, John (2012-08-01). "In Memoriam: Tony Sly (1970–2012)". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  9. ↑ "Tony Sly (November 4, 1970–July 31, 2012)". Fat Wreck Chords. 2012-08-07. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  10. ↑ "Current and Former No Use for a Name Members to Play Tribute Show". Punknews.org. 2012-08-27. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  11. ↑ "Break-ups: No Use for a Name (1987–2012)". Punknews.org. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2012-09-16.
  12. ↑ Mongrain, Marc-André (201-08-01). "No Use for a Name: le chanteur Tony Sly est décédé (No Use for a Name: Singer Tony Sly Died)" (in French). Sors-Tu?.ca. Retrieved 2012-09-16. Check date values in: |date= (help)
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