I found out about this band from a compilation album titled, “Short Music For Short People”. It’s 101 bands singing 30 second songs. All punk bands of all different types. Awesome way to find out about bands. If you know me, I’m sure you’ve heard me say something about how 30 seconds is long enough to show the greatness of tampons, condoms, alcohol and other products, so it’s fit to show the greatness of bands as well. It’s true.

Anyway, this band, Nomeansno is great. Dave Grohl is influenced by their drummer, John Wright. So don’t think this is just some amateur band that no one cares about. These are underrated musicians. Some of the greatest melodies come out of this band. Great intelligent poignant lyrics too. This is one of the greatest bands ever. Not all great things are easily consumed or appreciated.

Admittedly, a lot of their songs are of the dark, sardonic type. The subject matter isn’t for the weak-minded or weak-stomached. Even their more poppy material isn’t like the stuff you hear on the radio. Sad, but true. Their lyrics generally leave the pop aesthetic (this the type of stuff that appeals to a wide audience, stuff like Call Me Maybe (well, the original anyway) or Somebody I Used To Know or even to a certain extent, Kanye West’s Mercy, which mostly from this about the possibility of “love” (in it’s many different forms) or the loss of it (not that all pop songs are about “love”, there’s a small percentage out there that are about school shootings, although in a sense, that song could be said that the gun you need to outrun belongs to a kid that doesn’t feel “loved” or have any sense of belonging, so the school shooting happens, so it’s still about a form of love but in a far removed sense)(btw the parentheses is still open from where I left off at “leave the pop aesthetic” at least until now, that is)) far from any consideration.

It’s actually pretty difficult to find accessible songs by them. The ones that are catchy and awesome also tend to be really long songs. Also, admittedly… it’s a punk band the quality of singing isn’t exactly the average pop singing you hear on the radio. Also, what I find accessible might not even be close to that mark for you. So if you indulge me I shall get on with it-”it” being the point of the post-which is to show the most approachable songs by the band Nomeansno:

One Fine Day-First song that I heard of them that wasn’t No Fgcnuik (their song on the compilation album mentioned earlier). Lyrics and music fit together perfectly. It’s one of their most straightforward songs. Also, still my #1 favorite song by them.

Approaching Zero-I actually just found this song looking for the most approachable songs (or at least reminded of it, it’s been awhile since I’ve listened to it). Great catchy song. It has SAX AND KEYS!

Mondo Nihilissmo 2000-The music is approachable, lyrics not so much (especially at the end when it calls God “one big fucking jerk”, not exactly approachable if you believe in that sort of thing, although the message in the song (which is pretty much care about others, not just yourself) isn’t something religious people would necessarily disagree with, just the delivery), but I think the point of the song is very approachable. Those who find that “Nothing means anything” (honestly this belief actually really pisses me off, you can’t trust anyone who believes it, if they actually believe it in any serious sense (it’s probably more a pose to save face or show some false sense of strength/security or whatever, admit it: The “I don’t care” you say is nothing but that), they don’t think their word means shit, their relationships mean nothing, their choices all bunk, so what is there to fundamentally trust?) need to really rethink exactly what they believe and perhaps what they do. But I digress.

Hello, Goodbye-So this getting to be too long to be accessible (it’s 6 minutes and 21 seconds long), but it’s a pretty song in a way. The lyrics aren’t really that dark (a bit of imagery is dark late in the song, I guess). It’s pretty light. This is why I include this one. But it’s catchy in a way.

Lonely-This one is too quiet and melodic to not include in the most accessible songs by them, although the end does get noisy and fast.

Notable semi-approachable mentions that if a couple of the above songs seemed to interest you in the least bit (some of these songs are among my top songs by this band): “This Story Must Be Told”, “Now”, “Real Love”, “All Lies”, “He Learned How to Bleed”, “Two Lips, Two Lungs, and One Tongue”, and “Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed”.

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