FAT WRECK CHORDS HAS THE RIGHT IDEA

Fat Wreck Chords is the indie punk label run by Fat Mike of NOFX. NOFX has a new album out this week, Coaster, and it costs $8. Mike posted a note on his web site: "...it will be priced under $10 in every store in North America. This is not a sale. This is how much this CD costs, and not only that, but EVERY CD on Fat Wreck Chords will now be under $10 and most will be under $8. No, we are not crazy. We just think that having a very low CD price is a fair way for scene supporting music fans to support their favorite independent bands and labels. Sound crazy? I think it sounds reasonable. We make less profit, but bands hopefully will sell more CDs to more people, which is why we started doing this in the first place."

I'm not gonna front like I've been a fan since day one or whatever. I first saw NOFX in maybe '93: they opened for Fishbone and were great and I bought some of their albums. But I really respect this move. Mike is his own boss and he's made a lot of money while NOT gouging his fans. A lesson to be learned there, I think.

FISHBONE TO PLAY THE WARPED TOUR

OK, I realize that the headline brands me as "the old guy at the Warped Tour." I admit it, I don't know who many of the bands on this year's Warped Tour are: the only ones I care about other than Fishbone are Bad Religion, Flogging Molly, NOFX and Shooter Jennings (!).

The last time I went to the Warped Tour was years ago: Rancid and The Rollins Band were both on the bill, I don't remember who else. I did actually go to the first one, I think the admission was actually $5 and the headliners were Quicksand, L7 and Sublime (one of my favorite bands already, but they were a terrible mess).

As for Fishbone, I had to check their not-very-updated MySpace page, which indicates that the only old-school members are singer/sax player Angelo Moore (of course! he is one of the greatest frontmen of all time) and bassist John Norwood. Rocky George, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies, is the guitarist and I don't know who the rest of the guys are. But Fishbone always put on a great show. I may actually go this year.