The Separation of Church & Skate

Wow, you can really tell Mike and Melvin are pissed by the way they sing this song!

OVERALL this song is amazing, but everytime I listen to it I want to get up and walk out of work. I want to go back to high school days causing all kinds of trouble and not thinking about any consequences.

I wish I could just punch a hole through my door for no reason whatsoever.

"the kids who used to live for beer and speed now want their fries and coke," pisses me off. I want to live for that stuff AGAIN, but I can't because then I'd be out of a job. You might think I might not need my job, but I want my fries and coke.

the name 'Seperation of Church and Skate' is like a simily or whatever the fuck its called, well goin on Punk rock is like the Church and the skate is the pop punk bands and the little kids that are taking over. like a bunch of kids taking over a church and skating a sacred place so that they can have some fun. see the example FAT MIKE IS A FUCKING GENIOUS!!!!!!.
kids are turned onto the fact that they have found some fun from what some other kids consider Sacred( if that little part there didnt remind you of yourself then your PROBLY in it for hte fun of it). the meanin of the songs is( i am just goin line by line)

little kids are starting to take over the mosh pit

since when did punk need safety precautions

kids used to love the old ways of punk(e.x speed and beer) but now they choose the new substitute(e.x fries and coke)

bad words adn swearing are bad(cuz little kids are around) and they dont want to disturb the peace

MUST SEPERATE THE CHURCH AND SKATE( get rid of all the kids who are in it for the fun of it and not the luv)

we can make the kids as safe as possible

take even more safer measures to keepin kids safe

pretty self explanitory nice bands only play make every show liek a movie(never changin and always the same outcome)

sing my country tis of thee and sweet land of liberty like they do in all mainstream american sports

that whole thing about punk rock bein safe and duan or fletcher(ofpennywise) not doin anything to enourage it because they hate bouncers and stuff and make sure that there arent any at a pennywise show. but it seems to not be working cuz more bouncers keep coming

he wants the scene(punk) to really show its true colors like it used to in the old days

our hate against bein told what to do and tryin not to have satisfaction

stop singin songs bout girls and love you killed the owl(kinda like an owl the scary bird of birds in a sense) and you freed the dove(emoness pop punk umm anything to do with new punk bands)

political songs and confrontational songs have been replaced with melodic songs that that have no meanin(in this sense anyways cuz we all know emo has a meaning to make you cry)

punk rock is no longer teh punk it has its just there now and its become tame all the bands are sounding the same now

just basicly saying what he wants back in the scene or waht he misses about the scene

where is the hate why are all teh records rated g(generalaudiance no swearin(litl or no) and no mean stuff)

well thats the whole song and that took me a while to do well actually like 15 minutes but yea i love this song ilove NOFX!!!! they are the best if you dont think this is right tell em what you think cuz this probly isnt right buti know it works fuckign jsut good enough for any other explaination

Sluttymike the socials(my band)

I don't think the punk scene would be any better off without NoFX. Every band has its influences, and without those good bands to be an influence, all of music would go to shit.

To me this song is just about the separation of conformity and doing what you want. Instead of listening to authority, turning down your music, and being polite...NoFX is telling people not to forget the rebellion the scene was founded on.

I think whoever says that you can't have a Christian punk should think about it. I'm personally not religious, but punk is also about standing up for what you believe in and if you honestly believe in God, I respect you for standing up for that. I think it's stupid to say that Christian punks are conforming anymore than you're conforming to the stereotype of what punk "should" be, and what people view it as. To me, punk is about doing what you want, and in some regards I disagree with NoFX telling people who they should be and how they should act because it seems hypocrital to put punk into such a small box.

I dunno. Honestly, listening to and liking rap and punk rock doesn't seem all that bad to me. Probably because I do it (and metal, and Japanese pop, and whatever else pleases my ear). It only gets annoying when people slap on the angst and try to act all hardcore just because they listen to punk, then sag their jeans and put on a jersey because they listen to rap. That kinda stuff just bothers me.

But yeah, I think this song speaks for itself. When did punk rock become so safe? No, when did rock become so safe as a whole? I used to turn on the alternative rock station when I was feeling pissed but now It's like listening to The Backstreet Boys with guitar riffs. I dunno how the airwaves are now seeing as how I havent listened to the radio in a few years but from the stuff I've seen it's not pretty.

ok, guys. i hate the emo scene and emo kids just as much as the last guy and worship bands like the descendents, unwritten law, nofx, rancid, screeching weasel, but you gotta see the line of pop punk and emo. emo is silt your wrists, wear black 24/7, hate your life and everything that revolves around it, and like bands like panic a the disco and good charlotte. (aka: mtv gen.). and then there is pop punk: have unscarred wrists, wear regular clothes, and like regular bands that dont involve singers thats voices are high as hell. also pop bands dont let mtv overtake them and shoot them down (as green day just did recently). they realize that attention is good, but there is a limit that you dont wanna cross to where you hear that damn song american idiot 17 times a day. bands like blink got their influences from the great bands we know as nofx, screeching weasel, unwritten law, and especially the decendents. while emo bands' influence might just be what they think life is about, slitting wrists and being gay. and for that reason i have absolutley no problem with bands like blink because they hate the emo kids just as much as nofx probably does while they think that they might ruin their rep. they are not considered a puss punk band just because they sing about girls. look at some of the greats. they sing about girls and you still listen to them and respect them as a true punk band. im not saying that blink is a true punk band, but dont diss them because they like to make jokes about proctoligits, ############ vag's. and that no way is accosiated with "church". and for this reason, i think emo should be classified as a seperate genre from punk. they are the ones who created this shadow over real punk and threw it out the window forgetting their roots. and as we await for the "second coming of a true punk band" we should just respect what bands like the decendents and nofx gave us.

It's about the state of punk in modern times. It seems to be losing its edge, being more widely available to audiences and many bands going softer

I think this song's pretty self explanitory. The 'church' represents what punk is becoming- Safe, unamusing, boring, and "politically correct" The 'skate' represents what punk started as, what it should be- Fast, fun, dirty, dangerous, and hardcore. He's saying we need to seperate the 'church' and the 'skate', keep punk what it always has been, and dont give in to this poppy bitch-punk scene thats been going around.

Reason I've joined and registered to this webpage is to answer the reply of the "underthegun897" guy. So here it goes...

""the kids who used to live for beer and speed now want their fries and coke" so NOFX is indirectly stating they wish more people were alcoholics and hooked on speed...thats nice. (not that coke and fries are amazing for you, either)""

Okay bro, I think you've got something wrong here, it's not about drinking beer or doing speed, it's just a way to tell that today's punk rock kids rather do/use/consume stuff that they are allowed, "supposed" or even expected to. Punk rock is or at least used to be a movement that is about tearing the book and writing your own rules and doing what you believe and not doing what your parents/teachers tell you just because they tell you so.

""cursing and flipping birds are not allowed, in fact let's keep noise levels down" now i know why bands like Anti-Flag and Dead Kennedys hate punks like Fat Mike so much..Anti-Flag has in their Die For The Government album that so many think that punk is just "a mohawk, a sneer, and a bad attitude" apparently all of these, including immaturity, are what fat mike thinks of punk music."

Okay first of all retard, this one bothered me the most. Anti-Flag met Fat Mike on warped tour one summer and they are friends since then and Anti-Flag even did two albums on mike's label Fat Wreck Chords which include "The Terror State" and "The underground network" and fat wreck chords time is considered anti-flag's best era. You still think you're right? Okay let's move on to DK, Jello Biafra mentioned that fat mike was the first guy he called when rest of dk sued him for playing his songs, also known thing is that they are friends in private life and there even is a video where you can see jello and mike hanging on GG Allin's show.

""why don't we put pads on the kids, helmets, head gear and mouth pieces: i guess after the kids are hooked on speed and alcohol, he'd like to see them hurt themselves on their bikes and skateboards."

When i first seen your comment I just had to check your age, and it was no surprise when i saw you were born in 69', but what came as a surprise that an older man like you doesn't get that he does not refer to skateboarding or bikes here, the line you've mentioned is written ironically and does not have to do anything with skateboarding or other sports and it's also noticeable from next few lines of the song.

""i want conflict i want dissent, i want the scene to represent" most punk bands represent peace..but it appears NOFX prefers violence."

First of all smartass, this line doesn't mean anything without the next line, and, did you actually here any punk music in your freakin life? The peace that punk bands represent is peace in form of not having wars going on in world, everyone having the same rights disregarding their wealth/skin color and stuff like that, they don't promote hippie atmosphere on punkrock shows or hippie way of "solving the problems"(sitting naked, smoking weed and wasting their time and think they'll change something and not realizing that they are just another problem to solve for the whole world).

"our hatred of authority, our fight against complacency" ive heard that in so many songs, yet then they try to say "be original" here: "when did punk rock become so tame, these fucking bands all sound the same"

Do you actually realize what did they wanted to say with that line? don't really think so...

"We want our fights we want our thugs, we want our burns we want our drugs" Again..violence and drug-use. he sounds like a jock whos getting into punk for the fashion..i think instead of "Davey Destroyed The Punk Scene" it should have been "Fat Mike Destroyed The Punk Scene" (Anti-Flag)

It's not violence, he just says he misses the danger of being in a punk rock band or being a punk rocker that's gone today, because punk is an underground movement not the mainstream shit it has become today because of the people like you who just don't get what punk is about.

"where is the violent apathy, these fucking records are rated G" once again..the violence. and he also thinks that swearing makes him sound cool and tough. how often did the ramones, adicts, bad religion, sex pistols, clash, buzzcocks, dead kennedys countless of other GOOD, original punk bands swear? not very often...

Once again, you've proved that you're full of shit. Swearing? I'll remind you of a song line from cock sparrer "Rotten on the telly, showing what a few choice words could do" reminds you of anything? Dead Kennedys - nazi punks fuck off (just and example, not the only song), and you say, GOOD, original punk bands?? What the fuck are you talking about man, original? good? come on...

"in conclusion, i dont think that Fat Mike is any greater than all of the bands hes complaining about. if you disagree with me on anything i said, as in using drugs, violence, ect. then you're a complete idiot, which would probabaly explain why you're a NOFX fan in the first place...."

Ok, so I'm an idiot because I pointed out that nothing of what you've written is correct?

Come on guys, this is satire. It's not about "the state of punk in modern times", it's a parody of the pathetic attitude of the genre since it's original conception. The style of tongue-in-cheek humour present in this song is precisely the reason why I love NOFX so much.