No Use for a Name, a hardcore punk outfit, came together in Sunnyvale, California during 1987. The founding lineup featured Tony Sly on vocals and guitar, Chris Dodge on guitar, Steve Papoutsis on bass, and Rory Koff on drums. Their first recording surfaced that year with the track “Turn It Around,” included on a double 7-inch issued by Maximum Rocknroll magazine. The band returned in 1989 via the single “Let ’Em Out,” then delivered their debut full-length, Incognito, the following year.
After 1991’s Don’t Miss the Train, they signed with Fat Wreck Chords and released The Daily Grind in 1993. Ongoing lineup shifts reduced the original roster to only Sly and Koff by the middle of the decade. Following 1994’s Leche con Carne, the group maintained a low profile until resurfacing in 1997 with Making Friends, which introduced guitarist Chris Shiflett and bassist Matt Riddle.
Shiflett left NUFAN shortly after finishing 1999’s More Betterness! to join the Foo Fighters and was succeeded by Dave Nassie, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies. The NRA Years appeared in 2000, and a live album promoted the subsequent tour several months later. The band entered the studio at the close of 2001 and issued Hard Rock Bottom the next year. In 2004 Sly paired with Lagwagon’s Joey Cape for the split acoustic album Acoustic before NUFAN returned with Keep Them Confused in 2005.
Their ninth studio effort, The Feel Good Record of the Year, was tracked at the Blasting Room with producer Bill Stevenson and arrived in April 2008. Nassie departed soon afterward and was replaced by Lagwagon guitarist Chris Rest, while Boz Rivera filled the drum chair vacated by Koff. Tony Sly died on July 31, 2012, at the age of 41. Months later the band reunited with Nassie and Koff for a tribute concert. Although they reconvened once more for a Fat Wreck Chords anniversary show in 2015, that appearance effectively closed the band’s run. In 2017 Fat Wreck Chords released Rarities, Vol. 1: The Covers, presenting the group’s versions of songs by the Misfits, Sublime, Social Distortion, Kiss, and Cheap Trick.
