The album that really put NOFX on the map. After joining Epitaph's roster and releasing S & M Airlines, the band recorded Ribbed. The record with the condom cover went on to do more than twice as good as its predecessor. Here's what the band has to say about the record: Once again we went back to Westbeach with Brett (Gurewitz, Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records owner). This record took 12 days. For some reason we were playing a lot of chess during the recording. I swear every 20 minutes me and Brett would play a game of speed chess, and then mix another song. This record was important. It was the first NOFX record that people actually liked. I think we finally got our sound. We took a little Bad Religion, DI, RKL, and came up with the nofx sound. Now when we went on tour, people showed up and enjoyed themselves. It was weird. No one really liked us very much before. So right when we started getting popular, our guitarist Steve quit to join a rock band. Oh well, that's when we got El Hefe. This record sold 8000 copies the first year. That was a lot. Flipside liked this one. Limited edition reissue on red vinyl.

• music label: Epitaph 2010

reviewed by Michu Meszaros 02/2014