Aside from the blood, bruises, beer, and the bands, the one thing you could always count on punk-rock for was to provoke unpopular thought. To make you go against what polite society and your parents had taught you. NOFX has been making punkers snicker and scratch their heads since 1983, this one included.

The band began writing odes to drugs, drinking, and sex, but as the band and lead singer Fat Mike Burkett got older and grew their own families, the sociopolitical bent to the madness became more pronounced. And listeners like myself welcomed it, even if our brains had been trained to disagree.

Today Fat Mike turns 45 years old, and he hasn't shown any signs of wavering in his questioning of this spinning ball of mud. Just a few months ago he was sporting a mohawk, at an age when most guys his age should be settling into hirsute normalcy. Yes, that was him on the red carpet at the recent AVN Awards in Las Vegas with his girlfriend, Mistress Soma.

As a fan of NOFX since the '90s, I have watched the band get more political as the years have gone by. Blame Dubya and the war in Iraq, and the ever-present march of the religious right. But through it all, Fat Mike has done a good job of not preaching, but just speaking his mind, even when that line gets blurry on songs like "Leaving Jesusland" from 2006's fiery Wolves In Wolves' Clothing.

We all remember the band's spat with Christian screamers Underoath a few years back too.

What I guess I mean to say, is that even if you believe in God, gods, Mother Earth, or a grand faceless creator, it's possible to listen to NOFX with a open mind, because I have. In the spirit of punk-rock, I can even question a grandpunk like Mike's lyrics without throwing the baby out with the bong water. Even when he makes people think they drank his piss.

I collected ten of the band's most sacrilegious songs, each with that trademark Fat Mike whine, to make your bible-thumping friends' ears melt off, and not in the cool metal way.