So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes

Studio album by NOFX

Released

November 11, 1997

Recorded

August 1997 at Motor Studios in San Francisco

Genre

Skate punk, ska punk

Length

33:16

Label

Epitaph

Producer

Ryan Greene, Fat Mike

NOFX chronology

Fuck the Kids
(1996)

So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes
(1997)

Timmy the Turtle
(1999)

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So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band NOFX. It was released on November 11, 1997 through Epitaph Records.

The band often find themselves bombarded by footwear while performing live, as it is common practice of punk rock fans to throw shoes lost by crowd surfers on stage. From this, and the title of the fourth book of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, comes the record's title.

The album was recorded at San Francisco's Motor Studios in August 1997 and was produced by Fat Mike and regular Fat Wreck Chords producer Ryan Greene. The liner notes for the album claim it is 'arguably their third best album' (up to that point) although Fat Mike has referred to it as his favourite one on several occasions. Also therein the standard practice of including a photograph of each band member has been mocked, with members of other punk bands standing in for the four NOFX members:

Track 9, "Champs Elysées", is a cover version of the track "Les Champs-Élysées" by Joe Dassin.

The "Kill Rock Stars" song is written about musician Kathleen Hanna, referencing her by name: "Kill the rockstars? How ironic, Kathleen. You've been crowned the newest queen." The song's title is a reference to riot grrrl record label Kill Rock Stars. In response Hanna wrote "Deceptacon", included on Le Tigre's first album, which referred to the NOFX song "Linoleum": "Your lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor, I'll walk on it, I'll walk all over you".

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