Rock Doc Of The Week: 'A Fat Wreck' (Now On Amazon Prime)!

Growing up on indie labels like I.R.S., Enigma, Rough Trade, Creation, and Factory, among a multitude of others, I tend to view modern-day mall punk indie labels with a detached bemusement that comes from just not being that into modern-day mall punk labels.

Not since Christian punk label Tooth & Nail was in their prime have I seen a label churn out a non-stop assembly line of same-sounding emo punk. Keep in mind that I do not say that as a slam against either label. I applaud anyone who hits upon a winning formula and then exploits the ever-loving shit out of it with an almost pathological intensity.

Erin Burkett of Fat Wreck Chords.

Having said that, "A Fat Wreck", which is streaming on Amazon Prime, was a well-done, expertly-paced glimpse into the personalities behind the biggest mall punk indie label in the known universe.

Rather than blow all the cool, funny, and/or touching parts of this doc to pad out this article, allow me to list a handful of things that NOFX's Fat Mike and his ex-wife Erin -who still manages the day-to-day for the label - have gotten right in running Fat Wreck successfully over the past three decades:

1. They've used the label as a way to work with their friends while making new ones and selling a fuck-load of music in the process. That, my friends, is called "living the dream". I mean, who wants to work with a bunch of people they hate, like Daphne in accounting who steals people's lunches and burns popcorn in the microwave.

2. They didn't get a huge head when the money started rolling in and decide they needed to expand to some multi-million-dollar headquarters in the heart of San Francisco.

NOFX's Fat Mike, co-founder of Fat Wreck Chords.

3. They didn't hand over part/full ownership of the label to some major label to pay off some massive debt caused by doing business with and/or borrowing money from the very same major label (see Mute Records).

4. With music sales falling off a cliff post-Napster, they scaled back the operation rather than continue to lose money on keeping a larger, more cumbersome ship afloat.

5. Over the years, and throughout the documentary, the one thing you hear repeatedly from band after band is that Fat Wreck Chords paid their bands on-time.

That, my friends, is more than enough reason to place Fat Wreck Chords among my favorite indie labels because nobody needs cash more than a band. Now go watch this excellent 2015 rock doc before it disappears from Amazon Prime.