The Fat Club is a series of twelve 7-inch singles released monthly by Fat Wreck Chords from March 2001 to February 2002. 1,300 of each single were pressed; They were not available for sale individually, but were distributed by postal service to those who purchased a subscription to the series.[1]
The series featured bands who had not previously been associated with the label: Of the 12 bands who participated, only three—NOFX, Swingin' Utters, and Strung Out—were already part of the Fat Wreck Chords roster. Three of the participating bands had other one-off releases with Fat following their participation in the Fat Club: MxPx's The Renaissance EP (2001), Randy's Randy the Band (2005), and Strike Anywhere's Dead FM (2006). Three of the bands—The Lawrence Arms, The Real McKenzies, and American Steel—became long-term additions to Fat Wreck Chords' roster, releasing multiple albums through the label in the years following. Only The Vandals, Enemy You, and One Man Army have had no further releases through Fat Wreck Chords.
Though the singles were limited, several of the bands re-released their tracks on compilation albums in the years following, including NOFX's 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records (2002), Strike Anywhere's To Live in Discontent (2005), The Lawrence Arms' Cocktails & Dreams (2005), Swingin' Utters' (2008), and Strung Out's Prototypes and Painkillers (2009). All of the tracks from the series were re-released as part of the Fat Wreck Chords twentieth anniversary compilation Wrecktrospective in 2009.[2]
| Catalog | Band | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAT205 | The Vandals | April 2001[3] | |
| FAT202 | American Steel | April 2001[4] | |
| FAT201 | The Real McKenzies | May 2001[5] | |
| FAT208 | MxPx | June 2001[6] | |
| FAT203 | Strike Anywhere | July 2001[7] | |
| FAT204 | Randy | August 2001[8] | |
| FAT209 | NOFX | September 2001[9] | |
| FAT207 | Swingin' Utters | October 2001[10] | |
| FAT210 | Strung Out | November 2001[11] | |
| FAT206 | Enemy You | December 2001[12] | |
| FAT211 | The Lawrence Arms | January 2002[13] | |
| FAT212 | One Man Army | February 2002 [14] |