Dinosaurs Will Die

This song is about the music industry. It is about how the industry is changing and the major record labels are gonna be the losers because of their failure to keep up. Their failure to evolve with the climate if you will. Hence "Dinosaurs".

The song was on the band's turn of the millennium album, and Nofx, having run their own label for years by their own DIY rules correctly anticipated the shift in the music industry. The main change is file sharing and the free distribution of music over the internet. The result of which is record labels are losing potential sales. This is affecting the Major labels the most. As for independent labels and smaller bands it could be argued that they are reaching a larger and wider audience that may mean MORE sales and they get to keep doing what they're doing. Some bands are even making it BIG without any record label.

The first couple of lines are self explanatory. It's a message to the major labels. 'You're worst fears, doomsday, it's happening....now.' For those who don't know the emergency broadcast system is a transmission that would automatically kick in on every tv channel/radio station etc upon some major emergency. ie a World War.

ALL THE YEARS OF HIT AND RUN - the way record labels sign a band, milk them for a few years and then put them out pasture/send them to the glue factory.

WHERE DID ALL THEIR MONEY GO?..... - the label - hence PARASITIC. The way a major record deal works is the band get an advance out of which they have to pay for everything to make a record, studio time etc,,, and they keep what's left, then the finished songs are the property of the label and the band get a tiny percentage of record sales/royalties... I'm not sure what the standard is but I'm sue it's somewhere between 1 and 10%. That aint much. Considering there's 3 - 6 people in most bands.

WE'LL SHOW THEM HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE. Mike is speaking for his label FAT here but also more broadly for all indies. Fat Wreck Chords only and always have signed ONE record deals with their bands, meaning the bands are under no pressure to bust out an album when perhaps they don't have the material or inspiration. So when they DO create an album, it's out of devotion etc...

When a band signs a (7) record deal with a major, they HAVE to release albums, whether they have material or not. The result is shit albums. But hey it makes the the label money so who cares.

Yeh La brea is an area in Downtown LA. I guess there's tar pits there and tar pits preserve stuff perfectly and many a dinosaur has been found in them.

In the '90s there were SIX major labels, Warner; Emi; Sony; BMG; Universal; Polygram. At the time of writing this song there were 5, (no Polygram) Currently (since '04) there are 4 remaining (Sony and BMG have merged)

I think that sums it up. It's pretty self explanatory but it is beautifully poetic and so insightful. this was written in the '90s. Amazing lyrics and as always with NOFX, dead on the mark. For a deeper understanding I recommend the book 'The Pirate's Dilemma' by Matt Mason.