Heavy Petting Zoo

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Heavy Petting Zoo
Studio album by NOFX
Released	January 31, 1996
Recorded	October, 1995 Razors Edge and Fat Planet
Genre	Punk rock, ska punk
Length	34:54
Label	Epitaph
Producer	Ryan Greene, NOFX
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau link
NOFX chronology
I Heard They Suck Live!! (1995) Heavy Petting Zoo (1996) So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes (1997)
Eating Lamb
12" LP cover

Heavy Petting Zoo is the sixth full-length album by NOFX, released on January 31, 1996 (see 1996 in music) through Epitaph Records.

Overview

The LP was recorded at Razor's Edge Studio in San Francisco. The track "Liza" continues the story of the two lesbians introduced in White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean's "Liza and Louise". The third installment of this tale can be found on Pump up the Valuum ("Louise"), having originally appeared on the Louise and Liza 7".

The song "August 8th" is about the day that Jerry Garcia died in 1995. After the album was released, it was brought to Fat Mike's attention that Garcia died on August 9th, not on the 8th as the song mistakenly suggests.

Artwork

Heavy Petting Zoo is the name of the album in its CD and cassette formats; the LP format of the same album is called Eating Lamb, and features different cover art.

The cover art for Heavy Petting Zoo, by illustrator Mark deSalvo, depicts a man sexually touching a sheep. The title itself is a play on words, with the phrases heavy petting and petting zoo combined to suggest taboo human-to-animal interactions. The alternate LP title, Eating Lamb, suggests both regular eating and the slang use that means performing oral sex, and the cover art shows a human "eating [a] lamb" in the latter sense.

Interestingly, Peter Singer, the famous Princeton University ethicist, wrote a philosophy article entitled "Heavy Petting" about the topic of bestiality. Singer is the author of Animal Liberation, a well-known work about animal rights that is referenced by NOFX's album Liberal Animation.

Track listing

• All tracks written by Fat Mike

1. "Hobophobic (Scared of Bums)" – 0:48
2. "Philthy Phil Philanthropist" – 3:10
3. "Freedom Like a Shopping Cart" – 3:43
4. "Bleeding Heart Disease" – 3:36
5. "Hot Dog in a Hallway" – 2:50
6. "Release the Hostages" – 2:29
7. "Liza" – 2:55
8. "What's the Matter with Kids Today?" – 1:13
9. "Love Story" – 2:37
10. "The Black and White" – 3:36
11. "Whatever Didi Wants" – 3:00
12. "August 8th" – 1:35
13. "Drop the World" – 3:22

Personnel

• Fat Mike (vocals, bass)
• Eric Melvin (guitar)
• El Hefe (guitar, trumpet)
• Erik Sandin (drums)

• Recorded in October, 1995 at Razors Edge and Fat Planet
• Produced by Ryan Greene and NOFX
• Engineered and mixed by Ryan Greene

External links

• NOFX official website
• Epitaph Records
• Fat Wreck Chords