"[1] Nomeansno's distinct hardcore punk sound, complex instrumentation,[2] and dark, "savagely intelligent" lyrics inspired subsequent musicians.

[5] Formed in 1979 by brothers Rob and John Wright, they began as a two-piece punk band influenced by jazz and progressive rock.

Writing for Trouser Press, critic Ira Robbins described Mama and the early 7"s as "Devo on a jazz trip, Motörhead after art school, or Wire on psychotic steroids.

The You Kill Me EP in 1985 on Undergrowth Records contained experimental songs like "Body Bag" and a cover of "Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix.

The three also began performing Ramones covers and more traditional punk music as the Hanson Brothers, a side project that would later receive more attention.

The song was a minor college radio hit, which AllMusic reviewer Adam Bregman called "a bit chilling, even though it's spit out at slam-pit's pace".

In 1988, the group issued two releases recorded with producer Cecil English: The Day Everything Became Nothing EP and the Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed album.

AllMusic reviewer Sean Carruthers called the experimental recordings "less aggressive" than, but nonetheless worthy of, the band's previous efforts.

He subsequently released a solo album in 1997 before forming the duo Two Pin Din with Wilf Plum of Dog Faced Hermans in 2005.

Dressing as a group of Canadian ice hockey players and fans, they derived the band's name and personae from characters in the 1977 George Roy Hill film Slap Shot starring Paul Newman.

AllMusic critic Ned Raggett later praised the album's balance, arguing that it reached dark and sinister depths while also exhibiting subtler and more introspective moments.

With a title from philosopher Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, the album featured simpler and more melodic songs than its predecessors[19] while nonetheless retaining the band's "taste for blood and gristle.

In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Tom Schulte praised the album in its experimental tone as "dark and unforgettable, poignant and cutting.

Featuring a slow stoner rock cover of the Ramones's "Beat on the Brat" and a fifteen-minute version of Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" with electric piano and congas, the album was well received.

AllMusic's Schulte assessed the album as "intense and heavy collegiate punk" as praised it as the band's finest effort since Wrong.

The band left Alternative Tentacles in 2002, mainly due to concerns about record distribution in Europe where their most devoted fan base lived.

Their tenth studio album, All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt, was released on August 22, 2006, by AntAcidAudio in the United States and Southern in Europe.

AllMusic critic Jo-Ann Greene praised the album's exhausting diversity as befitting of the band's legacy and career-spanning accomplishments.

[23] Greene wrote that with the record Nomeansno travel "yet again through the undergrowth and underbelly of the rock realm, and with all the piss and vinegar that they started out with a quarter century ago.

Holliston continued to perform with the Showbusiness Giants and release solo albums, while John Wright began working as musical director for the all-robot rock band Compressorhead.

[25] In December 2023, PM Press released the band's authorized biography, NoMeansNo: From Obscurity to Oblivion: An Oral History, written by radio host Jason Lamb.

[26] In 2023 John Wright's solo project Dead Bob issued the album Life Like and toured in its support with a live band featuring Ford Pier and other musicians.