0 2 = 1

Background and recording

By 1991, the members of Nomeansno had quit their day jobs and focused on their attention on their band, which was gaining an increasing audience in Europe and North America. They had recently completed supporting their most widely acclaimed record, Wrong, whose promotional tour yielded the live album Live + Cuddly. They recorded The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy collaboratively with former Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra earlier in the year before beginning work on the proper follow-up to Wrong.

In July, the band returned to Profile Sound Studios to record with Cecil English. They recorded 19 songs during the sessions, of which 11 appeared on the final record. The album tracks included a mix of hardcore punk, progressive rock, and experimentation, as well as "straightforward swinging grooves" as in the opening song "Now."

All eight of the outtakes were eventually released. Two tracks, covers of The Subhumans's "Oh Canaduh" and D.O.A.'s "New Age," were issued as a 7" on Allied Recordings later that year. Another, a cover of the track "Forward to Death," was included on the Dead Kennedys tribute album Virus 100. The remaining five outtakes were packaged with four demos and released as the 0 + 2 = 1 ½ compilation in 2010. Each of these five outtakes appeared on subsequent Nomeansno releases: "Cats, Sex, and Nazis" and "I Need You" on Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy? (1993), "Blinding Light" on Mr. Right & Mr. Wrong: One Down & Two to Go (1994), and "Lost" on The Worldhood of the World (As Such) (1995).

Release

The album was issued on CD, LP, and cassette by Alternative Tentacles in 1991. To support it, the band toured extensively in North America and Europe. Guitarist Andy Kerr left the band after the tour to emigrate to the Netherlands, and the band returned to its original two-piece formation of brothers Rob and John Wright.

Nomeansno bought the rights to their back catalogue from Alternative Tentacles in 2002, and reissued 0 + 2 = 1 on CD and double LP in 2007.

Reception

The album was received fairly well by critics. Writing for Ox Fanzine, Joachim Hiller argued that the record helped to solidify the band's "godlike status" through "complex rhythms, harrowing chants, and unorthodox guitar work." In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Adam Bregman assessed the album as "among their most far-out records" and worried that "[t]he songs here are incredibly long and somewhat repetitive." Nonetheless, Bregman concluded that the album "has a lot of great moments stretched out over a record that's way too long" and awarded it three out of five stars.

Track listing

All songs written by Nomeansno.