Review #148: NO-FX - NO-FX (EP) (1985)

NO-FX (EP)

Year: 1985

Genre: Punk Rock
Sub-Genres: Hardcore
Label: Mystic Records
Tracks: 7
Length: 11 Minutes
Style: Rebellious/Funny
My Rating: 6/8

NOFX formed in 1983 in Los Angeles by members Fat Mike, Eric Melvin, and Erik Sandin (that's a lot of Ericks... meh, not actually that much, actually... nevermind). While NOFX has basically hit relatively mainstream popularity in more recent years, the early years of NOFX were less pop-punk/melodic-hardcore oriented and more raw and hardcore punk-sounding. In 1984 they recorded a demo produced by Don Bolles of the Germs (the drummer) himself! Soon enough, they found a home on Mystic Records, and this was their first 7" EP ever.

1. Live Your Life
Starts out slow for a brief moment before speeding up to a fast speed. The verse is very fast and the chorus is slower. The song asks people why they give their money away to churches and religion instead of focusing on living their own lives. It's a pretty good song. Sometimes a set of more heavy chords will interval between a flowing riff.

2. My Friends
The first half is slow and the second half is fast. The song's about having friends that just use you and steal things from you and betray your trust for cheap laughs. Mike exclaims that his real friends are in his band.

3. Six Pack Girls
This one's a short song. I love the riff for this one. It's about a party where all of the girls are lame. However, after getting hammered the girls start to look pretty good, and you end up hung over with one of them the next morning!

4. Bang Gang
A slower song. It's about violent gangs, criticizing them for fighting "20-on-1", and their disregard for life. It's quite bassy. End of Side... A! For apple!

5. Hit It
This song kinda reminds me of later Black Flag, riff-wise. Much like Minor Threat sung about 'Straight Edge', eventually having their message over-exaggerated by a bunch of try-hard followers, this song refutes the aggressive Straight Edgers and Mike sings that he "has his own set of values". It's basically an anti-Straight Edge song.

6. Hold it Back
This one's about how hardly anything in life can just be divided into black/white matters. There are TWO guitar solos in this song! WAUW. The beat is cool in the ending part.

7. I.D.
Starts off with backwards talking. Probably something very EEEVIIILLLL. The song progressively gets faster and faster. The lyrics are about Mike meeting a drug dealer who promises to "set him free" from the stresses of everyday life, and him eventually get addicted. Then after the main part of the song there's a bunch of false endings and lead guitar-wanking... then another thrashy section is performed, and then there's yet ANOTHER fake ending before the real ending.

Well, that's the first NOFX record for ya. It's a pretty decent little EP, it's got some fast songs, some slower songs, the lyrics are pretty good n' stuff. The contents of it can be found now on a CD called "Maximum Rock n' Roll" that has the rest of their early stuff on it, or if you wanna track down an original copy of the 7", I'm sure that's possible also. Might have to go on some magical journeys, though... I hear they store some of these in a cursed Aztec ruin. So, just be careful! But anyways, yeah, it's a good EP and you should listen to it. Bye.

Top 3 Favorites:
1. Live Your Life
2. Hit It
3. Hold it Back