Maximum RocknRoll

Maximum Rocknroll collects NOFX’s earliest recordings, made between 1985 and 1988, when its members were still pimply-faced teenagers from West Los Angeles. These recordings sound different from the thick and tuneful punk rock that NOFX would formulate in the '90s—but taken on its own, this is a fairly magnificent artifact of '80s L.A. hardcore. NOFX was certainly more feral at the start, as proven by “Live Your Life,” “Hit It Hold It Back,” “Cops and Donuts," and “Too Mixed Up.” There are traces of thrash metal, but overall this is the essence of SoCal hardcore: unalloyed teenage obnoxiousness delivered with maximum proportions of aggression and volume. There are early indications of the group’s wit (“Drain Bramaged”) and love for intoxication (“Six Pack Girls”), but the most impressive aspect of the recordings is their sheer intensity. The young NOFX might have been underdeveloped and unfocused, but no one can say the band wasn’t savage.