The Longest EP

In typically playful fashion, The Longest EP isn't an EP at all but rather a 30-song retrospective of NOFX’s career. The track listing brings together four of the band’s EPs—1987’s The P.M.R.C. Can Suck on This, 1992’s The Longest Line, 2006’s Never Trust a Hippy, and 2009’s Cokie the Clown—and mixes in a slew of rarities and b-sides. Aside from the acknowledged classics (“The Longest Line,” “Stranded,” “Remnants,” “Cokie the Clown,” “On the Rag”), this collection has a wealth of unheard material. “Concerns of a GOP Neophyte” is one of the band’s funniest anti-Republican screeds, while “I Wanna Be an Alcoholic,” “Perverted," and “My Name Is Bud” rework the agitated comedic hardcore of its early years. The compilation has plenty of evidence of NOFX’s punk credentials, but two standout tracks are performed acoustically, without the band's fury. Fat Mike’s solo renditions of “13 Stiches” and “My Orphan Years” bring out the songs' autobiographical poignancy. They're more than cool tunes; to listen to them is to hear personal testimony from one of punk's most candid survivors.