NOFX – Cokie the Clown

  • Bobby Gorman posted
  • Reviews

NOFX

Cokie the Clown - Fat Wreck Chords

NOFX are a prolific band. It may seem weird to think about it, but who else has eleven studio albums, two live ones, three compilations, a few DVDs, two splits and 26 EPs not counting the mass amount of seven inches they also have laying around? I can’t think of any others, can you? Chances are you can’t becauseNOFX are the punk rock royalty of the scene and always releasing new material in one form or another.

Cokie the Clown, their twenty-sixth EP and newest release, is no different. Its features five songs recorded during the Coaster sessions and held off for a future release; and while none of the tracks on here are as good as the ones that did make the cut for the full length, Cokie the Clown will definitely please anyNOFX fan because at the end of the day, Cokie the Clown is your classic NOFX.

The album kicks off with the title track, a fast paced song about a drug-addled clown playing jokes on other unsuspecting prey. It’s a traditional NOFX song with Fat Mike’s sarcastic lyrics and fast paced momentum. Straight Outta Massachusetts is a more melodic cut, coming in at just over a minute long and singing about moving from coast to coast. Some may remember the track from its brief appearance on the kid TV show Pancake Mountain.

They pick up the pace again with Fermented and Flailing which sounds like a b-side from Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing and Codependence Day which previously appeared on this year’s Warped Tour 2009 compilation; but that doesn’t take away from the energy of the track.

The most surprising track on the EP comes right at the very end with an acoustic version of Coaster‘s My Orphan Year. The oddly-personal song is somewhat reminiscent of Whoops I OD’ d but seems so much more sincere and passionate in the acoustic format. For an EP that started with a song about a clown blowing drugs into people’s faces, this touching song about the death of Fat Mike’s parents seems an odd way to end the release but also helps show a side of NOFX that some people may forget about.

At just under eleven minutes long, Cokie the Clown doesn’t offer much new to the NOFX catalogue but it gives the listener exactly what they expect; and no fan of the band will be disappointed in any way.