NOFX

Everything you need to know about NOFX can be found in "Please Play This Song On the Radio," a sneak attack on the censors that chases its doo-wop harmonies and chug-a-lug hooks with words that'd make George Carlin blush. Welcome to the underground version of Blink-182 — pop-punk with a punchline, from the mad-dash melodies of "Stickin In My Eye" and Sex Pistols sneers of "The Quitter" to the undisputed Warped Tour anthems of NOFX's instant classic, 1994's Punk In Drublic. And what do you know? Our Next Steps has enough skate-park standards to keep a half-pipe happy for hours.

While Heavy Petting Zoo was the first NOFX album to land in the Top 100 of Billboard's Pop Albums chart, there's no denying its pedal-pounding sound — a relentless joyride through punk rock's glory days, from the sneaky call-and-response choruses of "Bleeding Heart Disease" to the sun-baked ska horns of "Philthy Phil Philanthropist." In the years since, the SoCal quartet has shown no signs of slowing down, either, as they tore the '00s apart with the twitchy tempos of "USA-holes," the rubber-soled basslines of "The Idiots Are Taking Over," and the sideswiping riffs of "Dinosaurs Will Die." The fan favorites continue in our Deep Cuts, as NOFX bounces between cover songs, sorely overlooked EP selections, and a couple of live tracks that prove why they're the godfathers of pop-punk.

Don't let the screwball titles of NOFX's two live albums — I Heard They Suck Live!! and They've Actually Gotten Worse Live — fool you into thinking they're a walking disaster. Fat Mike, El Hefe, and the rest of the NOFX gang know exactly what they're doing, as they apply a wicked sense of humor to post-hardcore head rushes ("Murder the Government," "My Name Is Bud"), hammock-swinging slices of ska ("Reeko," the horn-stabbed "What Now My Love"), and crowd-surfing covers of the Misfits ("Last Caress") and OMD (a synth-free, hey-ho-let's-go rendition of "Electricity").

As if running one of punk's most influential labels (Fat Wreck Chords) wasn't enough, Fat Mike has spent more than two decades lobbing one-liners and low-end lashings from the front lines of NOFX. And that's the thing about one of L.A.'s true underground institutions — while they certainly got major-label offers during pop-punk's gold rush, NOFX were more than happy sticking to their D.I.Y.-or-die roots. Not that they've had anything to worry about. With more than 3.5 million albums sold worldwide, NOFX is one of the industry's most successful indie acts. So strap on your Doc Martens and get in the pit with us. We've got the ultimate NOFX set to sift through, from the lip-curling lyrics of The War On Errorism to a staggering stack of EPs and singles that'd take a week to sift through otherwise.