Archive Review: NoFX’s Never Trust A Hippy EP (2006)

One of the few true legendary bands in punk rock, NoFX continues to raise the lyrical bar for the genre. Although Fat Mike and his crew have always dabbled a bit in socially-conscious wordplay, the band and its primary songwriter have become much more direct and decidedly caustic as American spirals down the toilet of institutionalized Conservatism. With the six-song EP Never Trust A Hippy, NoFX attacks right-wing Christianity with a blunt force trauma that few artists have been willing to use in their art. Christ, if Pat Robertson ever hears these songs, there’ll be literal hell to pay, hit squads of Bible-toting, cross-bearing Conservative Christians shadowing the band from town to town and club to club.

NoFX’s Never Trust A Hippy

Yeah, Never Trust A Hippy is that damn good…at least if you’re a punk-rock-lovin’, anarcho-leftist dupe like the Reverend. The “Hippy” in question is the big enchilada himself, JC, and what organized religion has done to the guy’s once-hallowed reputation. “I’m Going To Hell For This One” is the climax of the EP, a portrait of Christ as a “regular Joe” wanting his share of the take, a party to go to and maybe a little of the sins of the flesh. Beneath the song’s comic exterior, however, Fat Mike hits upon a vital truth – much of today’s religious fervor is built not upon the love preached by the big cheese in the sky but rather on fear. Fear of gay marriage, fear of sex, fear of hell, etc…there’s not much that’s positive and life-affirming about Conservative Christianity.

Much of the rest of Never Trust A Hippy also displays NoFX’s trademark tongue-in-cheek humor, Fat Mike ripping off clever and wickedly funny lines with shameless glee. “You’re Wrong” remakes Too Much Joy’s classic “You Will,” which in itself was a satirical rip-off of a TV commercial, the NoFX tune name-checking such right-wing icons as Sean Hannity, the NRA, and Ann Coulter while also blasting Islamic Jihad, the FBI’s Cointelpro program and mindless nationalism. “The Marxist Brothers” mixes Groucho with Karl in its dissection of manufactured dissent while the Dickies-by-way-of-the-Germs “Golden Boys” is covered here with blistering fury, the song questioning killing in the name of religion.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

As they’ve done in the past, Never Trust A Hippy offers an advance look at the band’s upcoming Wolves In Wolves’ Clothing album, featuring two songs from the new disc. The EP stands tall on its own however, NoFX mixing Fat Mike’s incendiary lyricism with the band’s typical guitar-driven punk rock fury. Although Never Trust A Hippy only whets the appetite for the full-length album to come, you know it’s going to be a great summer when Fat Mike and the boys come back to town! (Fat Wreck Chords)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2006