Fat (EP)

The Descendents' initial recording lineup of guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo, and drummer Bill Stevenson released the band's 1979 debut single "Ride the Wild" / "It's a Hectic World", with a sound that blended Devo-like new wave and Dick Dale-style surf music. Stevenson sold copies of the single to fellow students at Mira Costa High School, attracting the attention of classmate Milo Aukerman, who began attending the band's practices regularly. Aukerman soon became the band's lead singer after jumping in to sing with them at practice. "Caffeine makes you hyper", said Lombardo, "In general, it makes you want to play faster." Aukerman later recalled: "We started drinking too much coffee; 'cause of that and the addition of me, the music became very quick and all about bursts of energy. It's interesting: we started very melodic, then moved to hardcore, but melded the two at a certain point and became melodic hardcore". ==Recording, themes, and releases==

The Fat EP was recorded in March 1981 at Music Lab studios in Hollywood with producer Spot, and was released later that year by New Alliance Records. "Weinerschnitzel", titled after the fast-food chain, is the shortest song on the EP at 10 seconds, with Lombardo playing the role of the restaurant's counterman while Aukerman shouts his food order at him. The 16-second "I Like Food" also takes food as its topic, with Aukerman shouting out the names of various foodstuffs. "Mr. Bass" tells the story of a bass being caught during a fishing trip on board the Orca and being mounted on the fisherman's wall. Following its initial release on New Alliance, the EP was reissued in several versions and as part of compilation albums over the next 10 years. In 1985, New Alliance re-released it as part of the Bonus Fat compilation, pairing it with the tracks from "Ride the Wild" / "It's a Hectic World" and "Global Probing" from a New Alliance/SST Records compilation titled Chunks. In 1987, New Alliance was sold to SST, who re-released Bonus Fat on EP, cassette and compact disc. In 1988, it was paired with the band's debut album Milo Goes to College as Two Things at Once. "My Dad Sucks", "I Like Food", and "Weinerschnitzel" were also included on the 1991 career retrospective Somery. ==Reception==

Music journalist and culture critic Greil Marcus used the Fat EP as the introduction to his "Food Fight: Real Life Rock Top Ten 1981", remarking that "if a more perfect disc has appeared this year, I haven't heard it". Ned Raggett of AllMusic gave the EP 3 stars out of 5, calling it "quick, immediate, goofy, fun" and "a hyperspeed trashing of modern youth Kultur circa 1981". ==Cover versions==

In the decades since its release, several artists have recorded cover versions of songs from the Fat EP. For the Descendents tribute album ''Homage: Lots of Bands Doing Descendents' Songs'' (1995), Squatweiler with Asteroid Wilhanna covered "I Like Food" while Drew covered "Hey Hey". Manic Hispanic recorded a parody version of "Weinerschnitzel", titled "Alberto's", for their album The Recline of Mexican Civilization (2001). Taking Back Sunday covered "I Like Food" on the ''Tony Hawk's American Wasteland soundtrack (2005). Less Than Jake referenced "Weinerschnitzel" on their song "Channel 4" from TV/EP'' (2010). ==Track listing==

;Band • Milo Aukerman – vocals • Frank Navetta – guitar, cover illustrations • Tony Lombardo – bass guitar • Bill Stevenson – drums ;Production • Spot – producer, engineer ==References==