Released March 2, 1993, Dork is the debut recording from AFI — a split 7″ with Loose Change (whose lead guitarist was none other than Jade Puget, who would join AFI three years later). Recorded at City of Light Recording & Sound in Lakeport, California, when the band was barely out of high school in Ukiah, the original pressing on Key Lime Pie Records was limited to just 200 copies on black vinyl, with some copies including an AFI logo sticker insert. The cover features a photo of drummer Adam Carson. The lineup was Davey Havok on vocals, Mark Stopholese on guitar, Geoff Kresge on bass, and Adam Carson on drums — the same core that would go on to record Answer That and Stay Fashionable two years later.
This listing is the 2017 Atom Age Industries reissue — and it comes with a story. Former AFI bassist Geoff Kresge, who left the band in 1996, took control of the original Key Lime Pie label and reissued the early EP trilogy (Dork, Behind the Times, Eddie Picnic’s All Wet) without notifying or getting consent from the rest of the band. AFI issued a public statement saying they did not support the sales, noting they had always intentionally kept these records rare. Kresge also added an unreleased outtake to the Dork reissue — a song he wrote no part of — without permission from the co-writers. The band’s statement made clear: the original 200-copy pressing remains the real deal for collectors.
That backstory aside, for $30 sealed this is an accessible entry point into one of the most historically significant early California punk EPs of the ’90s — a snapshot of a teenage AFI before anyone outside Ukiah knew who they were.
