In Happy's best tracks (you can tell the title is meant to be ironic because it repeats the word "very"), the band reaches depths of urban disaffectedness that modern bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs can only covet. And, "Voodoo" excepted, the wealth of ear chomping tracks more than surpasses EP-length. Among the highlights: the slow-rocking ode to anxiety "Nails;" "Punch Drunk," with its bracingly ugly guitarwork; the Gang-of-Four-like "Stare You Down;" the closest thing to new wave pop this band ever concocted, "Das Ah Riot" and their expansion on the "Too Many Creeps" theme of fear-and-loathing in clubland, "Fess Up." Two covers, a live remake of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey," plus Iggy Pop's "Sister Midnight," are also included in the set, though neither track matches the original pair's desperation.

As a bonus, three videos are also packed on the disc, including one of the original "Too Many Creeps," which neatly captures the grunged-out-mess that was NYC at the start of the Greed Decade. A more recent "Nails" video culled from 8mm concert footage shot by Tom Jarmusch is more murky than anything. The video still sounds great, though: twenty-five years down the street, these noisy punk-funkers sound even more current and kick-ass than the band I remember from that smoky Chi-town club.

But where's the remake of "You Can't Be Funky"?