12-11-2014, 14:10
enters the Billboard chart this week at #20
Spotify online listen
2.5 of 5.0 from allmusic
8th studio album
closest you can get nowadays to punk I guess
but these guys have been around too long to be punks
it all seems so contrived now
but it was fun back in the day
artist website - http://rancidrancid.com/
Bio - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003676164.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/676/MI0003676164.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
One of the cornerstone bands of the '90s punk revival, Rancid's unabashedly classicist sound drew heavily from the Clash's early records,
echoing their left-leaning politics and fascination with ska, while adding a bit of post-hardcore crunch. While some critics dismissed Rancid as
derivative, others praised their political commitment, surging energy, and undeniable way with a hook. And, regardless of critical debate over
their significance, the band's strengths made them perhaps the most popular neo-punk band after Green Day and the Offspring. Their third album,
1995's ...And Out Come the Wolves, made them a platinum-selling sensation and an inescapable presence on MTV and modern rock radio. While they
never translated that success into an enormous blockbuster record (like the aforementioned bands who hit the mainstream first), that wasn't
necessarily their ambition, choosing to stay with the independent punk label Epitaph and the creative freedom it allowed them. That decision
helped them retain a large, devoted core audience as revivalist punk-pop began to slip off the mainstream's musical radar.
Rancid were formed in 1991 by San Francisco Bay Area punk scenesters Tim Armstrong (guitar/vocals) and Matt Freeman (bass). Lifelong friends and
longtime punk fans, the two had grown up together in the small working-class town of Albany, near Berkeley; they'd also played together in the
legendary ska-punk band Operation Ivy, Armstrong as "Lint" and Freeman as Matt McCall. After Op Ivy disbanded in 1989, Armstrong and Freeman
spent a few weeks in the ska-punk outfit Dance Hall Crashers, as well as Downfall; Freeman later briefly joined the hardcore band MDC.
Meanwhile, Armstrong was waging a battle with alcoholism (but, fortunately, winning), and to help keep his friend occupied, Freeman suggested
they escape their day jobs by forming a new band, which became Rancid. The duo added drummer Brett Reed, Armstrong's roommate and a familiar
presence on the Gilman Street scene where Operation Ivy had cut their teeth. Just a couple of months later, Rancid were performing live around
the area, and in 1992 they released a five-song debut EP on Lookout! Records.
The EP caught the attention of Epitaph Records founder/Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, and Epitaph signed Rancid to a highly favorable
contract guaranteeing the group a generous amount of creative control. The band's eponymously titled, first full-length album arrived in 1993,
pursuing an uptempo hardcore/skatepunk style with few hints of early British punk. Rancid had been seeking a second guitarist, and Green Day's
Billie Joe Armstrong even played live with the group at one show. They pursued Lars Frederiksen, a Bay Area resident who'd joined a later
incarnation of U.K. Subs and was performing with the band Slip; Frederiksen initially declined Rancid's invitation to join, but when Slip
disbanded, he quickly changed his mind and came along on Rancid's first tour. Frederiksen made his recording debut on the early-1994 EP Radio
Radio Radio, a side dalliance on Fat Wreck Chords. Released later that year, Let's Go was the album that made Rancid's name in the punk
underground. It marked the beginnings of their fascination with the 1977-era London punk scene, particularly the Clash, and it also provided
their first widespread exposure when MTV picked up on the video for the single "Salvation." Let's Go quickly went gold, and with the breakout
mainstream success of Green Day and the Offspring that year, major-label interest in Rancid quickly escalated into a full-fledged bidding war
(even Madonna's Maverick imprint got in on the action). Ultimately, Rancid decided that no major could offer them the level of decision-making
power that Epitaph had given them, and stayed right where they were.
Rancid scored a major success with their next album, 1995's ...And Out Come the Wolves, whose title was a reference to the near-predatory
interest in signing the band. The Clash fetish was even more pronounced, augmented with a greater interest in the original Two-Tone ska revival
the Clash had helped influence (bands like the Specials). "Ruby Soho" was a major MTV and radio hit, and "Time Bomb" and "Roots Radicals" were
hits in their own right. The album went platinum and made Rancid one of the most visible punk bands around. They played the 1996 Lollapalooza
Tour, and afterward took a short break, their first since becoming a quartet. During that time, Freeman played with former X singer Exene
Cervenka in Auntie Christ, while Armstrong set up the Epitaph subsidiary Hellcat; he and Frederiksen both began doing production work for other
bands they hoped to spotlight.
Rancid returned in 1998 with the even more ska-heavy Life Won't Wait, a guest star-loaded affair that featured members of ska bands the Specials
and Hepcat, Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, dancehall reggae star Buju Banton, and Agnostic Front vocalist Roger Miret. While it
didn't cross over on the level of ...And Out Come the Wolves, it demonstrated that Rancid retained a substantial fan base. For the 2000 follow-
up, their second self-titled release, the group largely scrapped its ska-punk side, recording a visceral, hardcore-influenced album that blasted
through 22 songs in under 40 minutes (in contrast to its two lengthy predecessors). Perhaps for that reason, Rancid received a highly positive
response from the punk community. The band's installment in the BYO split series arrived in March 2002 alongside NOFX, each band covering six of
the other's songs. Rancid's next full-length, Indestructible, followed a year later; though technically released through Hellcat, the album was
their first that got additional support from a major label via Warner Bros. The highly personal album (songs were inspired by the deaths of
family and friends, and Armstrong's bitter 2003 divorce from Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle) hit number 14 on the Billboard charts, as "Fall
Back Down" did well on radio and MTV.
Following the record's release, Rancid went on something of a hiatus, its members working on various side projects: Armstrong continued work
with the Transplants, his band with Rob Aston and blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, and collaborated with various artists, including P!nk;
Frederiksen further played with his side band Lars Frederiksen & the Bastards; Freeman briefly joined Social Distortion from 2004-2005. By the
spring of 2006, a revitalized Rancid regrouped; they toured worldwide starting that summer to the delight of fans. Several shows, however, had
to be postponed and rescheduled after Frederiksen collapsed on-stage in Montreal, apparently suffering a seizure. Soon enough, though, he was
back and the band continued on. Rancid promised a new record for the following year, and Armstrong released his first solo album, A Poet's Life,
that fall through Epitaph by releasing songs online for free download over the course of several months. With the band getting back on track, it
then came as a shock in November 2006 when Reed announced he was leaving Rancid after 15 years; the split appeared to be amicable and he was
soon replaced behind the kit by ex-Used drummer Branden Steineckert. After taking some time to look back at their luminous history with a B
Sides and C Sides compilation, a music videos collection, and an online webisode retrospective dating back to the bandmembers' days in Operation
Ivy, Rancid returned to the studio to record 2009's Let the Dominoes Fall at George Lucas' Skywalker Sound Studio with Brett Gurewitz producing.
It would be another five years before fans got another Rancid album. The band entered the studio in 2011 and did some recording, but Armstrong
eventually abandoned the sessions in favor of doing another Transplants album. One new Rancid track from the sessions, bluntly titled "****
You," was released in 2012. That same year, the massive online-only box set Essentials compiled their back catalog on 7" vinyl. In 2013,
Transplants released their third album, In a Warzone, following which Rancid got back together to finish their eighth album. Again produced by
Gurewitz, the back to basics effort, Honor Is All We Know, was released in late 2014.
Album Review - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003797390.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/797/MI0003797390.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Rancid took five years off after the release of their 2009 album, Let the Dominoes Fall. Well, not really. They toured a bunch for that album
and Tim Armstrong spent seemingly every waking hour of the span writing and recording songs under the name Tim Timebomb. Five years without a
Rancid album was a long time, though, and it led to speculation when the album was announced as to its direction. Would they continue the sonic
experiments and more mature outlook of Let the Dominoes Fall or would they swing back to basics like they did on 2000's self-titled furious
blast of punk attitude? The answer isn't as simple as that. Rancid definitely abandon any pretense at making their version of Sandinista!, and
they don't recapture their raging fire either. To keep going with Clash analogies (which is what one has to do with Rancid), ...Honor Is All We
Know comes perilously close to being their Cut the Crap. They didn't lose any members, but what they seem to have lost is their reason for
existing. Apart from a couple of rousingly fun songs that come close to being on par with previous high points (the pounding soul-punk of
"Malfunction," the hopping "Collision Course"), the album is an overly clean, overly simplistic, and weirdness-free listen that sounds like
bandmembers making an album because that's what they need to do to keep their families fed. That's a noble cause for them, but it doesn't make
for an inspiring album for the rest of their fans. Filled with songs that replace thoughts with slogans and compelling stories with empty
boasts, delivered by performances that feel tame, Honor is a misfire from the very start. "Back Where I Belong" kicks things off with a follow-
the-bouncing-ball singalong and feels like shallow myth-making, with the guys trading off vocals throughout. They started doing this on the last
record and it's even more pronounced here. Either Armstrong stepped back voluntarily or the other guys forced their way in -- either way,
keeping Tim on the sidelines is a bad idea. His wobbly vocals are the only thing that gives the record any sincerity and humanity. Even then,
his cracked throat can only do so much when the lyrics are so formulaic and the sounds are so processed. Honor is the first album where Rancid
sound obvious, like on the heavy ska "Everybody's Sufferin'," where the lyrics about how everybody's suffering are delivered in cornball
Jamaican accents. It's the first time they sound empty, too, like they're going through the motions with little or no passion driving them. It's
a shame, because to this point they were a pretty great band that you could count on to be, if not original all the time, at least 100%
committed at all times-percent or so, and that's just not good enough.
nice hair:
[video=youtube;sHzQiIPVLms]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzQiIPVLms[/video]
Track Listing
1. Back Where I Belong
2. Raise Your Fist
3. Collision Course
4. Evil's My Friend
5. Honor Is All We Know
6. A Power Inside
7. In the Streets
8. Face Up
9. Already Dead
10. Diabolical
11. Malfunction
12. Now We're Through with You
13. Everybody's Sufferin'
14. Grave Digger
Spotify online listen
2.5 of 5.0 from allmusic
8th studio album
closest you can get nowadays to punk I guess
but these guys have been around too long to be punks
it all seems so contrived now
but it was fun back in the day
artist website - http://rancidrancid.com/
Bio - from allmusic
One of the cornerstone bands of the '90s punk revival, Rancid's unabashedly classicist sound drew heavily from the Clash's early records,
echoing their left-leaning politics and fascination with ska, while adding a bit of post-hardcore crunch. While some critics dismissed Rancid as
derivative, others praised their political commitment, surging energy, and undeniable way with a hook. And, regardless of critical debate over
their significance, the band's strengths made them perhaps the most popular neo-punk band after Green Day and the Offspring. Their third album,
1995's ...And Out Come the Wolves, made them a platinum-selling sensation and an inescapable presence on MTV and modern rock radio. While they
never translated that success into an enormous blockbuster record (like the aforementioned bands who hit the mainstream first), that wasn't
necessarily their ambition, choosing to stay with the independent punk label Epitaph and the creative freedom it allowed them. That decision
helped them retain a large, devoted core audience as revivalist punk-pop began to slip off the mainstream's musical radar.
Rancid were formed in 1991 by San Francisco Bay Area punk scenesters Tim Armstrong (guitar/vocals) and Matt Freeman (bass). Lifelong friends and
longtime punk fans, the two had grown up together in the small working-class town of Albany, near Berkeley; they'd also played together in the
legendary ska-punk band Operation Ivy, Armstrong as "Lint" and Freeman as Matt McCall. After Op Ivy disbanded in 1989, Armstrong and Freeman
spent a few weeks in the ska-punk outfit Dance Hall Crashers, as well as Downfall; Freeman later briefly joined the hardcore band MDC.
Meanwhile, Armstrong was waging a battle with alcoholism (but, fortunately, winning), and to help keep his friend occupied, Freeman suggested
they escape their day jobs by forming a new band, which became Rancid. The duo added drummer Brett Reed, Armstrong's roommate and a familiar
presence on the Gilman Street scene where Operation Ivy had cut their teeth. Just a couple of months later, Rancid were performing live around
the area, and in 1992 they released a five-song debut EP on Lookout! Records.
The EP caught the attention of Epitaph Records founder/Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, and Epitaph signed Rancid to a highly favorable
contract guaranteeing the group a generous amount of creative control. The band's eponymously titled, first full-length album arrived in 1993,
pursuing an uptempo hardcore/skatepunk style with few hints of early British punk. Rancid had been seeking a second guitarist, and Green Day's
Billie Joe Armstrong even played live with the group at one show. They pursued Lars Frederiksen, a Bay Area resident who'd joined a later
incarnation of U.K. Subs and was performing with the band Slip; Frederiksen initially declined Rancid's invitation to join, but when Slip
disbanded, he quickly changed his mind and came along on Rancid's first tour. Frederiksen made his recording debut on the early-1994 EP Radio
Radio Radio, a side dalliance on Fat Wreck Chords. Released later that year, Let's Go was the album that made Rancid's name in the punk
underground. It marked the beginnings of their fascination with the 1977-era London punk scene, particularly the Clash, and it also provided
their first widespread exposure when MTV picked up on the video for the single "Salvation." Let's Go quickly went gold, and with the breakout
mainstream success of Green Day and the Offspring that year, major-label interest in Rancid quickly escalated into a full-fledged bidding war
(even Madonna's Maverick imprint got in on the action). Ultimately, Rancid decided that no major could offer them the level of decision-making
power that Epitaph had given them, and stayed right where they were.
Rancid scored a major success with their next album, 1995's ...And Out Come the Wolves, whose title was a reference to the near-predatory
interest in signing the band. The Clash fetish was even more pronounced, augmented with a greater interest in the original Two-Tone ska revival
the Clash had helped influence (bands like the Specials). "Ruby Soho" was a major MTV and radio hit, and "Time Bomb" and "Roots Radicals" were
hits in their own right. The album went platinum and made Rancid one of the most visible punk bands around. They played the 1996 Lollapalooza
Tour, and afterward took a short break, their first since becoming a quartet. During that time, Freeman played with former X singer Exene
Cervenka in Auntie Christ, while Armstrong set up the Epitaph subsidiary Hellcat; he and Frederiksen both began doing production work for other
bands they hoped to spotlight.
Rancid returned in 1998 with the even more ska-heavy Life Won't Wait, a guest star-loaded affair that featured members of ska bands the Specials
and Hepcat, Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, dancehall reggae star Buju Banton, and Agnostic Front vocalist Roger Miret. While it
didn't cross over on the level of ...And Out Come the Wolves, it demonstrated that Rancid retained a substantial fan base. For the 2000 follow-
up, their second self-titled release, the group largely scrapped its ska-punk side, recording a visceral, hardcore-influenced album that blasted
through 22 songs in under 40 minutes (in contrast to its two lengthy predecessors). Perhaps for that reason, Rancid received a highly positive
response from the punk community. The band's installment in the BYO split series arrived in March 2002 alongside NOFX, each band covering six of
the other's songs. Rancid's next full-length, Indestructible, followed a year later; though technically released through Hellcat, the album was
their first that got additional support from a major label via Warner Bros. The highly personal album (songs were inspired by the deaths of
family and friends, and Armstrong's bitter 2003 divorce from Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle) hit number 14 on the Billboard charts, as "Fall
Back Down" did well on radio and MTV.
Following the record's release, Rancid went on something of a hiatus, its members working on various side projects: Armstrong continued work
with the Transplants, his band with Rob Aston and blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, and collaborated with various artists, including P!nk;
Frederiksen further played with his side band Lars Frederiksen & the Bastards; Freeman briefly joined Social Distortion from 2004-2005. By the
spring of 2006, a revitalized Rancid regrouped; they toured worldwide starting that summer to the delight of fans. Several shows, however, had
to be postponed and rescheduled after Frederiksen collapsed on-stage in Montreal, apparently suffering a seizure. Soon enough, though, he was
back and the band continued on. Rancid promised a new record for the following year, and Armstrong released his first solo album, A Poet's Life,
that fall through Epitaph by releasing songs online for free download over the course of several months. With the band getting back on track, it
then came as a shock in November 2006 when Reed announced he was leaving Rancid after 15 years; the split appeared to be amicable and he was
soon replaced behind the kit by ex-Used drummer Branden Steineckert. After taking some time to look back at their luminous history with a B
Sides and C Sides compilation, a music videos collection, and an online webisode retrospective dating back to the bandmembers' days in Operation
Ivy, Rancid returned to the studio to record 2009's Let the Dominoes Fall at George Lucas' Skywalker Sound Studio with Brett Gurewitz producing.
It would be another five years before fans got another Rancid album. The band entered the studio in 2011 and did some recording, but Armstrong
eventually abandoned the sessions in favor of doing another Transplants album. One new Rancid track from the sessions, bluntly titled "****
You," was released in 2012. That same year, the massive online-only box set Essentials compiled their back catalog on 7" vinyl. In 2013,
Transplants released their third album, In a Warzone, following which Rancid got back together to finish their eighth album. Again produced by
Gurewitz, the back to basics effort, Honor Is All We Know, was released in late 2014.
Album Review - from allmusic
Rancid took five years off after the release of their 2009 album, Let the Dominoes Fall. Well, not really. They toured a bunch for that album
and Tim Armstrong spent seemingly every waking hour of the span writing and recording songs under the name Tim Timebomb. Five years without a
Rancid album was a long time, though, and it led to speculation when the album was announced as to its direction. Would they continue the sonic
experiments and more mature outlook of Let the Dominoes Fall or would they swing back to basics like they did on 2000's self-titled furious
blast of punk attitude? The answer isn't as simple as that. Rancid definitely abandon any pretense at making their version of Sandinista!, and
they don't recapture their raging fire either. To keep going with Clash analogies (which is what one has to do with Rancid), ...Honor Is All We
Know comes perilously close to being their Cut the Crap. They didn't lose any members, but what they seem to have lost is their reason for
existing. Apart from a couple of rousingly fun songs that come close to being on par with previous high points (the pounding soul-punk of
"Malfunction," the hopping "Collision Course"), the album is an overly clean, overly simplistic, and weirdness-free listen that sounds like
bandmembers making an album because that's what they need to do to keep their families fed. That's a noble cause for them, but it doesn't make
for an inspiring album for the rest of their fans. Filled with songs that replace thoughts with slogans and compelling stories with empty
boasts, delivered by performances that feel tame, Honor is a misfire from the very start. "Back Where I Belong" kicks things off with a follow-
the-bouncing-ball singalong and feels like shallow myth-making, with the guys trading off vocals throughout. They started doing this on the last
record and it's even more pronounced here. Either Armstrong stepped back voluntarily or the other guys forced their way in -- either way,
keeping Tim on the sidelines is a bad idea. His wobbly vocals are the only thing that gives the record any sincerity and humanity. Even then,
his cracked throat can only do so much when the lyrics are so formulaic and the sounds are so processed. Honor is the first album where Rancid
sound obvious, like on the heavy ska "Everybody's Sufferin'," where the lyrics about how everybody's suffering are delivered in cornball
Jamaican accents. It's the first time they sound empty, too, like they're going through the motions with little or no passion driving them. It's
a shame, because to this point they were a pretty great band that you could count on to be, if not original all the time, at least 100%
committed at all times-percent or so, and that's just not good enough.
nice hair:
[video=youtube;sHzQiIPVLms]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzQiIPVLms[/video]
Track Listing
1. Back Where I Belong
2. Raise Your Fist
3. Collision Course
4. Evil's My Friend
5. Honor Is All We Know
6. A Power Inside
7. In the Streets
8. Face Up
9. Already Dead
10. Diabolical
11. Malfunction
12. Now We're Through with You
13. Everybody's Sufferin'
14. Grave Digger
