An
even more detailed account.
Rancid is the
next step on the evolutionary ladder from
Operation Ivy. Not to say they are
better than Op Ivy. Operation Ivy consisted of
some dude named
Jesse on vocals,
Tim Armstrong on
guitar,
Matt Freeman on bass, and
Dave Mello on the drums. They
broke up, and went their seperate ways. Reportedly,
Jesse joined the
peace corps. He's back though, with a new band called
Common Rider. Dave went on to be in
numerous other bands, and
Tim and Matt went on to form Rancid.
Rancid was originally
formed by Matt just to keep Tim from
killing himself with
drugs and alcohol. After losing the
driving force in his life (
Operation Ivy), Tim
found solace in
substance abuse.
Bass wizard Matt Freeman, Tim's friend since
early childhood, hated seeing his friend caught in this
void of self-destruction and thus formed Rancid.
Rancid put out a bunch of
albums and are often compared (always
unfairly) to
The Clash. Although
The Clash influenced them, they really aren't anything like them. Come on, did
The Clash ever play songs like "
Ghetto Box" or "
Axiom"? Of course not (but don't get me wrong, I love The Clash too). Anyways, Rancid has a new one out on
Hellcat Records, their second
self-titled to date. It's an
incendiary mix of
high-speed hardcore and classic
street punk, and well
worth your time.
NOTE: Most of this (save the last paragraph before this) was
sarcastic. I love Rancid, they're probably
my favorite band. They had quite a bit of mainstream success with their
fantastic album ". . .
And Out Come the Wolves." Their follow-up, "
Life Won't Wait", was a long, much more
ska-influenced epic. A lot of their fans hated it. I think it's by far their
best album.