Rancid

Rancid's history starts in the end of 1991. Tim and Matt had played in Operation Ivy who ended up in -89 and Tim was in serious drugs and alcohol problems. Matt saw that Tim must have something to do to get off that problems and they formed the band "Downfall" but it was over almost at the same time.Tim "started all over" and had nothing to do, and at that time he and Matt formed the band RANCID.

It was very impotant for Tim to have a band, to get off all the problems and have something to do. They also after a while got Brett Reed on drums and now they were three in the band. Brett had played in the local band "Smog". Exept Operation Ivy, Downfall and Rancid, Tims have played in other bands like: Shaken '69, Silencers and Dance Hall Crashers etc. More about that on " Bandmembers ". Rancid was at the start like all the other new bands, no famous at all. Their debut was in a house in Oakland, a frined to Tim's house. Matt had another band too, Gr'ups, but leaved them and began seriously with Rancid. 1992 they debuted on the label "Lookout Records" with the single "I'm not the only one". It was the most of Rancid's song, a quite slow beginning, and then more "speed" and more heavier in the end of it.

After this, Rancid needed a second guitarist and asked Billie Joe Armstorng in Green Day but he wanted to continue with Green Day. At the same time as this, Rancid recorded their first album, and under this time they visited their "hometown" Berkley when Breet "ran into" Lars Frederiksen. He was in the band "Slip" who once had been on a show with Rancid, he was now in "UK Subs" but wanted to change band, because he was sick of that band. After a while in Rancid he said in an interwiev: "Punk rock to me is not about making a better life for yourself, not sitting around and moping about shit. Personally, I can't do that. I do what comes naturally to me, making music; keeping my convictions
inside and going on with what I'm doing. Rancid isn't one of those bands that wants to change the world."

Rancid's first album was finished in April -93. Lars wasn't on that album because he wasn't in the band from the beginning and didn't want to take the honour from the others. On the back of the album is a picture on Rancid pointing on the sing with the text: St Gilman St. where they lived under the time when they recorded the album. The most famous song on that album was "The Bottle", "Unwritten Rules", "Get outa my way" and "Another Night". After the album there was a lot of tours in Europa etc.

In the new year, they released the "Radio Radio Radio" single, on Fat Wreck Chords. This was Frederiksen's debut on record; the title song, "Radio" was co-written by Green Day's Armstrong. "Radio" was the perfect cross between Green Day and Rancid; the song was played at normal Rancid hyperspeed, but the chorus was pure Green Day pop harmony. "Dope Sick Girl" was also a lightening-speed track, featuring split vocals and one ofthe fastest guitar leads ever played. "Just a Felling" reached with. Lars providing a guitar lead that rivaled "Dope Sick Girl" and a chorus drenched in melody. The middle section slows slightly, and Tim Armstrong's vocals drop to a chant. "Someone's Gunna Die" was Freeman's turn to excel, the song a hardcore gem with a chanted chorus of "oi, oi, oi."

In February 1994, the band began recording "Let's Go." The album was overflowing with tight melodies, choruses that rang with hooks and anthemic lyrics. The radio single chosen was "Salvation," a pure crowd sing-along, but it was the loosest of the songs, and for that reason alone, not representative of the rest of the album. "Salvation"'s lyrics were semi-autobiographical, telling of Armstrong's experiences at the Salvation Army, where he exchanged a bed for driving around the burbs, picking up the well-to-do's cast-offs.

As almost always, there's a lot of ska and reagge in Rancid's songs and syncopated bass lines that sneak in, like the slow passage in "Burn". It was as if Rancid had rolled the whole of the larger punk genre into "Let's Go." An in a way they had. But it's really the intangible things that make "Let's Go" a punk classic. This includes the lyrics that ring with truth, sincerity, and reality. Equally important, though, was the sustained level of energy, a hyperkenetism that infuses the record, spraying out over the listener like a jolt of double espresso. That spring, with the album completed, Rancid put together a side project, Shaken '69. Joining forces with ex-Op Ivy drummer Dave Mello, the Uptones' Paul Jackson and Eric "Dinwitty" Dinn, and featuring Skankin' Pickles' Lars Nylander and Mike Park on horns, Shaken '69 is a pure ska band.

The group recorded a couple of songs which hopefully will be turning up in the near future on compilation. Shaken '69 would like to do more, but as all the members are in working bands, it's difficult to schedule time. In June, Rancid embarked on a month-long tour that covered the south and midwest. After a brief break, they spent August with Sick of It All playing the west coast.

But the highlight of the summer shows was the Epitaph Summer Nations shows. A label celebration and party, the celebration stretched across 3 days at L.A.'s Palladium, a gala event to rejoice in the rise of punk and Epitaph. The highpoint for many fans was when Pennywise invited Armstrong and Frederiksen onstage for a rendition of Minor Threat's "Straight Edge." 1994 also saw the release of the Epitaph compilation, "Punk-o-Rama", which features two Rancid tracks, "Hyena" and "I Wanna Riot." Rancid was also featured on the Kill Rock Stars compilaiton, "Rock Stars Kill." Their track, "Brixton," is cloaked in an early reggae sound, down to the '60s sounding keyboard lines.

The album was subtitled "23 More Bands that Don't Want to Be Rock Stars," which might have been true in some cases, but at least one band wasn't so sure. By now, Rancid was a hot commodity, "Let's Go" went swiftly gold, and is currently working toward platinum, thus label reps were turning up at numerous shows. And when the dust settled, Rancid went back to work. January 1995 saw the release of their new single "Roots Radicals" b/w "I Wanna Riot." The single was extremely catchy, with snatches of punk guitar leads vying with the ska-infested bass and drum line. The chorus is anthemic; heard once, you'll be chanting it forever. The song has since reappeared on their new album.

In February, Rancid returned to the road for a short tour encompassing L.A., Chicago, New York, Boston, and other big cities. Then it was back to the studio in March, where they spent the next six weeks recording the new album. After "Let's Go" it was hard to imagine what Rancid's next step would be. Many bands would have been satisfied recording an extension of their last album. But Rancid have an ability to scour out new musical crests and mount them with seeming ease. And it was with "...And Out Come the Wolves."

Even the brief intro to the opening track, "Maxwell Murder" was unexpected: a dark, eerie sample from the movie, "Gringo." And although the rest of the song was standard Rancid punk, the album quickly shifts gear with "The 11th Hour". This song was slower than almost anything they'd done before. The new single, "Time Bomb," was full-on ska. Two more ska tracks, "Daly City Train" and the hook-laden "Old Friend" also appear.Rancid's propensity for trade-off vocals has increased, to great effect. With each member having a distinct voice and style, the trade-offs give each song and the lines within added power and individuality. As always the lyrics were ripped from the band's personal experiences.

There's the good times to be found in "Olympia, WA," Op Ivy's demise in "Journey...," the chilling look at addiction in "Junkyman," the misery of homelessness in "As Wicked," and the ubiquitous songs about girls, including "She's Automatic," "Old Friend" and "You Don't Care Nothin' "

"...And out come the wolves" was nothing short of sublime, and will inevitably bring Rancid even greater success. After its completion, the band took a well-deserved break. A September tour of Europe is scheduled followed by another national tour. At the time of writing in early August. RANCID's last album ( Life Won`t Wait ) is REALLY to recommand, but just a little bit much ska and reggae i think.

RANCID are of course my favourite punkrock band.

Social Distortion

In the late 1970s the first raw, sloppy, speeding guitar chords began to blare from the garages and backrooms of a Southern California suburb called Orange County. They echoed a sound forged in the preceding years in the seminal punk undergrounds of New York City and London.
By 1979, a 17 year old kid named Mike Ness had formed Social Distortion with drummer Casey Royer and brothers Rikk and Frank Agnew. The band’s world centered around Mike’s one-bedroom pad, dubbed “the black hole,” in a nondescript Fullerton, CA apartment complex. After meeting Dennis Danell, a punk loving classmate, Ness insisted Danell, who at the time didn’t play an instrument, join the band on bass. Royer and the Agnew’s soon split from the band and eventually form The Adolescents.
Local Los Angeles KROQ-FM deejay Rodney Bingenheimer embraced Orange County music, playing highlights from its major local bands, including Social Distortion, on his Sunday night radio show. In 1981, Social Distortion released their first single, “Mainliner/Playpen,” on the Posh Boy label. Around the same time, Mike Ness developed a reputation as a brawler resulting in a chunk of his left ear being bitten off during a confrontation at the Cuckoo’s Nest bar.
In 1982, Social Distortion, along with LA’s Youth Brigade and DC’s Minor Threat, are the subjects of the documentary “Another State of Mind,” which captures the band’s first stormy cross-continental tour in a beat up school bus. By late 1983, Social Distortion’s line up consisted of Mike Ness, Danell (now on rhythm guitar), bassist Brent Liles, and drummer Derek O’Brien. Released on the 13th Floor label, their debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster, gained the band a national name in punk circles. Returning home, the line up now included a nasty heroin habit for Ness. The madness that followed resulted in Brent Liles and Derek O’Brien bailing out of the band in the middle of a New Year’s Eve 1983 show.
Ness and Danell soon recruited John Maurer, another old school buddy from Fullerton to play bass and Christopher Reece, of the San Francisco band The Lewd, came in on drums. This lineup weathered Social Distortion’s toughest years, as Ness struggled with heroin addiction and the resulting series of jailings and detoxes, which finally ended in 1985. Ness is able to continue writing and hold the band together to being work on a new album. In 1988, Social Distortion emerge with the release of Prison Bound, an album whose moving title cut about a wasted life is one of the greatest songs ever to come out of Orange County. Ness turned Social Distortion’s albums into an ongoing dialogue about impulsiveness, its consequences and the hard struggle to overcome.
In addition to the early punk of The Ramones and The Clash, the band’s sound was culled equally from Ness’ love of roots music, specifically early country music greats like Hank Williams and the early blues recordings of the South. As Ness would later declare to Social Distortion audiences, “Without good black music, there would be no good white music.”
The self titled Social Distortion album followed in 1990. It is SD’s first release on a major label. The success of singles “Story Of My Life” and “Ball And Chain,” along with their remarkable cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire,” make the album Social Distortion’s first Gold record. The band are asked to join Neil Young on tour, beginning the process of bending punk expectation. They soon return with 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell lead by the blistering single “Bad Luck,” the album also goes Gold. A co-headlining tour with The Ramones follows.
The band took an extended hiatus following the release of Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, and did not return to the studio until the fall of 1995. Earlier that year, Time Bomb Recordings re-issued Mommy’s Little Monster, Prison Bound, and released the single compilation Mainliner, Wreckage from the Past. Social D return in 1996 with a new album, White Light White Heat White Trash, and a new drummer, Chuck Biscuits of Black Flag and D.O.A. fame. The album is a success atop radio favorites “I Was Wrong” and “When The Angels Sing.” The band sign up as one of the main draws of the 1997 Warped Tour and then record and release the live album Live At The Roxy in 1998.
A solo record, Cheating At Solitaire, was released by Mike Ness in 1999. The album is an homage to the classic country, blues, rockabilly, and folk that shaped him as a songwriter. Later that same year Ness released Under The Influences, a collection of cover tunes further showcasing his love of American roots music with songs written by legends Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, and Carl Perkins among others.
On February 29, 2000, then 38-year old guitarist Dennis Danell dies suddenly of heart failure. At the time Mike is quoted: “I am saddened beyond any possible form of expression. Dennis and I have been friends since boyhood, starting Social Distortion while we where in high school. My deepest regrets to his family.” In the Fall of 2000, Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham (guitar) and Charlie Quintana (drums) officially join Social Distortion. 3 years later Social Distortion head into the studio to record a new record – their first full-length studio record in 7 years and the first record without Dennis Danell. A live DVD, Live in The Orange County, is released in 2004. On August 5, 2004, after 20 years of serving as Social Distortion’s bass player John Maurer decides to leave the band for personal reasons after having completed the recording of Sex, Love and Rock’n’ Roll, the new Social Distortion album.
The album is well received nationwide, bolstered by the success of the single “Reach For The Sky.” Brent Harding of Ness’ solo touring band joins Social Distortion as their full time bassist. In 2005, the band go on to sell out a record 6 nights at The Wiltern theater in Los Angeles, that’s in addition to the record 37 shows sold out as part of their regular year end multi-night stands at House Of Blues clubs across the Southwest – an almost annual tradition since 2001.