At the end of 1991, Tim and Matt started a band called Rancid. They brought
Brett Reed, on drums, formerly of the nowhere band Smog. 

The trio debuted at a friend's house in Oakland around Christmas time. There'd
be many more shows to follow, but at this point the band was still relative
unknowns. It was small enough that Freeman could initially split his time
between them and the Gr'ups. In fact, one memorable show, at a party in
Oakland, featured an all-star line-up of the Gr'ups, Rancid, and Berkeley
supergroup, Pinhead Gunpowder.

The Gr'ups featured two members of the Blatz and old friend and booker,
Kamala Parks. Freeman returned to guitar for this rockabilly punk band; that
was his homage to his all-time favorite band X. The group played out every
few months, and soon released a single on Lookout Records. 

In 1992, Rancid also debuted on Lookout Records with a five-song single. "I'm
Not the Only One"'s dark intro was driven by a pulsing bass line, which then
splayed into frenetic hardcore. But the seeds of things to come were already
planted, the chorus was melodic and anthemic. "Battering Ram" followed a
similar path, though hardcore, with nods to the L.A. scene, with a shout-along
chorus. "The Sentence" and "Media Controller" were both equally aggressive,
frenetic, and while not tuneless, were not strong on melodies. But "Idle
Hands" almost harkened back to Op Ivy, with its reggaefied intro, before it
kicked in to pure hardcore.

At this point, the influences weren't the early Britpunks, but the later Oi and
hardcore scenes. In this country, the terms punk and hardcore have become
synonymous, but initially they had quite distinct meanings. Originally, punk
was a wide, but closed genre that encompassed bands as diverse as the
Pistols and Elvis Costello, the Clash and Generation X. Punk had more to do
with attitude than sound, which is why a pub-rocker like Nick Lowe, mods like
the Jam and Who copyists Generation X could all be tagged Punk.

Although their musical take could be quite different, there was a shared
attitude toward the world at large that kept the movement coherent. Across the
punk spectrum, the bands looked around them and rejected what they saw,
their solution was simple, pull it down and start again.

With the eventual co-opting and demise of punk, a new generation sprung up
at the turn of the decade. They arrived even angrier than their progenitors.
They played faster, more aggressively, and tossed melodies away for straight
out rage. In Britain, they were labeled Oi (the British equivalent of Hey You!)
and many, but not all of the bands had ties to Neo-nazi groups. In this
country, similar bands sprung up and were labeled hardcore.

The scene was different from punk both in the sound and music. The original
punks were not violent; this was not true of the hardcore scene, and the
obvious example was in the dances. Punks pogoed, jumping up and down in
place, in a mostly solitary display. The hardcore scene slam-danced, which by
defintion meant bashing into your neighbors.

Although the media was responsible for feeding the scene of violence around
the scene, in truth, it was more violent. It was also more nihilistic. Punks may
have wanted to destroy, but they had intentions of building on the rubble.
Punks had no problem preaching. The hardcore scene just wanted to destroy,
it had no hopes of creating something better in its place. To them, sermons on
improving the world were anathema.

"We're not trying to be self-proclaimers of anything," Frederiksen elaborated.
"Punk rock to me is not about making a better life for yourself, nor sitting
aroung and moping about s*it. 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."

That's quite a different stance from the first wave punks, which strove for
political activism in their music and their lives. Many of the early punks were
directly involved in Rock against Racism, and by extension, in working against
the Neo-nazi National Front Party. 

But Frederiksen best sums up the difference between the old and new
generation's attitude with the following: "I can't intellectualize about things
that are so terrible. You want to do something for people, more than anything
in the world! But you just don't know what. I believe it all starts with yourself
believing or noticing what's around you. Still, it's really not about politics or
your personal beliefs, it's about music."

And so, for the purpose of this piece, the author will be distinguishing
between the terms, especially in the musical sense.

"They'd just finished recording their first album for Epitaph and I was giving
the guys so much s*it for signing to them. "Ooooh, big Bad Religion label!" I
was joking around, but I was just giving them so much s*it. Of course, at the
end of the tour Dexter Holland said, "Your band should call up Mr. Brett." "I'm
like 'Yeah, right.' Lo and behold, now we're on that label." Freeman seems to
have a propensity for making statements he'll be ruing later.

"Yeah, I guess I'm not very smart. You know why? I just never take anything
very seriously; 'Whatever, dude, we'll see what happens.' I'm sort of a
realist...well, mostly it's me just being combative. 'Yeah, right, Larry, right,
Dexter.'" The bassist bursts into laughter.

After the tour, the Gr'ups broke up, later reforming without Freeman. However,
he did help their new guitarist learn the songs. By that time, Freeman wanted
to focus exclusively on Rancid. The band was now considering adding a
second guitarist, and initially invited in Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.But
he wanted to continuing with Green Day.

Meanwhile, even though Rancid had never bothered contacting Epitaph,
Gurewitz had gotten hold of Rancid's single himself, and called the band. Near
the end of 1992, the trio went down to L.A. to meet with the label. In January
they were in West Beach, Gurewitz's Hollywood studio, recording thier first
album.

In between recording times, the band returned to Berkeley, where Reed ran
into guitarist Lars Frederiksen. The guitarist had been a member of Slip, who
had played opening for a Rancid show. Since then, heŽd ben playing in the
punk band, UK Subs. But now he was looking for a new band.

With the album nearly done, the trio returned to the studio, but Rancid was
now officially a quartet. 

Rancid's eponymous album arrived in April 1993 and the change in the band's
sound from its single was dramatic. The songs were still frenetic, but the band
was now concentrating harder of melody, and some of the choruses even
spotted harmonies.

Songs like "The Bottle" and "Unwritten Rules" had jangly, harmony drenched
choruses unlike any of the hardcore bands, the latter was even brushed with a
light-speed ska sound, although their cover of the Uptones' song, "Get Outa
My Way" did not.

But it was "Another Night" that heralded the future. The song had a tag-team
sing-along chorus and trade-off vocals that would soon become their
trademark. The tag-team approach is typical in the hip-hop world, but rare
elsewhere, which makes Rancid songs instantly identifiable. The song was full
of hooks, but less in a musical sense than in stand-out lines that the listener
just had to shout or sing along with it.

The back cover of the album features Rancid standing in front of a sign
pointing the way to Gilman St., and that's precisely where they were headed.
They played around the Berkeley area throughout the summer of 1993.

In September, Rancid embarked on their first tour of the States. In November,
the band left for a seven-week European tour, which included Britain, Italy,
Belgium, and multiple shows in Germany.

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 of the fastest guitar leads ever played.

"Just a Felling" reached warp speed, 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. 

With "Let's Go", the Clash comparisons came fast and furious, especially
aimed at Armstrong, whose gruff vocal style is reminiscent of a less mumbly
Joe Strummer. 

As always, there were hints of reggae and ska carefully embedded into the
songs, 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 thus 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," "You Don't Care Nuthin'". "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, their single is already receiving major airplay.