Muso's Guide - Displaying items by tag: Epitaph Records

Rancid Announce New Album Trouble Maker

05 May, 2017
Published in News

Rancid have announced their brand new album Trouble Maker, to be released on June 9th via Hellcat/Epitaph Records. This is the ninth studio album for the punk legends and the follow-up to 2014’s critically acclaimed …Honor Is All We Know. Trouble Maker was produced by Rancid’s longtime producer and founder of Epitaph Records, Brett Gurewitz.

Emerging from the blue-collar swamps of Berkley, California, Rancid has now been a living, breathing punk rock band for over a quarter century. Back in 1991, after the demise of their much beloved first band, Operation Ivy, founding members Tim Armstrong (vocals, guitar) and Matt Freeman (bass, vocals) decided to do the impossible -- start an even better band. Thus, Rancid. Signing with Epitaph Records, the band released their first album Rancid in 1993. Shortly thereafter, Lars Frederiksen (vocals, guitar) joined the band, because... well, are you going to tell him he can’t? The result, in 1994, was Let’s Go.

In 1995, Rancid released the classic platinum selling ...And Out Come The Wolves. You still remember when you first heard it. They followed with the even more ambitious Life Won’t Wait in 1998, and in 2000, Rancid released another album entitled Rancid, just to see if anyone was paying attention. After Indestructible in 2003, Branden Steineckert (drums) joined to solidify Rancid’s current line-up. They subsequently released the albums Let The Dominos Fall (2009) and Honor Is All We Know (2014).

Through it all, Rancid has remained fiercely independent, never losing their loyalty to community or each other. Their music confronts political and social issues, while balancing personal tales of love, loss, and heartbreak with attitude. Rancid gives their listeners a community where everyone can belong. By carrying on the traditions and spirit of the original punk rock bands that came before, Rancid has become a legend an inspiration to punk bands that have come after.

Rancid will tour the UK this summer with Green Day at the following dates:

1st July UK, London, Hyde Park

3rd July UK, Sheffield Arena

4th July UK, Glasgow, Bellahouston Park

Trouble Maker Track List:

Track Fast

Ghost of a Chance

Telegraph Avenue

An Intimate Close Up Of A Street Punk Trouble Maker

Where I'm Going

Buddy

Farewell Lola Blue

All American Neighborhood

Bovver Rock and Roll

Make it Out Alive

Molly Make Up Your Mind

I Got Them Blues Again

Beauty of the Pool Hall

Say Goodbye to Our Heroes

I Kept a Promise

Cold Cold Blood

This is Not the End

We Arrived On Time (bonus)

Go On Rise Up (bonus)

The Menzingers - After The Party

02 February, 2017
Published in Albums

After the Party is the fifth full-length installment by American punk outfit, The Menzingers.

The album tells tales of the ever concerning responsibility of becoming a fully fledged adult. Reminiscing about care free mentalities with details of adolescent mischief of years gone by. After the Party is quite literally a story that is being told after the party has come to an end, and the only thing left to do is immerse in memories and then tidy up.

This is not to say that the record has come from a band that have peaked and are clinging onto something that was prevalent with audiences in their early days. In fact, the album is quite the opposite. The songs are just plain fun, and this is what After the Party does well. The guitars are chunky, the hooks are pop punk and the accounts of imagery within this record are sublime.

'Lookers' with its clean introduction bursts into a lively and heartwarming account of guitarist Greg Barnett's heartbreak and teenage memories. Uplifting and sincere, it perfectly sums up the theme that the rest of the record achieves so well. Other tracks can be heard embracing a sound that wouldn't have felt out of place back in 2006 and 'Bad Catholics' achieves this time frame. A time in alternative music history when Jimmy Eat World were rulers of that particular landscape.

However, this is 2017 and The Menzingers have kicked the year off with a great alternative collection of songs here. Very much an American pop rock record, After the Party is an album that was just too late for a part in any American Pie movie soundtracks. There are melodies that are brilliantly harnessed and executed by gritty vocal performances, guitars that are both punchy yet intricate and song structures and topics that conform to pop punk's most basic rules. While After the Party may not be the most original album ever created, it certainly is a great addition to the wider, punk rock record collection.

After the Party is available via Amazon and iTunes.