It would be so easy to drop into a sneering rant about Rancid. "Not 'real' punk". "...retreaded Clash." "Mohawk's in the year 2003?"

But that's been done before...and it'd be a little lazy.

Also, a little dishonest. Well, maybe not dishonest. See, I don't remember what the year was ( maybe when ...And Out Come The Wolves came out) but I do remember how excited I was to hear "Ruby Soho" while on a CD expedition at Newbury Comics. I was just about ready to bust out in a sweat at the prospect of buying that new, unreleased Clash material. Oh yea, it was gonna be such an unexpected treat. Joe & the boys were off doing, well, whatever 'retired' punk rockers did...but I was gonna revel in the last little bits of punk nostalgia and glory I could find.

"Who?"

"Rancid."

"Rancid?"

"There..."

...and the Newbury kid points to ...And Out Come The Wolves sitting in the "Now Playing" display.

There's nothing worse than feeling like an old fart in the presence of a GenX record store clerk. I usually feel oh-so-superior to them. Whenever I get the occasional "Can I help you find something?" I almost always come back with variants of "No Thanks, just lookin'"....but what I fantasize about saying is "I doubt it".

Not on that day. That was the day I was fooled by Rancid. I wasn't mad at 'em. How could I be? The tune was a big load of punk/pop fun. So what if it wasn't the Clash? It was still good.

There were definitely a few years there where I had a problem with TheNewPunk^TM. It seemed like the music that kicked me square in the back of my faded Levi's had been taken over by kids from the mall. Maybe that wasn't being fair, but that was what motivated my sneer.

But of course I was wrong. Not wrong in the sense that the music doesn't have some ClassicPunk^TM elements...wrong in the notion that the players behind the music were somehow inauthentic. Yes, bands like Rancid do wear their influences proudly on their sleeves. But...they also really care about this stuff. Check out the liner notes to Indestructible's title track:

The human spirit is indestructible. Music has been our savior from day one. If shaken or rattled the only solution is the musicians and the grooves on the record that provide the message. When The Ramones put out "too tough to die" we thought fuck yea the Ramones are too tough to die. Our title Indestructible pays homage to that. This ones for Joey, Dee Dee, and Joe because through music you can live forever.

These thoughts alone are enough to make me like the rest of this record. And like it I do. It's not exactly the world's greatest punk record (which is either Ramones or Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols...depending on which day you ask me (today it's The Ramones)), but it'll make you remember the noise, the mohawks and the broken beer bottles that were a big part of Friday nights at college.

And in these more than weird times, that's enough for me.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)