RANCID

Guitar and Vocals - Tim Armstrong
Bass and Vocals - Matt Freeman
Guitar and Vocals - Lars Frederiksen
Drums - Branden Steineckert

Rancid – Tim Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Matt Freeman (bass, vocals), Lars Frederiksen (vocals, guitar), Branden Steineckert (drums) – as a band have always been imbued with a sense of place: the blue collar neighborhoods where they grew up, their place as individuals within their band, their band as part of a movement and their evolving sense of place in relation to the world at large.

Rancid's new record Let The Dominoes Fall is much like their other records in the sense that it is filled with the stories and characters that populate the band's lives and reflects the cultural and political climate in which it was written and recorded. It has classic Rancid songcraft: two minute songs packed with melody, personally empathetic and politically denunciatory. But Let The Dominoes Fall is also unique in that it is filled with the growing insight of a band who has been doing this for a while now: it feels natural and organic, written without an agenda or a bone to pick, rather the culmination of lives lived largely with a keen interest in the world and a sense of brotherhood.

Born in the midst of the post-Reagan economic downturn in the San Francisco Bay Area, the East Bay region specifically, Rancid came to light as Armstrong and Freeman were moving forward after the first band they founded, Operation Ivy, reached a friendly demise. Arguably the most influential band from the Bay Area, the West Coast, the late 1980s or ever, depending on who you talk to, Operation Ivy has been cited by everyone from Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong to Fat Mike of NOFX as the group that most affected the sound of their own bands. But just as those fledgling punk rock superstars' careers were getting started, Armstrong and Freeman were starting over. Encapsulated in a couple of lines off of Rancid's "Journey To The End of the East Bay," Armstrong succinctly explained the rise and fall of Op Ivy:

"started in '87, ended in '89,
you got a garage, or an amp we'll play anytime.
It was just the four of us, yeah man, the core of us.
Too much attention unavoidably destroyed us.
Four kids on tour, 3000 miles, in a four-door car not knowing what was going on."

Enter Brett Gurewitz, no stranger himself to blossoming from a rabid local following – in this case Los Angeles - to worldwide influence. Gurewitz was first known to Armstrong and Freeman as the guitar player and songwriter in legendary Los Angeles hardcore band Bad Religion, but by the early 1990s, Gurewitz was splitting his time between being a touring musician, record producer and the head of a swiftly growing independent label, Epitaph. A big fan of Operation Ivy, Gurewitz had once told Armstrong that whenever he started a new band, Epitaph would sign them, sight unseen. A few years later, he had his wish.

Rancid's self-titled first full-length and Epitaph debut came out May 10th, 1993 and was filled with the ferocity of three guys (Armstrong and Freeman, along with original drummer Brett Reed) still living in squats, getting around on bikes or in old beaters and viewing the world with all the hostility of the very young and opinionated. Rancid had seen the American dream dwindle and fade in their country and in their community, saw its end trickle down into their families, and their early songs, like "Whirlwind" were filled with vivid descriptions of the aftermath.

In the almost six years since the release of their last album Indestructible, the members of Rancid have been anything but dormant. 2004 saw the release of Frederiksen's second solo album Viking, a scorching homage to Lars' vida loca, equal parts violence and fellowship. 2005 marked the release of Haunted Cities, the second record from Armstrong's side project, the Transplants. Additionally, in 2007 Armstrong released an acclaimed solo record, A Poet's Life, a testament to his enduring love to reggae and rocksteady but also his interest how modern electronic music often mirrors old studio effects. Meanwhile, bassist Matt Freeman's legendary skills were highlighted on both the Transplants record and tour, and also on worldwide tours playing with Social Distortion. Seemingly, the band had so much creative output, it could not be contained within a single project. In 2007, Rancid had its only line-up change since the addition of Lars Frederiksen in 1993 when Branden Steineckert took over drum duties from Brett Reed.

Let The Dominoes Fall is filled with songs that examine military service - timely in the midst of the US's protracted war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also written for Armstrong's brother who served in Iraq. "New Orleans" pays homage to the band's love of the Katrina-wracked city and other songs examine the effects of eight years of irresponsible governance on the working class, but it is also a deeply personal, apolitical record. Many songs talk about a life lived on the road, lessons learned in a career now spanning more than a decade and a half. "Last One To Die" sums up the end results of Rancid's sometimes risky, often controversial choices. The moral of the story? You can never go wrong when being true to yourselves, a rule Rancid have always lived their lives, and flourished, by:

Everybody said we gotta take a chance
And tell them what the hell went wrong
We only listened to the words that we sang
Now a million are singing along.

We got it right
You got it wrong
We're still around
Last one to die