Red Mosquito

theplatypus wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:My favorite Rancid song might be "Antennas" from the 2000 album. I love the contrast between the punky verses and spacious, melodic choruses -- all in 1.5 minutes or less!

I'm surprised by this. I would imagine that 2000 album would be completely outside your sphere of interest. That's pretty much a straight-up hardcore album.

Is it? I'm not overly familiar with how the distinctions between subgenres break down in this arena, but in addition to the fast, brutal songs, there are a handful of more measured, melodic, pop-oriented tracks too ("Let Me Go," "Radio Havana," "It's Quite Alright," "Antennas"). It's a good blend, and the brevity of the songs works to its overall advantage.

That said, I don't love every song on the album, and my interest usually wanes about 2/3 of the way through it. I also think that genre-oriented distinctions fade away a bit when I'm listening to a band whose sonic elements and conventions I've already accepted. Despite completely missing "Life Won't Wait" for some reason, I knew "Wolves" like the back of my hand by the time this album had come out, and those familiar elements can help sugar the pill. This wasn't "some random new album with a bunch of yelling and screaming and stuff I don't like"; it was the new Rancid album. I feel like over the years on RM I've read people (probably Stip) getting chided for praising certain styles of music when performed by Pearl Jam yet failing to connect with the rawer, more authentic bands in that genre, which always struck me as unfair; it seems perfectly natural to me that people would respond this way to music. There's probably some element of that in my fondness for this record.

Rancid, duh.

Not surprisingly I like both of these.

I never knew it was "Weak" not "Week".

Kevin Davis wrote:

theplatypus wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:My favorite Rancid song might be "Antennas" from the 2000 album. I love the contrast between the punky verses and spacious, melodic choruses -- all in 1.5 minutes or less!

I'm surprised by this. I would imagine that 2000 album would be completely outside your sphere of interest. That's pretty much a straight-up hardcore album.

Is it? I'm not overly familiar with how the distinctions between subgenres break down in this arena, but in addition to the fast, brutal songs, there are a handful of more measured, melodic, pop-oriented tracks too ("Let Me Go," "Radio Havana," "It's Quite Alright," "Antennas"). It's a good blend, and the brevity of the songs works to its overall advantage.

That said, I don't love every song on the album, and my interest usually wanes about 2/3 of the way through it. I also think that genre-oriented distinctions fade away a bit when I'm listening to a band whose sonic elements and conventions I've already accepted. Despite completely missing "Life Won't Wait" for some reason, I knew "Wolves" like the back of my hand by the time this album had come out, and those familiar elements can help sugar the pill. This wasn't "some random new album with a bunch of yelling and screaming and stuff I don't like"; it was the new Rancid album. I feel like over the years on RM I've read people (probably Stip) getting chided for praising certain styles of music when performed by Pearl Jam yet failing to connect with the rawer, more authentic bands in that genre, which always struck me as unfair; it seems perfectly natural to me that people would respond this way to music. There's probably some element of that in my fondness for this record.

My favorite Rancid albums are Life Won't Wait and the 2000 album. Those ones just sound rawer and hit harder IMO.

My favorite Rancid song might be Maxwell's Murder though, which is also a sub 2 minute hardcore style song.

Love "Maxwell Murder" -- again, super catchy, and that bass is undeniable.

Their bassist really puts a lot of otherwise musically average songs over the top, honestly. He's fantastic.

Matt is a great bassist. That's the "make or break" quality of ska for me. The bass has gotta be jumpin' without being too "rockabilly."

run2death wrote:Matt is a great bassist. That's the "make or break" quality of ska for me. The bass has gotta be jumpin' without being too "rockabilly."

Speaking of rockabilly and somewhat punk music, what's everyone think of Social Distortion? I really like their old stuff but everything after White Heat White Trash is pretty boring.

i've never listened to them outside of a couple songs

Jammer XCI wrote:

run2death wrote:Matt is a great bassist. That's the "make or break" quality of ska for me. The bass has gotta be jumpin' without being too "rockabilly."

Speaking of rockabilly and somewhat punk music, what's everyone think of Social Distortion? I really like their old stuff but everything after White Heat White Trash is pretty boring.

Outside of the self-titled album, they are one band I just could never get into. I did like Mike Ness's solo work though.