I remember back in 1995 not liking this record initially. I'd been into Let's Go a year prior quite heavily and on the first few listens or so I thought this all sounded samey and too poppy. Eventually though I realised it was a modern punk classic. 19 tracks and pretty much all anthems in fact there's only one track which I've never really liked and that's The Wars End for the record.
This record was my summer soundtrack for at least the next 3 years in which time I saw Rancid a couple of times in Leeds in front of relatively small crowds and it always transports me back to college and lazing around with my friends and this being pretty much the only record everyone could agree on. Admittedly I don't listen to Rancid that much these days but tracks like 11th Hour, Roots Radical, Time Bomb, Journey To The End Of The East Bay etc still sound good to me on the 1278th listen.
White vinyl repress from 2010 of 640 copies according to Discogs. It's good to finally have this on this format. I have the two self titled albums (why?)on wax also. When I finally get round to getting Let's Go and Life Won't Wait I might feature them on here too.
Which Leeds shows did you go to?
ReplyDeleteT&C and year before at The Duchess I think it was at. Sure I read on your blog you spent one of those days with Lars right mate??
ReplyDeleteI saw 'em at the Duchess in December '93. It's one of those dates that is etched in my brain & helps me figure out when certain events in the past happened. That show was pretty empty I recall.
ReplyDeleteI then saw them at the Cockpit in probably about Sept '95. I think I had seen them at the Underworld in London a day or two before, and spoken to Tim as he was just hanging about in the bar area on his own. He was super friendly guy. I think he may have put me on the guestlist for Leeds but am not 100% certain of that. WHat I do remember about the Leeds Cockpit show was that, compared to London, it started off tame. In London, the stage dives started in the first song & it was pretty crazy. In Leeds, it was the Cockpit and nobody even attempted to get on stage. So my main memory was kicking off the stage dives. I did the first and then it went crazy. I was proud of that.
It was next Summer they played the T&C. I rolled up in the afternoon with my friend and knocked on their bus door. They let us on & we took Lars shopping. What sticks in my mind was him busting out the gold card to pay for stuff. I guess things had moved on a lot in that year and they had become huge. I didn't enjoy the T&C show at all though.
I bought the S/T LP that came out in 2000, which I enjoyed, but I've never listened to anything since. Nor have I seen them play since '96.
Coincidentally, I only listened to this album a week or so ago, because 'The Wars End' popped into my head!
Must have been the cockpit I saw them at the first time then because it was 95 and 96 definitely not 93. Yeah the T&C show was weird. They had shit supports and also the venue seemed to big for them at the time and wasn't even full. I think that venue held like 1300-1500 and it seemed only half full
ReplyDeleteMy favourite album ever. Nothing comes close.
ReplyDeleteI definitely love this album and yeah it kind of is a guilty pleasure for me. It's a double edged sword, it means alot to me being born and raided in the Bay Area, and at the same time everyone here knows who Rancid is. You could put on some songs from this album at a college frat party and a bunch of fuckers will start singing along and knowing the words. I've even heard some of these songs "mashed up" with hip hop songs at mainstream nightclubs around here.. Weird. And ps... I like at the wars end :P
ReplyDeleteAll that being said, I am kind of jealous of this copy. When it came out (this repress that is), I kind of brushed it off and now I regret it.
Just me that doesn't like the wars end then haha
ReplyDelete