Face To Face, Jawbreaker, Rancid

For the most part, 90's punk rock was a lot like Jose Canseco's MMA debut: too fast, disappointing, and ultimately too predictable.

However, that description can't be applied as a blanket statement. Here's three bands from California that are worth checking out. Two of them sort of broke into the mainstream, at least for a short period of time, so I know I'm not breaking new ground here, but I do like it, and these are iPod staples for sure.

FACE TO FACE: "DISCONNECTED"

This was the song that made Face To Face "sort of" famous. Apparently it got picked up by KROQ in L.A. and made it into their regular playlist. I'm not saying that the band tried to milk this song for every last drop of what it was worth, I'm actually going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they probably hated this song by the end, but it did appear on Don't Turn Away, the Over It EP, AND Big Choice and AGAIN on their live CD.

However, there's some logic behind this, because it's a good damn song. Here they are performing it live on Jon Stewart's old talk show. I chose this version because I think the performance here accurately captures the awesomeness of this band when they were live, which is truly the best Face To Face experience. The good news is that they've got back together and are touring again, so the opportunity to see them again will come around.

JAWBREAKER: "INDICTMENT"

I had a hard time picking which Jawbreaker song to include today. I'm sure I'll put more on later. For the time being, I've chosen Indictment, because it's currently the one I'm playing the most.

This band actually achieved a fair bit of critical acclaim, yet remained criminally ignored by the media. I think they could have been as big as Green Day had they been given the chance. The first few records really lacked overall production quality, but if you pick up a copy of Dear You, you'll see what this band was capable of in the hands of the right studio, engineer, and producer.

Following Jawbreaker's demise, their singer Blake Schwarzenbach went on to form an emo supergroup called Jets To Brazil, along with ex-members of Handsome and Texas Is The Reason, which are incidentally two other bands that I'm likely to talk about on here at a later date.

Again, I've chosen a live video because it's a more accurate picture of what the band really is. And punk rock STILL remains something that is best experienced live in a noisy little dive.

RANCID: "ROOTS RADICALS"

Rancid are clearly saw themselves as their heir apparent to the crown vacated by the Clash when they made Combat Rock. I don't think that's a poor description, and I also don't think it's unfair to say that this band possessed the chops and songwriting to match nearly everything that the Clash released. They certainly didn't break new ground like the Clash did, but Rancid's 1995 album "...And Out Come The Wolves" is as good or better than everything that the Clash released EXCEPT for "London Calling".

I've chosen a song from that record called Roots Radicals. The album itself had two singles, which were Time Bomb and Ruby Soho, both of which made it into regular radio rotation. This song was actually the 3rd single, and sadly it was ignored, which is a bit surprising to me because this really does define the Rancid sound, at least as much as the other two.

Here's a video of them playing it live in front of what appears to be about 40,000 people at a festival. Some would argue that it's not very punk rock for them to be doing this. I think that's an unfair statement. Clearly this band, and other punk bands over the years (Sex Pistols, Clash, Green Day, etc, etc...) have got a good deal of crossover potential, and despite being buried in noise, feedback, and brutality, you can't hide the fact that the songs, and the bands that wrote them, are good. The problem I've always had with punks is that there is a perception among some of them that image is more important than substance. I had that same mentality when I was a teenager, but as I grew up, I started to realize that I can have a family and a career and a mortgage and STILL find a way to love bands like Rancid. I think it makes me more punk than dirty, snotty teenagers for me to walk my own path and like what I like. I think that's what it was about in the beginning (I can't say for sure, I was about 9 months old when punk started in the 70's), and somewhere along the way that got lost on a lot of people.

Anyways, that's enough commentary from me. Here's the song.

Next update coming Monday...think metal.