Album · Pennywise
Straight Ahead by Pennywise
Straight Ahead is an album by Pennywise, released in 1999. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 17 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Alien”, on 11 lists with a best position of #16.
Straight Ahead, Pennywise's fifth album, came out on Epitaph in June 1999 with Jerry Finn producing, and it lives up to its name. The Hermosa Beach band, named for the clown in Stephen King's It, had been putting out an album every two years since their debut, and by now the lineup was Jim Lindberg singing, Fletcher Dragge on guitar, Randy Bradbury on bass and Byron McMackin on drums.
It's West Coast skate-punk at full tilt: furious, fast and blunt, with metallic power riffs and McMackin's drumming driving the anger forward instead of burying the tunes. "Alien" was the single, and "Victim of Reality" joined it on the countdowns. The band played Cypress Hill's Smoke Out Festival in October 2000, and a planned Australian tour was pushed from July to November 2000 because Lindberg's mother was ill with cancer; Frenzal Rhomb and Game Over opened. Full Circle came before it.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Straight Ahead on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alien | 11 | #16 | – | 1999–2008 | |
| 2 | Victim of Reality | 6 | #26 | – | 2000–2008 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.