Rancid

Rancid formed in California in 1991 out of the ashes of Operation Ivy, with Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman carrying on from that band and Brett Reed behind the drums. After the first album, Lars Frederiksen joined on the tour that followed, and suddenly there were 2 snarling singers and 2 guitars trading barbs over Freeman's ridiculously nimble bass. Armstrong's slurred, gravelly bark and Frederiksen's shout became the band's calling card.

Let's Go, their second album, broke them in 1994 on the strength of "Salvation", a runaway street-punk anthem that sprints from the first bar to the last. A year later ...And Out Come the Wolves made them one of the bands, alongside Green Day and the Offspring, credited with dragging punk rock back into the American mainstream. It went platinum, over a million copies in the US alone, and its big three still sound like a party on a bus: the ska skank of "Time Bomb", the heartsick sing-along of "Ruby Soho" and the reggae bounce of "Roots Radicals".

Rancid never went looking for a second breakthrough. Life Won't Wait in 1998 had "Bloodclot", and then came a self-titled record in 2000, Indestructible in 2003 with "Fall Back Down" and "Red Hot Moon", Let the Dominoes Fall in 2009 with "Last One to Die", ...Honor Is All We Know in 2014, Trouble Maker in 2017 and Tomorrow Never Comes in 2023. The critics kept praising them even when sales never matched Wolves. Reed left in 2006 and Branden Steineckert took over on drums, but Armstrong and Freeman have been there throughout, and the band has kept hold of the fans who found it underground. Over 4 million records sold says the punk scene has kept them close.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.