Review #2: Rancid - Grease and Garbage

Year: Released in 2004 apparently

Genre: Rock
Label: Forbidden Fruit
Tracks: 27
My Rating: 6/10

Never been a big fan of Rancid or many of the now well known, mainstream "punk" bands. I still disslike people in a rock band who have to do the cliche rock n roll star introduction like "Are you ready to party?!?!!!" in every show and try to lick the ass of the audience by things like that. If you want to be a punk rock band, don't be like Guns N Roses!! I used to despise Rancid for claiming to be a punk rock band and wearing all those expensive looking "punk" clothes. Oh and mohawks... i still think you don't need a mohawk to be a punk. And the Rancid guys look like weak posers, BUT anyways this isn't about the band members personalities or hairstyles, it's about the music and I'm open for all kinds of music, so i desided to check this out and heres my review on that:

This is apparently a bootleg album. This album features 16 songs by Rancid and 11 songs by Operation Ivy, which was Rancid's lead singer Tim Armstrong's and Rancid bass-player Matt Freeman's band before Rancid.

1. Rancid - Unwritten Rules
This song is sung by Matt Freeman and Tim. Apparently a demo take on the same song featured on their self-titled 1993 debut album, but sounds more "dirty", not that clear and clean. The chorus starts with Matt singing the line "unwritten rules" then Tim yells "Rules understood!" i like the sound of his voice. The lyrics are fine and i can relate to the line "i like to drink beer play music and go to shows". Also contains a line saying "its not about paying your dues if you do it out of love". Sometimes it just seemed to me that Rancid was doing what they were for showbiz.

2. Rancid - Take You
I like the opening riff of the song, it has also a noisy ending. Doesn't amaze me much. I bet would be cooler to hear this in a live show.

3. Rancid - The Line
Another fast song, that i don't think got ever officially released. Kinda Sex Pistols-like guitar sound at the solo near the end

4. Rancid - Burn The City Down
i think this song did not get officially released either. I like the noisy riff. Matt seems to be trying to sing like Glenn Danzig in this

5. Operation Ivy - Healthy Body, Sick Mind
This is a live version. Tim says at the beginning "Those of you who weren't dancing, come on up and go for the dance" or something like that. Heres part of the lyrics:

Expensive vitamin pills and wheat germ on your windowswill
Your schedule's hectic and you've got no time to kill
Earning money and you're spending it the right way
Just in such a rush you don't know if it's night or day

5:30 get up, run run run
Then you work eight hours
Slaving under the gun
Little world is based on lies lies lies
Always rushing but you're never ever satisfied

Healthy body sick mind
You're working overtime
Healthy body sick mind
Too hectic, too hectic
Healthy body sick mind

"Why don't you just unwind?"
It's just a matter of time
Sick body sick mind!

The money you spend on running shoes could feed me for a week
Your plans are laid so well you can't even sleep
Pursuit of happiness got you life locked up under marshall law
You got everything to lose so you're paranoid about some fatal flaw

6. Operation Ivy - Take Back What's Mine
The official title of this track is "Someday" i suppose. This is faster and more hardcore punk kinda song from OP IVY than their more known songs. I like this title better than "Someday".

7. Operation Ivy - Education
Another fast song. The official title of this song is "Plea For Peace"

8. Operation Ivy - Trouble Man
This song's real title is "Trouble Bound".

9. Operation Ivy - Black Flag
This seemed interesting since it was titled as the name of one of my fav bands BLACK FLAG, but seems like its another mislabel on this album. My fav song of the album though, its fast and loud.

10. Operation Ivy - Moonlight

11. Operation Ivy - What Are We Gonna Do
The riff in the middle part kinda reminds me of the riff in "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by you know who.
A bass solo near the end of the song.
I suppose the real title to this song is "Left Behind".

12. Operation Ivy - Sarcastic
The real title of this song is "Old Friendships".
This seems to be live.

We sat back and laughed
Ignored by the world we attacked
Everything seemed so fake and plastic
You were so cool and sarcastic
You looked over your shoulder
And I was always there
We went easy and stepped lightly
In a world so different from us

I don't usually like songs about being friends and being happy but this isn't really like one of those songs as i expected.

Sometimes I think
You don't know what you are
Sometimes I think
Nothing ever changed, at least so far
Now I see I'm all the things
I laughed at yesterday
You still look at the world around you
From a thousand miles away

yeah i can relate..

13. Operation Ivy - Sun Goes Down Over My City
This sounds more like the Operation Ivy i first heard of

14. Operation Ivy - Steppin Out
Quite long song (7:52). I like how the guitar sounds in this. Really noisy

15. Operation Ivy - Do It
this is apparently the last track on OP IVY's Seedy album. Starts with Tim introducing the band "we're Operation Ivy from California thats in the west coast" then Jesse says "And you're San Francisco" so apparently that was taken at a live gig. After that seems like they would start a song but suddenly stops and loud, continous sound "DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DOSDIDISIF" over and over again, but not for too long.

16. Rancid - The Sentence

17. Rancid - I'm Not The Only One

18. Rancid - To Hell

19. Rancid - Media Controller

20. Rancid - Battering Ram

21. Rancid - Idle Hands
Reaaal noisy sound. I like it. This song seems to be about being homeless and lonely

Come and find me I'm gonna be here
Come and find me I like it
Spent some time in a shelter down on Webster
you think I'm going back you must be joking
If I ever forget how bad it was to be homeless
I must still be high from the dope I was smoking

22. Rancid - Unwritten Rules 2

23. Rancid - Trenches

24. Rancid - Opposition

25. Rancid - Inhalation

26. Rancid - Animosity
This is apparently a demo or alternate version of the song "Rats in the Hallway" which is featured on Rancid's first album. The chorus
"Junkie drunken bum
yeah yeah yeah
rats in the hallway again"
is alot faster than on the official album. I like this song, but i prefer the acoustic version featured on the Give 'Em The Boot DVD (released 2004), then the album version, then this one
27. Rancid - Borderline
I've been listening to Rancid about 2 hours now and i'm really lazy to review every single song so i might review the rest later. thank you good night