Rancid “B Sides And C Sides”

Album Reviews | Jan 27th, 2008

No Image
Sorry Folks, No Image Is Here.

Record Label: Self-Released
Genre: Punk
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

A month ago Rancid released a compilation album of B Sides, C Sides and unreleased songs spanning their entire career and it appears that not many people even know that this little gem exists. Now, Rancid isn’t a band that is known for writing weak songs and if you listen to the songs on this album, songs that were either compilation tracks or flip sides to an album track, you’ll find out that Rancid isn’t capable of writing weak songs.

Personally, I was never one to purchase singles so I’m only familiar with a few of the songs … “The Brothels” from the first “Give Em The Boot” compilation, “Endrina” which was the B Side to the “Bloodclot” single, “Just A Feeling” from the “Radio Radio Radio” EP and the hornless “I Wanna Riot” which was a B Side to the “Roots Radicals” single not the version taken from the “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America” soundtrack.

Without much knowledge of any of the other songs on this disc, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the different sounds that Rancid has developed so well over the course of their career. You can pretty much place your finger on about what album the songs were left over from. “Dead And Gone” is undoubtedly from the second self-titled era, “Things To Come’ is a straight up ska number complete with horns and piano no doubt a leftover track from the “Life Won’t Wait” sessions and “Just A Feeling” should have been on “Let’s Go” for sure.

For a B Sides album, “B Sides And C Sides” is chock full of variety and content. For the diehard Rancid fan that already bought every single, compilation and soundtrack that had Rancid on it and has most of these songs already, there are four unreleased tracks on it that you can’t find anywhere else (other than the internet). There are some songs that probably should have been on here but weren’t most likely due to legal issues or copyrights like “Brad Logan”, “I Wanna Riot” with the Stubborn All-Stars and Rancid’s covers of “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” and “Cheat” from the Ramones and Clash tribute albums, but the track selection is enough to make any Rancid fan happy…well as happy as a punk rocker can be.

Bottom Line: A great collection of unreleased and hard to find Rancid songs that causes one to think…why didn’t these songs make it to the albums?
Notable Tracks: The Brothels, Ben Zanotto, Stop, White Knuckle Ride, Devil’s Dance
Overall Rating: