The Most Common Word in the Punk Rock Lexicon

The story has ranged from Rancid abandoning their position with Epitaph Records and fully signing on to Warner Bros. to simply using the budget of Warner Bros. marketing department. And how did punkers respond? With a word that too easily passes lips these days: Sell-out. Most entries on the punknews.org threads berated Rancid for their move, even though the story was a bit vague. Fans suggested that Rancid were now all about the money, that they should tour with mainstream pop-punk acts like Good Charlotte, and that they would now be sacrificing their artistic integrity. More reasonable responses supported Rancid by stating the common punk truth that radio sucks, and that if Rancid were to go mainstream, it could only help that situation. I, for one, see both sides of the argument. On one hand, Rancid have always vehemently declared that they would never bow down for a major label. If you’ve seen them live, you’ll now exactly what I’m talking about. But, let’s not jump the gun. I’ve been a fan of Rancid since their second album, Let’s Go, so I can’t say I’ve been with them from the beginning. Still, being a fan for nine years is nothing to scoff at. Where do you think I first heard of Rancid? It was a video for their song, “Salvation,” that was played on MTV. On their next album, ...And Out Come the Wolves, Rancid achieved the most mainstream success of their careers, putting out videos for the minor hits “Time Bomb” and “Ruby Soho.” The song “Bloodclot” from their fourth album, Life Won’t Wait, didn’t make much of a splash, but it garnered a bit of radio play on my local station. With the exception of their two self-titled releases, Rancid has gotten attention for all of their albums. So, what’s different now?

Punks should know that Rancid wouldn’t mind some airplay since they have made attempts at it before. With Life Won’t Wait, the sell-out accusations flew because Rancid took time and effort in writing and producing the album. In what seemed like an effort to silence the punk criticism, their next album, Rancid 2000, was a short attention span, machine gun album, bringing more of a hard-core element to Rancid than any other outing by the band. While the album was good, it didn’t quite feel like Rancid. With Indestructible, I seriously doubt that Rancid would do a 180 and join the likes of Sum 41, musically speaking. Tim Armstrong, singer and writer of the band, has tasted success with his other band, the Transplants, and most likely would like to keep Rancid a little more raw. That’s not saying that the band wouldn’t like a little recognition, but really, can you see Rancid appealing to Britney fans? It’s unlikely.

To call Rancid sell-outs is a bit premature. Selling out is changing your style to sell more records. Since I doubt that most of those people have heard the new Rancid album, they aren’t qualified to make those judgments. If the time is right and the world is ready for a band like Rancid, then they could stay exactly the same and still sell more records. That’s just the way it is, and punks should get down off of their elitist high horses and accept that they can’t expect a great band to go unknown forever. The naysayers are behaving like protective mothers, not ready to let their grown up children leave the nest yet. Even punk icons, the Ramones, wished for success openly at the end of their career. They were tired of doing it better than the mainstream punks and getting zero credit for their actions. Maybe Rancid feels that they shouldn’t take a backseat to Blink-182 when their music is far better. Or maybe Rancid are tired of living in fear of their fans and are doing the “punkest” thing of all, turning their backs on the disapproving masses.