Lars Fredericksen & the Bastards

Follow this logic, if you will: Lars Fredericksen takes time off from his main gig as the co-frontman in Rancid to record an album by his “side project” with Rancid songwriting partner Tim Armstrong, the results of which sound a hell of a lot like Rancid. Which isn’t to say it’s bad; in fact, it’s consistently solid, especially if you’re a fan of the spit and venom of Rancid’s mid-’90s efforts (…And Out Come the Wolves and Let’s Go). The 10 new songs here were inspired by the wild days of Fredericksen’s misspent youth, but it’s the enthusiastic covers of Billy Bragg’s “To Have and to Have Not” and Motorhead’s “Leavin’ Here” that point to where this might’ve gone. Unfortunately, the shadow of Rancid looms large. Maybe after the band’s bold and expansive 1998 album Life Won’t Wait and last year’s self-titled hardcore rant both get ignored, Fredericksen yearns for the days when Rancid was the “Next Big Thing” rather than yesterday’s news.