What's in a Name?

Album: Rancid, Let's Go, 1994

Best Track: Pick 'em

Worst Track: Pick 'em

Lasting Memory: In early 1994, I saw Blacksburg, Virginia's own Pietasters play live for the first time. Instantly, I was a ska kid. A nearly 25-year-old ska kid, but, man, I was hooked. I set about buying every ska-related album I could afford, which was about one every two months.

Rancid's Let's Go was acquired during this saddest, slowest record-buying frenzy ever, and it didn't disappoint. Let's Go is as close to a ska punk template as anything anyone could name. None of the songs are absolute classics, but a couple are pretty darn good, particularly "Sidekick" and "St. Mary." Also, and this is a huge accomplishment for any punk band, none of the songs on Let's Go are awful. "Name" and "I Am the One" aren't great, mind you, but they are tolerable enough.

If motivated and at leisure to take the time to do so, I could probably describe exactly why some of these songs sound appealing and other less so. But I'll let myself off the hook with the observation that the band's music doesn't not live up to or down to its name. There is nothing rancid about this album.

What really sold Let's Go when it was released in 1994 was Rancid's history of being composed of several members of the seminal band Operation Ivy. What sells Let's Go in 2009 is the knowledge that Rancid would release an album titled Out Come the Wolves ... that is loaded with great songs and which I sold my copy of in 2000 to get beer money.

Selling possessions for beer money, now that's punk.

Up Next: R.E.M., Chronic Town, 1982