ZapTown

Good Riddance
A Comprehensive Guide To Moderne Rebellion
1996 – Fat Wreck Chords

Origin:  Santa Cruz, California
Style: Punk

Ryan Greene got a promotion when it came to this album. He went from co-producing the band’s debut For God And Country to full-on production. The only reason I put Greene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Greene) at the forefront is that his workings with Megadeth’s Countdown To Extinction and later Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz enlisted him to do work on NOFX’s Punk In Drublic.

It’s the incorporation of metal and punk rock styles, along with the relationship that he developed with NOFX and Fat Mike (they both started up Motor Studios) that became a direct influence for Good Riddance and a development in a style that carried over and progressed throughout the rest of their career.

It’s also what kept Good Riddance away from the schlocky pop punk side of the Southern California lifestyle and pushed them to be one of the more intense modern West Coast punk rock bands in that genre without becoming an overtly socio-political band.

A Comprehensive Guide To Moderne Rebellion may not stack up to the force of their later career releases, but it does show a powerful transgression from their debut, and a sense they they know more of what they are doing.

Songs like “Steps” create an awkward transition from the speed punk opener “Weight Of The World,” But the ball thumping of the bass drums and the revving of the guitars keep things moving. And that is why “A Credit To His Gender” might sound like one of the better Bad Religion songs they never wrote.

I think the defining moment on this album is the two-and-a half minute “Last Believer.” It perfectly sums up what this band is about lyrically (“America is burning, look around it’s in the air. I want to be the last believer as long as I still care. And I still care!”) and musically. The pounding force and the infantry of hardcore punk.

This is the album that made me believe that what this band was doing was the true essential of what punk rock was and is all about.

There is not definitive line as to where the band excels and goes wrong here. Some speed punk works, some don’t. Same goes with the more straightforward songs. But I can agree that the last few songs, beginning with “Think Of Me,” is the diversity that takes this band deep into the next few albums.

Cross-Reference: Bad Religion, NOFX, Face To Face