If you know who Lars Frederiksen is you probably know him from Rancid. Well now Lars is branching out on his and starting his own band Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards. To say that The Bastards is a complete side project from Rancid, would be both true and misleading, It’s a side project in that it’s just Lars and four completely different guys in the band, but Lars’ Rancid band mate Tim Armstrong both co-wrote the album and produced it.

The band consists of Frederiksen on guitar and lead vocals, Scott Abels of Hepcat on drums, Big Jay Bastard, Armstrong’s guitar tech, on bass, Craig Scott on guitar, and The Unknown Bastard who in Frederiksen’s own words, is "a crazy punk rock kid…now singing backgrounds and being a maniac."

I’m not gonna lie to you this stuff isn’t that much of a departure from Frederiksen’s stuff with Rancid, but that by no means makes it a bad album. As far as I’m concerned Rancid has been one of the most consistently good punk bands of the last decade, and this album simply being an extension of that makes this one bitchin’ record.

The song all come from Frederiksen’s experiences growing up in Campbell California. He grew up in low-income housing and say that punk rock is the thing that stopped him from ending up in jail. Tim Armstrong heard all of Frederiksen’s stories and the two of them decided to get together and in Armstrong’s own words, "put them on wax."

I’ve read Frederiksen’s stories of growing up in Campbell that he puts up on Rancid’s Website, and must say the translation to song doesn’t work as well as it could. While songs like "Dead American" and "Army of Zombies" are musically punk as fuck, the lyrics just aren’t near the level I’d expect from two veterans like Armstrong and Frederiksen. I did enjoy some of the songs though, "These are the days of wine and roses/riot squads and fire hoses," Frederiksen sings in "Wine and Roses" a song that will defiantly have you singing along all day long. The most disappointing song would have to be the cover of Billy Brag’s "To Have and Have Not" which The Bastards only manage to make it slightly less annoying than the original.

If you’re a fan of Rancid you should buy this album, if you’re a fan of good ol’ straight up punk rock you should buy this album, but if your looking for deep, insightful, whiny lyrics that go straight to your soul, all I can tell you is that I heard Lionel Ritchie might be recording a new album soon.