“I don't go anywhere without my switchblade/I don't go anywhere without my crew/I don't go anywhere without no protection/I don't go anywhere without my weapons.”

Lars, Lars, Lars. What are we going to do with you?

Three years after releasing their self-titled album, the band that Mr. Frederiksen calls “an extension of Rancid” have released their second album, titled Viking.

The Bastards are straight-up punk rock, sneering and celebrating all the way. On the opener, titled simply Bastards, Lars proclaims “Rock and Roll isn't played by nice boys/Bastards play street punk rock and roll/We're bad boys, yea and we're back in town.”

Well hey, it may lose points in the originality department, but you can’t fault it much past that.

Skins, Punx & Drunx and Fight follow pretty much the same pattern: loud fast punk song with shout-along chorus.

And that’s how a lot of the album is. But that’s okay, because really, did you expect anything else?

On this album, Lars tells us more about his life then we ever wanted to know. My Life to Live, featuring Tim Armstrong, is a tribute to their hookers. Hey guys? We don’t care.

%1, possibly the album’s best track Lars affirms his storytelling talents singing about a childhood idol Big Danny. This story doesn’t have a happy ending (“Well Big Danny’s handcuffed he’s on the floor/yeah he told me to run and he told me to bolt/as my mother cried you know my father lied/well Big Danny was there he was at my side”). It’s fast-paced, but not so fast that you can’t tell what he’s saying, and has a certain anthem quality the first three songs missed.

There’s also an excellent cover of the Blasters’ Marie, Marie. It sounds almost like something you’d hear at a country fair, only a hell of a lot punker.

In contrast to the near-love songs Marie, Marie and Little Rude Girl (track seven), we have Mainlining Murder. Be glad you aren’t the girl this is about. Be very glad. Slow and downright creepy, that’s all I’ll say. Lars is good at writing songs that are gritty and catchy, and this is one of them.

Skinhead Rob, of the Transplants fame, throws in a rap verse on the paranoid Switchblade. I’ll be honest, he really doesn’t do anything good for the song, but other then that it’s not bad.

Mixed in with all this, did I mention we have a lot of fast, shout-along punk songs? There are a lot. They vary in quality, but aside from Bastards, The Kids Are Quiet on Sherman Palms, Skins, Punx & Drunx and maybe a couple others they just seem...useless. Hear one testosterone fest, you’ve heard ‘em all.

Things end with the confessional but unapologetic title track, The Viking. The music is fairly simple, with quiet guitar and slow drums kicking in at the chorus. It’s strangely endearing, really.

Viking is in many ways a classic sophomore album. There’s some good experimentation and some insanely catchy songs, but a lot of it is just faceless. Overall it lacks the punch (and cohesiveness) of the band’s self-titled album.

But the album’s biggest low is the lyrics. We know you’re a badass. We know you’re from Campbell, California. Tell us something new, please.



Label: Hellcat Records
Release: July 13th, 2004

Track Listing:

01. Bastards
02. Skins, Punx and Drunx
03. Fight
04. 1%
05. Switchblade
06. Marie Marie
07. Little Rude Girl
08. Maggots
09. Mainlining Murder
10. For You
11. My Life to Live
12. Kids Are Quiet on Sharon Palms
13. Blind Ambition
14. Gods of War
15. Streetwise Professor
16. Viking

Rating:



Review by: Lyndie