If ever Tim Armstrong’s time was gonna come, it’s gonna come now. A roots rocker disguised in postcard punk get-up, the guy’s facility with a whole range of styles has always been undersold by the image. Homeboy might sing and play guitar like Strummer’s understudy but his seemingly boundless curiosity also suggests Keef, the upshot being his band are equally adept at ska, reggae, proto-hip-hop and the kind of rough arsed folk promulgated by the Men They Couldn’t Hang and The Pogues back in the late 80s, just as the Orange County/San Diego/East Bay punk scene that also spawned Green Day and No Doubt was finding its feet.
Having put the barbwire colonic irrigation of 2000’s eponymous record behind them, Indestructible sees the band cranking out an entire new repertoire of 19 tunes that are as impressive in their diversity as their economy. Here are reams of gutsy down t’pit efforts like the title tune and ‘Ghost Band’; streetwise white reggae routines like ‘Tropical London’ and ‘Red Hot Moon’, plus a fistful of tunes (‘Born Frustrated’ among them) that sound like joyful GBH variations on ‘Pressure Drop’.
I like them best when they’re slotting coins into the global jukebox built by Strummer and MacGowan on their way to Alex Cox’s spaghetti hell; titles like ‘Django’ and ‘Arrested In Shanghai’. Rancid seem fascinated with the outlaw music of every territory, and Indestructible works as a stick ’em up farce of Mexican stand-offs, zydeco heists, Panamanian necktie parties, Mafioso ballad sessions, Spanish civil wars, Trenchtown keg sessions and underage LA riots.
Can’t wait for the live show.