Epitaph Records: 35 Essential Tracks

Rancid – “Ruby Soho”
from …And Out Come the Wolves (1995)

Does it matter that Tim Armstrong so thoroughly bit Joe Strummer’s style and personality when he bit it so well, and out of such obvious reverence? I mean, it does to the “sellout!” shouting crowd of, like, Casualties listeners, but they’re irrelevant. Anyhow, “Soho,” one of the catchiest, best-known singles on an album full of them (…And Out Come The Wolves), was an immediate, anthemic success, so much so that it seemed to receive almost as much airplay when I was in high school as it did upon its 1995 debut. That loping bassline, Armstrong’s flawed but perfectly earnest voice, the kinetic roar to life of the chorus—“Ruby Soho” is a punk jam for the ages, authenticity be damned. – LG

Red Aunts – “Freakathon”
from #1 Chicken (1995)

Red Aunts’ Epitaph debut #1 Chicken advertises its brevity on the back cover: 14 songs in 23 minutes. But the Long Beach quartet made good use of the scant minutes that comprised the album, stuffing as much scratchy guitar and attitude as possible into more than a dozen tracks, none more encapsulating of their ethos than leadoff track “Freakathon.” In just one minute and 19 seconds, the band unleashes a noise-punk tantrum about cutting off fingers and growing up a freak, with shout-along moments of “I’m not a kid!” and “I want ’em!” against a punk backing of equal parts The Ramones and The Cramps. Badass youthful angst at its most direct. – JT

SNFU – “Eric’s Had a Bad Day”
from The One Voted Most Likely to Succeed (1995)

The ’90s saw Epitaph leaning heavily on California-based punk bands like Pennywise and The Offspring, but one of its underrated punk acts of the era hailed from Canada. As such, SNFU’s take on punk was a bit different than the skate-park anthems of those bands, but still had plenty of loud, fast, snotty energy to go around. Their crowning moment is this shout-out to a dude having a majorly shitty day. “Eric drank a pint of salsa then he went into convulsions/ He’s had a bad day now/ Eric bought a new amp, then got kicked out of his band/ He’s had a bad day now.” Not poetry exactly, but those works speak to you as a teenager and, well shit, as an adult too, really. Not that I can’t handle my salsa, but it’s nice to know I can lean on some solid punk rock when everything goes south. – JT

Voodoo Glow Skulls – “Shoot the Moon”
from Firme (1995)

The Voodoo Glow Skull’s Firme was a first for Epitaph—an album released both in English and in Spanish versions, with the one exception on both albums being “El Coo Cooi,” which is in Spanish on the English version, and in English on the Spanish version. Thematic consistency! But whatever the language, the highlight of the band’s second album and Epitaph debut is its leadoff track, “Shoot the Moon.” This is the essence of the Voodoo Glow Skulls: Vibrant horn sections, messy punk breakdowns, the barking vocals of Frank Casillas, and the general idea that everything could fall apart at any minute. Even more so than NOFX, The Voodoo Glow Skulls are a party band, and their music is built on debauchery. It just so happens they’ve got a genuine punk anthem as well, and plenty more where that came from. – JT

The Descendents – “I’m the One”
from Everything Sucks (1996)

“I’m the One” might be the perfect pop song. For one, it’s short and to the point. It’s also unbelievably catchy and super fun to bob your head or mosh along to. (Or pogo, if that’s your poison.) There’s one little problem, though. “I’m the One” is also the definitive “nice guy” anthem, with its narrator (most likely writer Karl Alvarez because, let’s face it, this is pop punk, not prog rock) pining over a girl who chooses to be with—as he sees it—the wrong guy. Sure, it sounds like a love song at first, but it gets creepy a little too quickly, operating under the assumption that the woman in question has to choose one of the two guys in question, so it might as well be Alvarez. For these reasons, I choose prefer to sing along to this melodic gem with my alternate lyrics, “Sticky Bun,” which detail my exploits eating a cinnamon bun in an airport lobby. (There aren’t enough napkins in the world.) – ATB

New Bomb Turks – “Jukebox Lean”
from Scared Straight (1996)

Like a lot of punk bands, New Bomb Turks treated energy like a bottomless resource as they sped through their destructive sonic aggression. On their 1996 album Scared Straight, the band differentiated themselves from other Epitaph acts with their brand of garage- and early rock ‘n’ roll-influenced punk. One doesn’t have to work too hard to connect the dots between the band and the major influence of Chuck Berry, what with “Jukebox Lean” sporting lyrics about a vintage rock ‘n’ roll staple (the jukebox, obviously) and an honest-to-goodness guitar solo. – KN

The Cramps – “Sheena’s in a Goth Gang”
from Big Beat from Badsville (1997)

By the time The Cramps signed with Epitaph for their 1997 album Big Beat from Badsville, they were almost two decades into their career, and some distance from their greatest recordings. Which isn’t to say they ever lost their psychobilly swagger, even if “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” or “Human Fly” were pretty far behind them. Big Beat from Badsville is The Cramps with a bit more crunch and a slightly different lineup, but with Poison Ivy and Lux Interior still at the front, The Cramps were still The Cramps—campy, hypersexual and as much fun as you can have without a bass player. “Sheena’s in a Goth Gang” is pretty standard, albeit pretty badass Cramps fare, about a hot mama with black nail polish and necromantic tendencies. – JT

The Hives – “AKA I-D-I-O-T”
from Barely Legal (1997)

Before they would take a musical cue from The Strokes, slowing things down a bit and running their “we’re idiots” concept into the ground, Sweden’s The Hives were a blistering garage rock group, pushing out brutal riffs via their campy-yet-innovative take on hardcore. “A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T” is probably the most fun song they ever created, a loser-punk anthem that borrowed the swing and harmony of ‘60s garage rock to put an almost Devo-ish, oddball spin on late ‘90s punk. There’s not much in the way of fancy innovation going on here, and that’s exactly what makes it such an addictive, satisfying track. Nothing but bare-bones punk rock that leaves the listener begging for more. – ATB

Refused – “New Noise”
from The Shape of Punk to Come (1998)

Like the album containing it, “New Noise” is an armed bomb, a raging anti-capitalist screed partially disguised (in its presentation and particularly its music video) as a basic anthem of teenage rebellion and disaffection. It starts with what has to be one of the best intro riffs of the ’90s, then takes time to build and crescendo and build again before finally exploding with Dennis Lyxzen bellowing, “CAN I SCREAM?” and the guitars raging at full blast. Unlike other songs on The Shape of Punk to Come, though, you can hear slight traces of mainstream accessibility—which may have been one of the many things that tore Refused up for over a decade. The album sounds like it wants to fight everything in its path—including listeners and band members—and retains that sound today. “New Noise” is unquestionably one of the purest distillations of it. – LG

The (International) Noise Conspiracy – “Smash It Up!”
from Survival Sickness (2000)

After Refused imploded in the ’90s, just as The Shape of Punk to Come was hitting the peak of its popularity, frontman Dennis Lyxzen founded The (International) Noise Conspiracy. In Ian Svenonious terms, if Refused was his Nation of Ulysses, this was his Make Up—a garage rock band steeped in 1960s groups like The Sonics or ? and the Mysterians, with lots of big, fiery Farfisa organ riffs. But at the heart of it all, the band was still making punk rock with a political message, even if the message often amounted to “Smash the system.” In fact, “Smash It Up!” is pretty literally that, with a simmering verse of feedback and groove, and a tense, but climactic chorus that delivers a short but effective exclamation. Like Refused, the Noise Conspiracy were also a phenomenal live band, maybe even more so than on record, but to be fair, they had some good material to work with. – JT