GBH

GBH was pounding out Clash-indebted street-punk for over a decade before Rancid took some of the less-bleak moments of City Baby Attacked By Ratsand tightened them up for modern rock radio. In 2010, however, the long-running acts stand on equal footing, at least in terms of hard-won influence and never-back-down perseverance. So when GBH’s recent Perfume And Piss was delivered via a pair of assists from Rancid’s Lars Frederiksen and Tim Armstrong—Frederiksen producing, Armstrong’s Hellcat Records releasing—it was less a case of the pupils becoming the masters, and more one of leather-wrapped camaraderie. The bands’ shared, borrowed-from-The Clash obsessions with pre-Beatles rock and vintage Cadillacs crop up throughout Perfume And Piss, as does GBH’s past dabblings in metallic thrashing.

Updated 06/03/2010