Lars Frederiksen And The Bastards
Lars Frederiksen And The Bastards

When my brother brought home that first punk record I knew it was for me. The needle hit the groove in the record and out of the speakers came a sound so uncontrollable but yet so unmistakable it penetrated every inch of my still growing ten year old body. My brother got the record from a guy we called Knucklehead who lived on the same block as us and he had a crew called the Skunx - "skins punx and drunx." When I was sixteen around the same time I picked up the guitar I inherited the gang and carried on the skunk family name, you see there wasn't that many of us left. Some had died, some went to jail, and others joined the army. Ben my right hand man and I stayed on Sharmon Palms and acquired what would be a lifetime of scars and good times. You see Ben was punk as fuck and the craziest kid on the block. If you did something like steal a bike, he stole two, if you drank a twelve pack he drank a case. I mean he was crazy but so charismatic. He could talk you into anything but at the same time look out for your best interests. Kind of like Loki from Norse mythology. When he spoke to me I felt his words with conviction. We always looked out for each other, drank, fought, and fucked around with one another's heads all in good fun. We were the terrible twins christened by our comrades and arm in arm we tried to take over the world.
Years later after moving outta Campbell to join Rancid I would tell my best friend and partner Tim these stories about me and Ben. He knew the stories better than me after a while and came to me with an idea. "Let's take these stories about Campbell and put them on wax." We got together (me and Tim), wrote some songs, covered a couple of our favorites like "To Have and to Have Not" by Billy Bragg cause Tim always thought that song was written about us and "Leaving Here" cause Motorhead did it and Motorhead's my favorite band. So next thing you know I put together a band and recorded a record. The whole time we were recording I thought about what kind of record Ben and I would wanna listen to in my bedroom. Look, I'm a purist, I love punk rock and I love Rancid. To me this was no different than making a Rancid record. They are my band, but first and foremost they are my family. Well Ben I hope you like it and I'll make sure I play it loud so you can hear it up in heaven. I love you and miss you. R.I.P.
-Lars


All songs written by Lars Frederiksen and Tim Armstrong except To Have and to Have Not (Chappel Music Ltd London) by Billy Bragg and Leavin Here (Stone Agate Music, Co. BMI) by Holland, Dozier, Holland
Engineered and mixed by Dave Carlock and Tim Armstrong
Mastered by Gene Grimaldi at Oasis
Additional guitars on Subterranean by Dave Carlock and Tim Armstrong
Jesse Fischer - Artwork
Brody Armstrong - Front cover photo and additional photos
Meagan Frederiksen - Photos