It’s been a strained relationship for fans of Los Angeles punk rock institution Pennywise. Founding member Jim Lindberg left unexpectedly in 2009 and was replaced by extremely talented, yet ill-fitting, Ignite vocalist Zoli Teglas. 2012’s All or Nothing, featuring Teglas on vocals, was a reinvigoration of a band that had began to stagnate and fracture, yet it didn’t prove itself to be return to the former glory that the band needed.
Later that year, Lindberg reunited and the band have resumed their status as one of melodic punk rock’s most iconic and longest running bands. Over 25 years into their career, the band have released Yesterdays, an album of songs originally written in their artistic and commercial peak in the early to mid-‘90s, most notably featuring songs written by former bassist Jason Thirsk, who tragically committed suicide in 1996.
On paper, Yesterdays reads more like a footnote addition to a long-running band’s discography, usually found in long-winded box-sets and anthologies, yet the record finds a way to work as the eventual fruition of unreleased songs from a punk rock band with such a consistent and dependable sound. The intensely political and anger-driven anthems of later albums, such as 2001’s Land of the Free, are set aside for the return of their initial brand of upbeat yet socially conscious skate punk.
It’s an admittedly been-and-gone style of music, yet the credentials of the style’s originators and innovators are as solid as any other long-running band revisiting their origins. A fitting commemoration to the work of Jason Thirsk, and a nostalgic throwback to a bygone era, Yesterdays may be an easy way of putting out a record without having to actually think of anything new, yet holds its own as a document of a band acknowledging not only their roots, but their creative peak as writers and performers.
BY JOE HANSEN
Best Track: What You Deserve
If You Like These, You’ll Love This: BAD RELIGION, THE OFFSPRING, NOFX
In A Word: Reflective
