Lars Fredericksen And The Bastards is a side project that Lars and Tim from Rancid have put together and are now releasing on the independent label Hellcat Records. During the off time and in-between tours, Tim had an idea and said to Lars, “I love your stories about Campbell and I think we need to put them on wax”.
“Ben, my right hand man and I stayed on Sharmon Palms and acquired what would be a lifetimes worth of scams 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 would 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. We stole with 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.” So they got together, wrote some songs covered a couple and with Tim at the helm as a producer, banged out 12 tracks. They wrote recorded and mixed in five days, its just another extension of their independent roots and creativity. Rancid is a family and this record shows their tightness as a unit and love for music. Lars got together the guys to form the Bastard’s and they are Big Jay on bass, Scott Abels on drums and the unknown bastard on back ground vocals. Look for the on tour this spring.
