The impossible to define, label, categorize, or speak ill of the band known as Rx Bandits have a sterling catalog that is truly amazing sans any hyperbole, but what is even more incredible is that a formerly straight-up, run-of-the-mill third-wave ska-punk act is now a hipster-approved iconic group of gentlemen… Much respect to ‘em, but an ample amount of disrespect to their home, Orange County, the birthplace of the alt-right and general douchiness! Thankfully the band’s longtime producer and collaborator is the antithesis of a douche. Mr. F perfectly captured the band in different ways on various LPs, so he deserves props for all he has done. Anyway, read on and accept that all of these rankings are objectively correct.
8. Demo(nstration) (1996)
You have to start somewhere, and the Rx Bandits literally did such at the bottom with the creatively named “Demo(nstration),” which was released during ska’s peak, and that certainly benefited all involved. However, as professional haters that have more qualifications than you miscreants spouting hot garbage, we can’t justify this one being ranked higher than the dreaded last spot, and we know that the band will certainly agree with our not-so-hot take, but like we alluded to earlier, you sure won’t. These recordings may be youthful and endearing, but they are so low quality that maybe the release shouldn’t have been made public. Band-aids may be for THE soul, but duct tape is better, and RXB managed to prove that they could (wait for it, wait for it) cover up their past with seven, yes seven, more LPs, all of which are superior to this effort.
Play it again: “Band-Aid (For My Soul)”
Skip it: “Teen Idol” for its whack lyrics, and, speaking of such, eventually we will say “skip it” to track one on their Drive-Thru Records debut that we will wax poetic about soon; you know we’re right.
7. Those Damn Bandits (1997)
Those damn (Pharmaceutical) bandits definitely grew a bunch on their sophomore LP “Those Damn Bandits,” but in what sounds like an insulting jab is actually a sincere compliment because they got even better and better afterwards! “Those Damn Bandits” is likely what brought you, dear reader, here unless it didn’t, as it was originally released via Antedote Records, and re-released on Drive-Thru Records, also eventual home to (A) New Found Glory, Midtown, Finch, and Sheryl Crow, just one year later as their first of four RXB LPs for the glorious tastemaker label. Fun fact: Members of the superhero act known as The Aquabats and underrated ska-punk superstars Jeffries Fan Club guest on “Those Damn Bandits.”
Play it again: “S.A.M.”
Skip it: Same as the above
6. Gemini, Her Majesty (2014)
“Gemini, Her Majesty” is better than the first two entries here combined X G2G, but it is our least favorite one from this century. Cheer up, Stargazers, we still love it because ANY Rx Bandits music is GOOD music, with the exception of youthfully ignorant pejorative and inflammatory termed songs. Released on RXB frontman, Dispatch touring member, The (enigmatic) Sound of Animals Fighting’s (The) Walrus, and seemingly genuine affable guy, Matt Embree’s MDB Records, which stands for Mash Down Babylon Records, likely named such because of the song by Chosen Brother and Rhythm of Sound, RXB took the power back and showcased such! Please release more music, gents!
Play it again: “Ruby Cumulous”
Skip it: “Penguin Marlin (possibly another typo unless it isn’t) Brando”
5. Halfway Between Here and There (1999)
“Halfway Between Here and There” is, without question, hesitation, second thought, or filter, the band’s best album from the 20th Century, and this time we mean it now or never! This album is rad as Bad Company for the most part, not just because of its high-quality songs, but the fact that it took the multi-piece band outside of their comfort zones and literally the cigarette butt and feces-covered Orange County. Proof? Ok. We’re gonna corner you with some tourmates from this album’s cycle: The Bloodhound Gang, Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, and Allen Ginsberg’s spirit who helped co-write (the) Beat Generation’s classic manifesto poem “Howl,” also known as “Howl for Carl Solomon (Schechter)”.
Play it again: “Gun In Your Hand”
Skip it: The album opener “What If,” as it has dated and cringe language that wouldn’t fly in 2023, no matter how catchy and infectious the song is
4. Mandala (2009)
Rx Bandits’ seventh and lucky full-length studio album, has insanely epic album cover art by Sonny Kay, who also designed unbelievable album covers for The Mars Volta, The Locust, 311, yes, 311, and Sergei “Two-Tone Ska King” Rachmaninoff, and a freeform yet huge sound that most four-pieces could never replicate if they tried. Since we sang Matt Embree’s name to the heavens in an earlier section of this album ranking piece, we need to give more sweaty hugs to guitarist/keyboardist Steve “The Fall Of” Choi, Joseph Troy “Which Rhymes With Choi,” Chris “Try To Pronounce My Last Name” Tsagakis, and their Cousin Oliver for absolutely shredding in a non-destructive way on “Mandala,” your high school jazz band teacher’s second favorite LP, of which Medeski Martin & Wood’s avant-groove “Shack-man,” and not WCW’s Shockmaster, will reign supreme.
Play it again: “My Lonesome Only Friend”
Skip it: “White Lies”
3. …And the Battle Begun (2006)
Rx Bandits’ first and only effort to start with an ellipses, and also first non-Drive-Thru Records release that wasn’t their ok, on the cusp of good, but certainly far from superb debut record. This was where the band entered the Hipster Training Academy School To School Plebs, and they freaking graduated with honors, recorded this boundary-pushing, original in the best way, chaotic, and pretty like a pretty picture that is pretty LP in 2005 and 2006, and released “…And the Battle Begun” in the fall of 2006. In closing, Bruce Lee, Nacho Libre, the inventor of Pogs, and your stoner uncle all love this album!
Play it again: “In Her Drawer”
Skip it: “One Million Miles an Hour, Fast Asleep”
2. The Resignation (2003)
“The Resignation,” Rx Bandits’ fifth full-length studio album and last for the aforementioned Drive-Thru Records is ranked in the golden spot approximately ⅓ of the year, but it’s not that time of month for the band, so it’s sitting prettily and/or angrily in the silver slot. Because of such, it is the first of two LPs to, uh, skip a “skip it” section in this piece, and we can sleep soundly knowing that we documented such for y’all. Also, a little birdie told us that “The Resignation” was recorded live at North Hollywood’s now-closed Wishbone Studios, owned by members of Blind Melon, completely live, with various overdubs and other musical intricacies to eventually follow. Not too many bands could effectively do this well, or at all, but there is only one Rx Bandits, and even Big Pharma proudly backs ‘em! Prophetic.
Play it again: All of it or we resign
Skip it: None of it or we malign
1. Progress (2001)
Like we said in the last section of this piece, this one is a “no skip” LP. Progress? Yes, quite literally. In our hottest take here, we need to say on paper that “Progress” is easily the best ska or ska-adjacent full-length studio album to be released this century, and it deserves far more praise than it received then and gets to this day. We mentioned other RXB band members earlier, but also want to shout out former multi instrumentalist, author, teacher, and TSOAF patriarch Rich “ard” Balling, and bassist James “Blunt” Salomone for their hard work and progressive performances on “Progress.” Rumor has it that this LP was originally called “Artificial Intelligence and the Fall of Technology,” which not only sounds like a Fall Out Boy song, but is a weak album title. Still, what we say to you goes in one ear and out the other.
Play it again: 0:00-52:43
Skip it: Regression
While City and Colour, a hipster-approved project named after and featuring Alexisonfire’s Dallas Green, may be ginormous globally, and certainly very successful in the states, his other post-hardcore act Alexisonfire sure isn’t on 1/10 of C&C’s level here. Still, the band is quite popular in Canada, even debuting at freaking number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, proving that The Great White North is cooler in every way, literally and figuratively, than all US Americans. Alexisonfire’s third of five albums “Crisis” combines gritty growls with saccharine and soothing melodic vocals better than most of their peers, and deserves your attention if you were too busy blasting The All-American Rejects’ “The Black Parade” around this time.
In the “scene” world, the first Kansas band that people usually namecheck is a different band on Vagrant Records: The Get-Up Kids. However, The Anniversary deserves a large amount of praise as well for their incredible songs that all of your favorite bands just love like a milkshake. For whatever reason, they never truly broke out, and it feels that they walked just after The Rentals, and ran just before Motion City Soundtrack, disqualifying ‘em from the keyboard rock Olympics whilst The Rentals and MCS both won medals. Sadly, The Anniversary split up in 2004, but happily, they reunited for the Rockstar Energy Drink Taste Of Chaos 2016 San Bernardino date with such non-Vagrant Records bands as Quicksand, Saosin, Taking Back Sunday, and the fictional band in “Can’t Hardly Wait” called Loveburger, who covered Smash Mouth’s “Astro Lounge” a capella in its entirety back to front.
While The Bled’s “Pass the Flask” was initially released via Fiddler Records in 2003, Vagrant Records snatched the Tucson, Arizona group shortly after, and reissued this gem of an LP for the label, so it technically counts for the sake of this piece, so get off our fucking back. Since everything we say leaves this room, it must be said that this record’s influence permeated the late-aughts and beyond more than most bands, and especially more than Mickey from “Rocky,” the Arnold Schwarzenegger Tony Award-winning film’s tolerance towards quitters and bums. The band came out with three more solid LPs before calling it a day, but just like The Anniversary above, and any defunct act with child support payments, reunited for 2021’s rock and roll festival season, which included fun jaunts on Riot Fest, Furnace Fest, and Chanukah, the Fest(ival) of Lights!
Potentially the most underrated mention on this list, the difficult to explain in layman’s terms and/or categorize Dr (without a period for some ungodly reason; weird) Manhattan released a way too slept upon self-titled LP, while bands in a similar but different world like The Gaslight Anthem and The Maine were absolutely blowing up. The party’s opinion is that Wauconda, Illinois is more well known with minds like ours, yours, and no one else’s for being a part of the set of “The Blues Brothers” than this enigmatic and unique band, and while we can’t change that with the masses who don’t know how to read, we hope to do so with you, friends. Join the circus and spin this one right now for the big apple and the small pepper.
Hey man, we’re still scratching our domes about the sad truth regarding Emanuel and will forever ask ourselves, “How the hell did this group not blow up?” So many post-hardcore/mall screamo acts in the mid-aughts with worse songs but possibly better haircuts now can afford private school tuition in Los Angeles, and while we don’t have access to each member of Emanuel’s bank accounts, we can surmise that royalties on this and “Black Earth Tiger” are long gone, or never ever there to begin with. If you missed the overground boat on this Louisville, Kentucky quintet, make tonight willingly your soundtrack to a headrush. Machine, yes, Machine, killed it as producer here and on non-Vagrant Records acts Armor For Sleep’s “What to Do When You Are Dead” and Boys Night Out’s “Trainwreck,” both of which sold more units and came out the same year as “Soundtrack to a Headrush.”
Far’s 1998 now-classic LP “Water & Solutions,” released via Immortal/Epic Records, may be the most underrated post-hardcore emo adjacent album of all time, and it has A LOT of strong competition for that coveted “award,” but their comeback effort “At Night We Live” deserves accolades too! The record serves as a poignant memorial to the late Chi Cheng of other Sacramento now-legendary act Deftones, and Far rocks and rolls through twelve songs in glorious form. Maybe this album was too late to be embraced, or maybe it was a tad too early to catch on. Whatever the case, it’s somebody’s struggle for sure, and we want y’all to explore this one and its predecessors. Fun fact/burns: Ginuwine’s sex anthem “Pony” gets the rock treatment here, and it’s for bachelors, bachelorettes, and anyone who auditioned for either show, but not the over sixty crowd on “The Golden Bachelor.”
As of today, Toledo, Ohio’s indie pop act Koufax has under 1200 monthly listeners on Spotify, proving that more than Saturday is alone, and that we’re all going down. Formed in the late-90s, Koufax released their debut EP for another cool label called Doghouse Records, signed with Vagrant, and released their debut “It Had to Do with Love” two years later in (we’ll make it up to you in the year) 2000. But we’re here for more “life” than “love,” and 2002’s “Social Life” is a perfect example of a band being ahead of their time whilst putting out a throwback of an experience that would’ve KILLED twenty years earlier. There must be something in Midwestern water other than what was in Flint’s, and Koufax proved that small towns don’t always have small minds via their older souls and younger bodies.
Moneen or “.moneen.” with TWO PERIODS if you NASTY, formed in Ontario just before the 21st century, released two full-length studio albums for Smallman Records, a Winnipeg-based label that also put out quality efforts from Comeback Kid and Choke, signed with Vagrant shortly afterward, and subsequently released one of the more slept upon efforts of the mid-aughts, “The Red Tree.” While said record got some music video airplay on MuchMusic and FUSE, MTV in America did not give it any love, and neither did many press outlets. Alas, Moneen are certainly the smaller of the two Canadian acts mentioned here, the larger one being Alexisonfire, but Moneen’s musicianship stood out amongst other acts in the Warped Tour world. The about-to-be-mentioned Max Bemis of Say Anything certainly took notice, and hired singer/guitarist Kenny Bridges for the latest incarnation of SA.
Rocket from the Crypt may be the biggest band listed here, but in what may be the paradox of the century, is forever and ever amen underrated, and the band’s first LP after leaving super independent Interscope Records, “Group Sounds” is a sweaty cacophonous mess from front to back that makes us want to get dirty AF and listen to over and over again. If you caught the band playing this front to back at the aforementioned Riot Fest last year, you have a good check that’s gonna stick and an epically grandiose amount of savoir-faire that has the heart of a lion, and not a stupidhead rat. S.O.S.: Bring us the head, yeah, B-Unique, spit some vitriol and venom, AND bring the ghost heart if your inner system hasn’t heard this gem, writing checks that your body can’t cash.
Like we stated in the sterling intro to this very piece, Saves the Day may be too huge to have an album name-checked here, and because of said posit, the aforementioned Say Anything, who is certainly on equal or larger footing to STD, is as well. However, their rockin’ side project Two Tongues isn’t! Fun fact: The artists on this recording, Max Bemis, Chris Conley, David Soloway, and Coby Linder, have a collective FOUR amount of tongues that we know about, so this band is a lie, and so are you! Come on! It would be seven more years until this album’s sequel, “Two Tongues Two” was released, and we’re back against the wall waiting for you to come home and for the third one, which will hopefully be better than the third Godfather movie, which isn’t that bad, but not that good.