The swan song of East Bay stalwarts the
Rudiments was this full-length album originally released in 1996 on the Dill label (home, most famously, to fellow scenesters
Skankin' Pickle) and reissued in 2003 on
Skankin' Pickle alumnus
Mike Park's Asian Man label. By this point in the
Rudiments' career the band had shed most of its ska trappings, breaking out the offbeat skank only occasionally for texture and a jolt of rhythmic variety. On
Bitch Bitch Bitch the name of the game is punk rock of the
Clash/
Rancid/
Operation Ivy variety: fast, loud, grimly joyful, and apparently (but not actually) sloppy. Not everything on the album is an unqualified success -- hopefully the drum solo ("Humping the Underdog") was intended as a joke, for example. But the proto-math rock of "Superhero Chickenshit" is a nice surprise, and there's more engaging rhythmic weirdness in "No Future" (no, not that "No Future"). "Terror in the Heartland" is creepily cool, and "The Shunned" is a dump truck full of good old-fashioned hardcore fun. This is recommended. ~ Rick Anderson