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''My Republic'' is the seventh studio album by the
Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish language, Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, California, Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population ...
-based
hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...
band Good Riddance, released June 27, 2006 through
Fat Wreck Chords Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced "Fat Records") is an independent record label based in San Francisco focused on punk rock. It was started by NOFX lead singer Michael Burkett (better known as Fat Mike) and his wife at the time, Erin Burkett in 1990. ...
. It marked the band's return from an almost three-year period of inactivity, during which singer and primary songwriter Russ Rankin had been active in his new band
Only Crime Only Crime is an American melodic hardcore group formed by Good Riddance singer Russ Rankin and Bane guitarist Aaron Dalbec in 2003. The band plays melodic but hard-hitting punk rock that borrows heavily from early-1980s hardcore bands such ...
while guitarist Luke Pabich had started a side project called Outlie. It also marked the return of drummer Sean Sellers to Good Riddance, replacing Dave Wagenschutz who had played on the band's two previous albums ''
Symptoms of a Leveling Spirit ''Symptoms of a Leveling Spirit'' is the fifth album by the Santa Cruz, California-based hardcore punk band Good Riddance, released July 10, 2001 through Fat Wreck Chords. It was their only release ever to chart, reaching #32 on ''Billboards Ind ...
'' (2001) and '' Bound by Ties of Blood and Affection'' (2003). Sellers had previously been a member of Good Riddance from 1996 to 1999, playing on '' A Comprehensive Guide to Moderne Rebellion'' (1996), '' Ballads from the Revolution'' (1998), and '' Operation Phoenix'' (1999), and had played with Pabich in Outlie during Good Riddance's hiatus. Good Riddance had recorded their three previous albums at
The Blasting Room The Blasting Room is a recording studio in Fort Collins, Colorado. Founded by members of the punk rock band All in 1994, it is owned and operated by musician Bill Stevenson ( Descendents, Black Flag, All, Only Crime) and Jason Livermore. T ...
in
Fort Collins, Colorado Fort Collins is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The population was 169,810 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, an i ...
, but for ''My Republic'' they returned to Motor Studios in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, where they had recorded 1998's ''Ballads from the Revolution''. However, they retained the production team of Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore from The Blasting Room, who had recorded and produced all of their studio material since 1999. ''My Republic'' would prove to be Good Riddance's final studio album, as the band broke up in May 2007 before reforming five years later. It was followed by '' Remain in Memory: The Final Show'', a live album recorded at their final performance.


Release

On May 9, 2006, ''My Republic'' was announced for release in a month's time. Two days later, "Texas" was posted on the band's
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profile, followed by "Darkest Days" on May 23, and "Shame" on June 16. On June 21, 2006, ''My Republic'' was made available for streaming via music website Punknews.org; the following day, a music video was released for "Darkest Days". ''My Republic'' was released on June 27, 2006 through Fat Wreck Chords.


Reception

Corey Apar of
Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
rated ''My Republic'' three and a half stars out of five, remarking that " tmay be Good Riddance's seventh proper album to date, but instead of sounding tired and played out, it finds the band as fierce and commanding as it was at number one ... their furious SoCal hardcore continues to be tempered by a greater sense of melody." He particularly complemented Rankin's lyrics, saying "As personal as he is politically charged, Rankin has always possessed a certain heartfelt sincerity to his articulated disillusionment that manages to ring much closer to home than, say, the vehemently militaristic rage of a band like
Anti-Flag Anti-Flag was an American punk rock band formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1988. The band was known for its left-wing politics, left-wing political activism. For the majority of the band's career, their members included Justin Sane (voc ...
." Chris Moran of Punknews.org also gave the album three and a half stars out of five, stating that "What you get with ''My Republic'' is the Good Riddance sampler platter: some harder, some melodic and some in between. The opening track, 'Out of Mind,' is the best song
Bad Religion Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilities and ...
never wrote, with the exception of Russ' distinctive vocals." He was critical of the album's pacing, however, with slower tracks like "Texas" and "Boise" placed immediately after more raucous songs like "Out of Mind" and "Regret", and found Rankin's vocals lacking "bite": "And thus seems to be the constant theme of the album — pick me up with some great stuff, and then let me down with some 'eh' material. Musically and lyrically (for the most part), this is some of the best music Good Riddance has ever done. Unfortunately, it's the delivery that stumbles. Russ's vocals just seem to be lacking that punch they’ve always had."


Track listing

The
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
version of the album includes
enhanced CD Enhanced CD is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both CD-Audio and CD-ROM players. Formats that fall under the ''enhanced CD'' cate ...
content consisting of video footage of a three-song live performance in
Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish language, Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, California, Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population ...
from August 2005, and a
PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...
documentary entitled "Meet Your Meat".


Personnel

* Russ Rankin
vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
* Luke Pabich –
guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
* Chuck Platt –
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
* Sean Sellers –
drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
* Bill Stevensonproducer,
recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...
and
mix engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...
* Jason Livermore – producer, recording and mix engineer, mastering * Johnny Schou – additional engineering * Andrew Berlin – additional engineering * Jamie McMann – additional engineering


References


External links


''My Republic''
at
Fat Wreck Chords Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced "Fat Records") is an independent record label based in San Francisco focused on punk rock. It was started by NOFX lead singer Michael Burkett (better known as Fat Mike) and his wife at the time, Erin Burkett in 1990. ...
{{Authority control 2006 albums Good Riddance (band) albums Fat Wreck Chords albums Albums produced by Bill Stevenson (musician)