Railer [CD]

It was on "Falling Apart," off Lagwagon's 2005 full-length Blaze, that frontman Joey Cape first committed the word 'railer' to tape, but in fact it's a term that the California band has been using for a long time amongst themselves. Now it's become the title of the influential punk five-piece's ninth album. As Cape explains, Railer is "a funny word from childhood that means silly bad, like lame" and it captures the sense of throwback that flows throughout it's 12 songs. Unlike the last few Lagwagon albums, Railer was written in an incredibly condensed period of time, in an attempt to capture the spirit of the band's early days. And it worked. While songs like "Stealing Light," "Dangerous Animal" and "Dark Matter" bristle with a raw, ragged and pure energy that's unusual for any band to have after almost 30 years of existence, these tracks also directly harken back to the band's early days.