Operation Ivy – Self Titled (Re-Issue)

Quite often the most influential bands are the bands that never last. You look at The Ruts, Minor Threat or Rites Of Spring, those bands were highly influential despite only being around for a few years. With no more then one or two releases, these influential bands never tarnish their reputation by releasing a less than stellar album. They don’t overplay their welcome, they don’t stretch it out to milk the cash cow; instead they let the band live it’s course and end it before running it into the ground. No forced reunion tours or cheesy records recorded a decade later.

Operation Ivy are one of those bands. Lasting only two years, from 1987 to 1989, the band (whose member’s went on to form Rancid and Common Rider) never had a chance to tarnish their reputation and now refuse to do a reunion tour despite the many requests. But what they did do in those two years is still being talked about two decades later. Their singular album, Energy, changed the style and sound of East Bay punk for decades to come.

Fast and distorted, the songs all clock in between a minute or two in length and are chocked full with a sense of energy and urgency that went on to impact hundreds of bands. Built on Tim Armstrong’s upstroke, the ska-punk record combines elements of ska, punk, and reggae without becoming stale or forced. Jesse Michaels spits out the lyrics with a venomous necessity that combines social commentary with a punk’s sense of disenfranchisement to form a dark picture of the world seen through the eyes of young punks. The songs bristle with a sense of purpose and sincerity, creating songs that question the establishments and still ring true to disenfranchised punks today – two decades later.

This self-titled release is a compilation of almost every song recorded by the band. On top of the nineteen songs from Energy, Hellcat has also added the six song EP, Hectic, to the mix and two songs from aMaximum Rock’n’Roll compilation which makes the record clock in at over fifty minutes with a total of twenty seven songs. Which, in a way, is it’s only downfall. At twenty seven songs, the record does become a tad lengthy; but as it is a compilation, that is to be expected. Plus, it’s not that any of the songs are sub-par but with so many great songs thrown into the mix some of the songs do fall to the side.

But the fact is this: Operation Ivy is a band you need to know if you are remotely interested in punk. It may not be as well known as London Calling, Rockets To Russia, or Never Mind The Bollocks but one listen to songs like Knowledge, Unity, Bad Town, Sleep Long, The Crowd, Gonna Find You, Room With A Window or pretty much any of the twenty seven songs on here and you’ll instantly feel the excitement and energy that the band brings to the table and the genre.