This includes a bonus DVD disc.

Pennywise: Jim (vocals); Fletcher (guitar); Randy (bass); Byron (drums).

Recorded at Stall #2, Redondo Beach, California.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Personnel: Jim Lindberg (vocals); Fletcher Dragge (guitar); Byron McMackin (drums).

Recording information: Stall #2, Redondo Beach, CA.

California punk and hardcore have always been fellow travelers with skate and surf culture; the convergent scenes had common beefs with suburban boredom and clueless authority. But as the Cali sound was discovered by a national audience, and surfing and skateboarding entered a new renaissance of extreme sport and big-money sponsorship, the original identification with subculture and subversion was perhaps diluted a bit. But while corporatization is still a factor, in the 21st century West Coast labels like Epitaph and Fat Wreck have proven their staying power and independent spirit. Enabled by Internet savvy and genius marketing initiatives like the Vans Warped Tour, these labels and their bands have taken up the activism and subversion gauntlet once again, influencing a new generation of fresh-faced punks and X-Games skaters with ideas and attitudes that are anything but mainstream. Now 15 years on, Hermosa Beach punk veterans Pennywise have issued From the Ashes. It's a welcome, rocking return to form after some weaker efforts, but it also takes a page from NOFX's War on Errorism, promoting an agenda of awareness amidst its fist-pumping, sun-drenched anthems. The Cali bands' platform is one of wagon-circling. Fed up with conservative government, they encourage the punks and kids to pay attention to what's going on, but close ranks in support of each other. It's a reengineering of the original punk rock ethic in the face of a new enemy. Throughout "God Save the USA," the dynamic "This Is Only a Test," and the raging "Punch Drunk," vocalist Jim Lindberg rallies his troops. "They're draining the banks now but no one will tell you," he spits in the latter. "If you don't believe it then they already got you." All this consciousness raising is admirable. But what's even better is the stripped-down, classic Cali punk delivery system that Pennywise deploys throughout From the Ashes. "Something to Change" recalls vintage skatepunk, bitching about boredom over a breakneck brutally simplistic screed. Pennywise sums up its lengthy career, informed cynicism, and warning tone with the ringing power chords of closing anthem "Judgment Day." Lindberg asks, "Who ever knew there'd be days like these when the world could knock us to our knees?" It's the skill of a veteran band to recall its salad days while rocking the recruits, and still clock in at under three minutes. ~ Johnny Loftus

With their eighth album, FROM THE ASHES, Pennywise continues down the same uncompromising and rebellious path that found them snubbing major labels back in the mid-1990s, when peers like Green Day, Offspring, and Bad Religion were hopping aboard the gravy train. With Byron McMackin and Randy Bradbury providing jackhammer rhythms and guitarist Fletcher Dragge firing off machine gun riffs, vocalist Jim Lindberg aims his crosshairs at plenty of political and social issues. "God Save the USA" finds Lindberg having a chat with the big guy in the sky and eviscerating a number of right-leaning demagogues including the CIA, NRA, and President Bush, while "Look Who You Are" hammers at apathy amidst the conservative atmosphere of 2003. Boredom ("Something to Change"), nostalgia ("Yesterdays"), and cynicism ("Judgement Day") are all topics addressed with the kind of focused, melodic fury that's manna to anyone who likes it hard, fast, and smart. Unbowed and opinionated, Pennywise uses FROM THE ASHES to affirm the concept that politically conscious punk remains alive and well. Fans curious to see how the band comes off on celluloid get the benefit of a bonus DVD that warns of "stunts that neither you nor your dumb buddies should attempt."