Not spoiled by success

Members of the seminal punk-ska band Operation Ivy became Rancid in ’91.

Given the shelf life of bands that get caught up in pop trends, you’d think that by 2008 they’d be downright putrid.

If so, bassist/vocalist Matt Freeman and guitarist/vocalist Tim Armstrong would probably take that as a compliment.

Rancid is, after all, one of the only California punk bands from that era – think The Offspring and, more importantly, Green Day, which played its first gig as an opener for Op Ivy’s final show – that, when faced with mainstream fame, didn’t start to suck or water down their sound for crossover pop appeal.

Rather than follow their peers to earn wealth, fame and a finger from the underground, the band that brought us the simultaneously radio- and punk-friendly tracks “Ruby Soho” and “Time Bomb” only peeked its head above the pop culture crust for a moment, collected some coin, and headed back beneath the surface to continue to put out albums under the Rancid name and through its members’ solo and side projects.

Now on HellCat Records, Rancid entered the studio earlier this year to work on its yet-untitled seventh studio album – a follow-up to 2003’s “Indestructible” and its fourth since the platinum-selling “… And Out Come the Wolves” – and will infest The Knitting Factory Saturday at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $19.99 through TicketsWest, (800) 325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com.

Everlast, indeed

Speaking of artists that reached their pop pinnacle in the 1990s, former House of Pain tenant Everlast continues to tweak his pop-rock-rap format, this time delving deep into the mashup market with a cover/update of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” the first single from his upcoming album, “Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford.”

In a move that’ll either have people nodding or shaking their heads, Everlast mashed Cash’s original bass and guitar lines with a landmark beat from “Insane in the Membrane,” the supernova single from his mid-’90s hip-hop peers Cypress Hill.

Whatever your opinion of Everlast’s Cash grab, you have to admit the guy knows how to play the reinvention game. After all, he rose from post-House of Pain obscurity to forge a multi-platinum solo career, surpassing his platinum-selling debut album from the group that made him famous.

Mr. Whitey Ford preaches his street smarts to the Knitting Factory crowd on Sunday night. Doors open at 7; show starts at 8.

Tickets are $18 – with a venue-packing two-for-one special going on online – through TicketsWest.

These Arms Fell Down

Intense indie rockers These Arms Are Snakes make another trip over the mountains from Seattle to be scooped up by an all-ages crowd at the Big Dipper, 171 S. Washington St., tonight at 7:45, with synth-driven Suicide Squeeze labelmates sBach and local legends-in-the-making Cyrus Fell Down.

For a bit of ironic pop-culture nostalgia, check out sBach’s cover of Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted Snake” on the band’s MySpace page.

Tickets are $8 in advance through TicketsWest or $10 at the door.

Hardcore for Christ

In all-out, ERC Booking fashion, this Saturday’s Back to School Showcase at Empyrean, 154 S. Madison St., reads like a Christian hardcore band-name brainstorming exercise, with Burn the Attic, A Pyrrhic Victory, From Sword to Sunrise, In Cold Daylight, Punctured Throat, Karebear Massacre, The Preschool Tea Party, Conspiracy Theory, Idolatry and Straight to Our Enemies from the Grave set to scream at 4 p.m.

Advance tickets are $8 at Empyrean. Cover is $10 at the door.