Russ Rankin

[upbeat rock music] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.

Russ Rankin has spent more than three decades turning punk rock into a vehicle for urgency, conviction, and connection.

But right now, he's stepping outside of Good Riddance to explore a different side of himself.

His new solo EP, A Season in Hell, which I love that title, brings together three originals and three unexpected covers, including a radically energized take on the record's "Starry Eyes." Today, we're talking about where Russ is creatively, what still drives him, and why these songs need to exist.

Fridays are busy release days.

Russ Rankin released a Season in Hell that came out through Indecision Records.

De Verlier, they released Ideal, and that came out through Bretford.

What else we got here? Got a lot left still.

hockey you guys do hockey stuff

there's a yeah there's like a we don't have a NHL team but we have like younger kids 16 to 18 that plays like it's called the canadian hockey league i don't know cool russ russ rankin from good riddance is a scout for that league i love

russ i know russ i know his hockey shit man that's cool

yeah he's it's funny because yeah i don't know mike you know him he's a friend of yours but he's he's kind of notorious for being a little standoffish because he's just a serious guy or whatever but i i interviewed him once and you know he was kind of like you know it's like How are you doing, Russ? Good.

get it.

And a lot of the punker guys that we were out with, I mean, obviously, Russ, rink and he was out he wasn't gonna know and that's fine that's not what he grew up with you know if it wasn't if it wasn't blast he was out

you know

yeah yeah blast your psychedelic furs like i don't i don't know fuck this i remember we were all hanging out and we were able to just talk to you about fucking anything and i think that's also what i love i think it's obviously coming from chicago you