Following in the path of the Pixies and Pearl Jam, Rancid have released live editions of all their summer tour dates. Eschewing CDs all together, the shows are available for on MP3 for $9.99 or higher quality FLAC files for a couple of bucks more. I bought the last night of the band’s New York series and the sound quality is fantastic. All the songs from the set list are included, but banter has been trimmed so the shows can fit on an 80 minute CD (if you want to burn a copy). Luckily the shows were well balanced song-wise and included tracks spanning Rancid’s entire canon and a few Operation Ivy tunes.

This series is well worth the price, and might be the only official best of/live record the band releases for a while. For what it’s worth, this also might be the last chance to hear Brett Reed play with the band. The original drummer of Rancid left the band on Nov. 3 for unknown reasons, and has since been replaces with Branden Steineckert, formerly of The Used.