Common Rider

Following nearly a decade of complete withdrawal from musical activity, Jesse Michaels—previously the frontman of Operation Ivy—returned to the punk landscape in 1999. Common Rider brought together Michaels, who doubled on guitar, alongside bassist Mass Giorgini, late of Squirtgun, and drummer Dan Lumley, formerly with Screeching Weasel. The group’s first full-length, Last Wave Rockers, appeared that same year via Lookout!. Three years afterward the trio moved to Hopeless Records and recruited additional contributors, among them Phillip Hall of the Teen Idols, Bratmobile’s Audrey Marrs, and Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba, to shape the album This Is Unity Music.