State of Emergency (2006)

This Australian trio The Living End began as a rockabilly act for the wallet-chain set, but on their fourth album, State of Emergency they display a breadth way beyond their Stray Cats-aping origins. Signed to Billie Joe Armstrong's imprint, the band mixes bare-knuckle punk with American Idiot-style rock and fleet-fingered guitar. Us-against-them scream-alongs are their staple — ''Long Live the Weekend'' is a blue-collar anthem — but these spiky-haired toughs show off moments of tenderness (''Nothing Lasts Forever'') and existential angst (''Wake Up''), too, displaying an ambition beyond the Warped Tour circuit.