The Inevitables story takes place in the not-so-distant future when Big Pharma has been able to produce a “cure for death.” Of course there’s a big number on the price tag that reflects such a coveted item. Just like the bridge itself, it further divides the mega wealthy from the working class. It’s about time they get a reality check that playing God has consequences and death is inevitable.

One side of the bridge is the home of The Inevitables: an unlikely team of a punker, drug dealer, graffiti artist, mystic bodega owner, and middle-aged Christian couple who come together to take on the challenge that is Knight Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Tillerson Knight, owner of the massive corporation, is part of the mega wealthy living across the bridge.

As tensions rise, so do the stakes. There are only 40 DAYS to save the world and this is only the beginning…

Founding Less Than Jake drummer/lyricist Vinnie Fiorrello parted ways with LTJ a couple of years ago, but he has now spearheaded a new ska-punk supergroup, The Inevitables. The Inevitables are an art and music project and their upcoming debut album serves as the soundtrack to their 22-page comic book, which is detailed in the quote above (via the band's Kickstarter). "The songs are there to provide that foundation of emotion, through lyrics and the music," Vinnie tells us. "In this age of less art, less added info to songs because of streaming we wanted to lean into more info, more art, more depth to a whole Inevitables universe."

Vinnie (creator, songwriter, drummer) co-founded the band with Westbound Train's Obi Fernandez (creator, songwriter, vocals), and the lineup is rounded out by co-songwriter and guitarist Alex Stern (Big D and The Kids Table, Westbound Train), Matt Appleton (Reel Big Fish) on horns, Billy Kottage (Reel Big Fish, Big D, The Interrupters) on trombone and organ, John DeDomenici (Jeff Rosenstock's band, Bomb the Music Industry!) on bass, Jon Degan (Big D) as dub specialist, and Sean Paul Pillsworth (Nightmare for a Week) on vocals and mixing. The comic book features scriptwriting by The Swellers' Jono Diener, art by Devin Watson, Liana Kangas, Fabian Lelay, and lettering by Cardinal Rae.

"All of us had toured with each other"s bands before," Vinnie says. "The beauty of the ska and punk scene is that you continually run into friends while touring with other bands. In this case, myself, Alex Stern, and Obi Fernandez made a list of players and people we would love to work with and did some digging, dialing, and emailing to talk to them about The Inevitables. As we were creating and writing we started to pull people into our orbit for the musical and artist side of this."

The album officially comes out Friday (10/30) (pre-order), but we're premiering a full stream ahead of the release. If you like the songwriting that Vinnie brought to Less Than Jake for nearly 30 years, you're probably gonna like this too. The album is loaded with super fun, fast, catchy ska-punk, and it should come as no surprise that this lineup knows exactly how to pull it off. They also change it up with a few slower dub/reggae parts, and though the songs all take place in a fictional universe, the songwriting is still as real and serious as anything Vinnie, Obi, and Alex have written in the past. Hear it for yourself right here:

The Inevitables also already have an offshoot band, Who Will Meet Me At The Gates?, which is Vinnie, Obi, Alex, and PEARS' Zach Quinn. Inspired by The Mountain Goats, WWMMATG is more of a folk punk band, and they appear in the first Inevitables comic and also have an EP coming out November 13 (pre-order). You can hear "Good Grief" from that too:

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