Michaels developed his noteworthy career back in the late 1980s with the Bay Area ska/punk outfit OPERATION IVY. Though the act ‹ which included current RANCID members Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman ‹ was short-lived and only spawned a handful of releases, every creation from Michaels and company was an instant classic, particularly their 1989 full-length Energy, which is held in high praise by many in the punk community and is still the widely lauded primer for thousands of acts that are currently in existence. While other "socially conscious" bands sung directly about political events through specific references and attributions, Michaels' powerful vocals transmitted a deeper, underlying philosophical message about change and awareness, which not only helped shape a new sound of punk rock at the time, but also developed introspective thoughts and ideas with his provocative, penetrating lyrics reflective of society. After OPERATION IVY disbanded, Michaels took a significant amount of time ‹ several years ‹ and departed the punk scene all together. In 1999, nearly a decade after OPERATION IVY called it quits, he thrust himself back into the limelight under a new moniker, COMMON RIDER, and re-entered the fold with the release of Last Wave Rockers on Panic Button/Lookout. Shortly after the release of Last Wave Rockers, Michaels drafted a new batch of material; songs he felt were vastly closer to what he had been looking to create from the onset. Michaels received a tip from Jeff Ott of FIFTEEN to sign with Hopeless Records, and acted on it. Michaels was back in Giorgini's Lafayette, Indiana-based Sonic Iguana recording studio, tracking This Is Unity Music, which is scheduled for release Sept. 3. Utilizing the same core members of his band ‹ the aforementioned duo of Giorgini and Lumley ‹ plus some additional help from some friends (including Phillip Hill of Teen Idols and Bratmobile's Audrey Marrs), the new installment of COMMON RIDER was thrust full speed ahead. The end result is a batch of material that bleeds pure Michaels' blood ‹ the heavy philosophical angle to every lyric, the raw, exact delivery from his trademark vocal approach, plus the infusion of a variety of punk, rock steady reggae and other styles ‹ which all converge to make This Is Unity Music quite possibly the most relevant and most creative release Michaels has ever crafted. "I don't think that COMMON RIDER is derivative of OPERATION IVY, but I think that the two of them exist in a continuum," Michaels says. "It's different music, but it's definitely in the same spirit of OPERATION IVY and it has similar goals ‹ to create music that's surprising to the listener, abandons popular conventions, but isn't obscure or hard to hear. Lyrically we always strive to go for the deeper stuff, hopefully without getting lost or forgetting our sense of humor." COMMON RIDER will perform a few selected dates in early September in Calif. The band will also be heading out on its first major tour ever, performing on the entire Plea For Peace/Take Action tour from mid-September through October.