"The paramount most important thing is to be honest with yourself and with what kind of music you're creating," declares Cops front man Michael Jaworski.

Sure, that mantra of individualism has been passed down from one generation of underground act to the next for so long, it's getting a little worn around the edges. And as it's worn down in its hand-me-down glory, it's also lost most of its real meaning. Each summer, punks well into their 40s play the same tunes they wrote decades ago, as if the age betrayed by their withdrawing hairlines and blossoming beer bellies hadn't sunk in. Even more frequently, hipster wannabes and mall-punk scenesters adopt the latest trend as a means to prove to their peers that they're on the cutting edge -- even if it means sacrificing some of their bands' identity.

But for Seattle's The Cops, individualism isn't just a catchphrase tossed around to score a few more credibility points. It's a reason to exist, a manifesto for the five-man band's musical and social ambitions, an ideal resurrected from the earliest, anything-can-happen days of the punk explosion. It's a raison d'etre.

The outfit's sophomore effort, Free Electricity (The Control Group), proves it. Using the '77-era influences -- primarily The Clash, Radio Birdman and The New York Dolls -- that colored The Cops' debut, 2005's Get Good or Stay Bad (Mt. Fiji), as a springboard, the band blows out of the punk ghettoes with a stand-up rock'n'roll record. Free Electricity takes punk's sparking-wire energy and snarling attitude and injects it into a world where slithering grooves, amp-smoking riffs and everything that tied Nuggets to modern trash rock comes alive. "Terribly Empty Pockets" is a bit of everything you love from punk, garage and rock crammed behind sizzling hooks, while "Modern Black Flats" musters enough bar-band groove to provide the perfect soundtrack for drinking, dancing or fighting, depending upon your preferences.

A lot's changed for The Cops (guitarists John Randolph and Brandon Bay, bassist Drew Church and drummer David Weeks round out the lineup) to help it mutate its classic punk sound into something more idiosyncratic. It weathered a lineup change, which saw Church take over for founding bassist Brian Wall, a move that vastly changed the practice-room songwriting dynamics; since recording Free Electricity, the band added Bay to the mix to fatten up the live sound. The band's toured, giving the outfit the chance to road test, tighten and streamline its songs. And, probably most importantly, with another two years under their collective belt, The Cops had time to refine and redefine their take on their influences and identity.

But at the heart of The Cops' change in direction sits the band's overriding rule: Above all else, stay true to yourself. It's there in the way the band seemingly has no knowledge, let alone respect, for genre boundaries. That, of course, isn't the way to win over the minds of a scene frequently patrolled by the punk police -- a scene where credibility rests on fitting in and following the rank-and-file. Jaworski and company aren't really too concerned about that, though.

"Hopefully if you're true to yourself, the people who were with you all along will come along with you," Jaworski says. "I do feel like there is pretty significant difference between the records, but I'm not too fearful of losing people who were fans of the first record because of a change of sound or direction. First and foremost, I feel that we are a rock band and we definitely have punk influences. The first record was more punk-derivative, and I feel like Free Electricity is very much less that influence. I do still feel like it's a very tough, punk record, too."

That punk grit -- and The Cops' continued ability to meld massive rock hooks with passionate songwriting -- is enough to tie Free Electricity to Get Good or Stay Bad so tightly it shouldn't be difficult for fans to make the transition from old Cops to new Cops. And, really, the leap isn't even too huge unless you've given Get Good enough spins to become intimate with The Cops.

"I think it makes life more interesting to try to change things up as much as you can," Jaworski explains. "Just stay true to yourself. That's very important. I do believe you can challenge yourself and do different things while remaining true to your roots. For The Cops, we are definitely strongly rooted in punk, and I think we always will be. We may not always sound like a '70s punk band.

"It's definitely a punk ethos, in the sense we used the idea of using songs and writing lyrics that shake things up a little and make people think about things, whether it be the current political state or trying to shake up people's conscience," he continues. "I feel that punk rock music has always just been important because of those two things. As far as staying true to our morals and ethics and integrity, I think that's a very punk thing to do. We don't really waver too far from what we've always done and what we feel."

From a pragmatic standpoint, that puts The Cops in a sticky situation. The odds are long that Free Electricity is going to crack the collective consciousness of the punk-rock underground is fairly slim: With each passing year, the scene's further choked with emo crybabies, pop-punk poseurs and other opportunists with their eyes set on allowances nationwide -- if the typically punk Get Good wasn't punk enough for punk's decaying scene, Free Electricity won't break through. Conversely, with most of the indie-kid world stuck up on notions of their refined tastes and highbrow musical superiority, Free Electricity's probably too primal and raw for the hipster set.

Like any band stuck on following its own path, the realities of the marketplace don't deter The Cops from trudging forward. They're certain that Free Electricity's solid enough to find ears somewhere.

"I think rock music would benefit from not being so scene-driven, not having these sub-genres with scenes that aren't really connected to one another," Jaworski says. "I think music in general would be better if we approached things with a more open-arms approach. Whether or not rock music is being marginalized, I don't know the answer to that. I do feel like there are going to be those more commercial rock bands out there that appeal to a different demographic than The Cops.

"I don't really believe that music should ever be elitist. When you're writing records and releasing them for public consumption or you're playing live shows, I don't really feel that it's up to you as the musician to determine who's going to like you. I think it's cooler if you just say 'This is my creation and it's for the world.' I think I read something, or maybe it was a lyric to a Wilco song from the new record, but once you make a piece of art, you let go of it. Essentially, it becomes the world's property to consume or make a decision about whether or not they like it."

And, ultimately, with that kind of confidence behind them, how can The Cops be worried that they wouldn't be able to stay true to themselves?