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| From | kcronin <fiatluxury@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | been thinkin' bout Alkaline Trio |
| Date | Tue, 2 Sep 2003 11:08:26 -0700 (PDT) |
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howdy all:
been thinking about my top 20 and am quite sure i
wouldn't make it to 20, since most of what i've been
indulging in is not eligible for the year's best...but
this train o thought led me to how much i've delighted
in the alkaline trio cd "good mourning" this whole
summer, and why that might be. sure it's
straightforward punk-pop in the Blink 182 vein, as
every reviewer has said, but it's the lyrical conceit,
carried through the whole cd, that make em standout in
the field of copycat anthem writers.
someplace after frankenstein, edward gorey, harlan
ellison, and the twilight zone, but before freddy
krueger, the spooky cobwebbed backyard of death and
dark mysteries got exposed to the cold light of irony,
and some mighty fertile literary ground got scortched
in the process. Alkaline Trio recultivates this muddy
backpatch with ringing, joyful shouts at the devil in
a lingo Lucifer might actually sing along to: "Good
Mourning" is the title, and the name says it all.
Shrouded in the black-n-red bubblegoth ethos of
high-school Lestat fans, this music prevents
self-parody with absolutely heartfelt sentiments, and
the shredded urgent caw of singer Matt Skiba (whose
vocal chords, it is rumored, are being devoured by
acid reflux owing to too much rocknroll living, and
how punk rock is that?). His songs and singing, along
with the smoother vampyre-seductive stylings of
bassist Daniel Andriano, make it clear that this
subject matter fits him like a pair of beloved black
Docs: what might have been average powerpop/punk
turns into an intriguing study of how pain and rage in
a major chord can be deeply affecting, with just a
little bit of self-awareness to keep the irony at bay.
The music itself is not overly imaginative, though
very well done: an adreneline-driven heartbeat
pumping life into bloodied corpses of sour
relationships and cities that won't let you leave. I
think I've mentioned "All on Black" here before, my
fave from this one: also love "Fatally Yours" with the
memorable lines, "You crashed your car through my
front door/I pulled you from the wreckage/You told me
that you missed me/ but you meant with the grill and
hood." Apparently, as I work my way through the back
catalog, this is just refined essence of what they've
been doing since '97 - the one prior cd has a song
called "Dying Tomorrow" that is actually a last
checklist of things he hopes he's done with his life,
and jubilant as hell, for a song about dying. I saw
these guys at an outdoor festival here in chicago,
their nominal hometown (they live in Cali now, i
believe) and befitting emissaries from the
netherworld, the following was devoted, cult-like,
raucous and young young young; the band apologized for
it not being an all ages show and dedicated it to
everyone "who was at the Fireside shows, man!" meaning
the popular all-ages venue, mostly punk, in town.
Despite the obvious troubles Matt was having with his
voice, the show was exhilarating, and well worth
voiding my self-imposed Outdoor Festival moratorium,
and in general made me think it would do this body
good to get out and rock amongst the 18 year olds more
often.
anyway, just some musings from my year-in-pop, which
was pretty woeful, i must admit. but if you're
looking for something catchy to whistle on your way
past the graveyard, you could do much worse than this
hemlock-flavored bubblegum punk - go on, try it. Life
is short.
--kelly
=====
arma non servant modum
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