United States
Punk rock is like Joan Rivers. In an ongoing quest for eternal youth, it continually tears at the flesh of its own face, pushing and prodding and tightening and twisting until what emerges is a boring old monster that, somehow, everyone is OK with looking at. And this far down the line, punk rock has been reshaped so many times it sometimes looks like a busload of 70-something sun-bunnies in coastal Florida, face lifted into an army of look-a-likes. Somewhere along the ride, its mean spirit left the tuneful bands for hardcore and metal, and punk rock filled with melody became nice. And funny. And safe. And dull as shit.
Enter Alkaline Trio, circa 1997. Right out of the gate, the kids realized that while this may still be loosely categorized as "pop-punk," it’s a full step beyond. There’s a dark side to this band, a world-weariness, and some honest-to-whoever honesty all balled up into a completely kinetic force. Even the jaded fucks can’t help but sing along to those two different-but-perfectly-complementary voices, singer/guitarist Matt Skiba’s triumphant rasp and singer/bassist Dan Andriano’s more measured, sweet croon as they combine to completely wreck audiences with bittersweet songs about love and loss, drugs and drink,God and Satan, happiness and pain. All of this comes from three young guys, about as many chords, and a healthy supply of beer, cigarettes, and heartbreak.
"There’s definitely a reason we play the kind of music that we do," says Skiba. "We offer kids a little darker slice of punk rock. Hopefully it separates us from bands that sing about going to the mall and chewing bubblegum." Two albums, both recorded on a shoestring for indie label Asian Man, delivered on the promise of Alkaline Trio’s early live shows: As fucked-up as they are wonderful, both 1998’s Goddamnit and 1999’s Maybe I’ll Catch Fire breathed new life into a music world rife with second-stringers and gonna-bes that thought (and continue to think) that looks and guitar tones were more important than feelings and smarts. The audience-band connection was both immediate and binding.
