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PUNK TIMES THREE |
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by Ashley Salaz
Ahhhhh,
yes kids, it’s that time again. Another
month, another story. This
month it’s... Alkaline Trio.
“Who is
Alkaline Trio,” you ask? Why only the
coolest indie rock combo to break out of Chicagoland since the Smoking
Popes!
First off there’s Matt Skiba, the guitarist/vocalist who now resides in Berkeley,
California, far away from the bitter cold Chicago winters of his wayward
youth. It was Skiba that
Midwest BEAT interviewed while he was a captive in the backseat
of a Cali cab.
There’s also bassist/vocalist Dan
Andriano, and drummer Derek
Grant, neither of whom have thus far ventured any great distance
from Chicago.
There’s a story behind every bands name.
Some stories are boring, some interesting.
This story is a unique one to say the least.
“We wanted to be something ‘Trio’ so we opened up the
dictionary. We didn’t
even get all the way through the A’s.
That’s the only way I’ve ever thought of band name, is from
the dictionary. You start
flipping through the dictionary and you get ideas.
Your band name’s in there somewhere.”
(FYI: Webster defines Alkaline as meaning --“having
a certain pH value.”)
What makes this Chicagoland band appealing to everyone is how
people can relate to their lyrics. Most people that listen to the Trio understand what it’s
like to be dumped by a significant other.
“I’ve got a big fat f*cking
bone to pick with you my darling/In case you haven’t heard I’m sick
of trying/I wish you would take my radio to bathe with you/Plugged in
and ready to fall...” That
chorus from, “Radio,” off
the album, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire, is a prime example of a bitter
break-up, which is fodder for much of Trio’s music.
Sadly, a lot of teens seem to relate to the song, “Trouble
Breathing” from the album Goddamnit.
This song ventures into the taboo realm of suicide and helping
others cope. “You
told me that the daylight burns you/And that the sunrise was enough to
kill you/I said maybe you’re a vampire/Said it’s quite possible/I
feel truly dead inside/It’s one or another/Between a rope and a
bottle/I can tell you’re having trouble breathing/Cause you’ll never
be ok/You’ll always be in pain/You’ll always feel this way/Cause
things they never work out right.”
Don’t be fooled though, not all of the Trio’s songs are full
of bitterness. There are
songs about finding and embracing love.
Take for example, “Clavicle” from Goddamnit
-- “I’ve
been on top of the world since about 6 months ago/Marking the first time
I laid eyes on you/I lost all train of thought as I entered the room/I
saw what looked like really good good/Then I saw you and so did you/I
wanna wake up naked next to you/Kissing the curve in your clavicle.”
Another song that almost anyone could relate to would be, “F*ck
You Aurora,” from Maybe
I’ll Catch Fire. This
song deals with you setting your best friend up with someone and then
them not having time for you. Then you blame yourself for everything.
“F*ck you Aurora/You took
my only friend/And although it’s all my fault/The blaming myself had
to come to an end/So I say,’F*ck you Aurora you took my only
friend.’/You won’t catch me behind the wheel of a Chrysler ever
again.”
The Alkaline Trio was formed by Skiba just over six years ago,
when he was living in Chicago. Andriano
and Grant have not been with the group that whole time.
In 1997, the bassist at the time, Rob
Doran, exited the picture making way for Andriano to join up.
In 2000, longtime drummer Glenn
Porter left the band and Mike
Femulee took his place for a spell.
Not too long after that, in late 2001 to be more exact, Grant,
who met Andriano at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago, took over permanently
on drums. Throughout their career many people have classified the Trio by using such terms as –– emo, punk, pop-punk and alternative rockers. To clear up all this confusion, we asked Skiba to define their sound. “Well...I tell people that I’m in a punk rock band. I think because of where I grew up and what I grew up with, we couldn’t be considered anything but a punk band.” Like many other punk rockers, Skiba pays homage to the gods of punk –– The Ramones –– for their being a great influence on his music. “The Ramones were a huge influence on me. That’s how I kind of discovered punk rock.” The Ramones may
have been the first band to flip his switch, but they were not the only
one. “I liked the Sex
Pistols a lot,” continued Skiba. “Public Image Limited and Social
Distortion were also huge influences on me.
As for Social Distortion, seeing them is what made me want to be
in a band.”
The Trio’s first EP with former indie label, Asian Man Records,
was 1997’s For
Your Lungs Only. The
album helped them to amass a much larger fan base and a year later they
issued, Goddamnit. Their cult following in Chicago continued to swell on
the strength of this early albums and their live shows. By the time Maybe
I’ll Catch Fire was released in 1999, Alkaline Trio were the
toast of the city’s indie rock scene.
In 2000, the buzz was so big on the band that latter day fans who
had just climbed on the bandwagon wanted to know what they had missed.
So the band obliged them by releasing a CD filled with tunes from
early out-of-print EPs and non-album tracks.
Also in 2000, the Trio stepped up a bit higher in the indie ranks
when they inked a contract with the noted California label, Vagrant
Records.
Splitting to Minnesota to record at Pachyderm Studios with
longtime producer Matt Allison
and mixing engineer Jerry Finn,
they released From
Here to Infirmary in 2001. As he did before, Skiba sang the crude heartbreakers and Andriano sang the weepy heartbreakers. From Here to Infirmary is dark, moving, cynical and yet hopeful, wide-eyed and world weary. This record is their career masterpiece to date according to many fans –– dealing with death, life, drinking, drugs and of course love, lost and found. An edgier record than any of their past efforts, this disc is certainly the cornerstone CD of any emo kid’s record collection. This past summer Alkaline Trio traveled as part of Van’s Warped Tour. The lengthy road trip was a pleasurable experience according to Skiba, who told how he and his mates developed some close friendships with a few of the other bands.
“The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are really awesome people.
We got to be really tight with all of those guys.
Flogging Molly was another awesome bunch that we got very tight
with,” he said.
“It was good to be back out with our dudes,” Skiba said of hooking back up with Hot Water Music, who they had worked closely with in the past. Being a relatively unknown band in the midst of all those big league groups seemingly was not a big deal. “We’re pretty good friends with people that are in some really huge bands. We’re all just people, no matter how many people buy your records, everybody’s just a person.”
Although this album clocks in longer than any past Trio album, stylistically it is not too different from the musical ground they have tread before.
“I think it’s sort of along the same lines, yet hopefully
there’s something refreshing to people,” said Skiba.
“There is some stuff on this CD that we’ve never done before,
but I don’t think it strays too far from what people are used to
hearing from us.”
When asked about the new “stuff” added and tried this time,
Skiba replied –– “We layered some stuff on there that you won’t
hear when we play live. There’s
some keyboards on this one. Nothing
too heavy duty or that stands out too drastically, but they are there.
This record made use of some things we’ve never used before,
but it will always be the three of us live.”
Of all their previous albums, Good
Mourning took the longest to record.
“We did spend a lot of time on it.
This one took us longer [in the studio] just because I think that
we were more meticulous about it during the recording process.”
As with each of their past albums, Good
Mourning has its trademark “dark song”
–– “All On Black”
–– which Skiba hails as his fave cut on the disc and also
“the most personal and specific one on the record.” Even with all the touring, recording and interviewing, this group of twenty-something year old guys still gets to sit around and act like kids. “Pretty much what we’re doing is getting paid to be kids. We wake up, everyone hangs out in their pajamas, eats cereal and watches cartoons.” When asked of his personal preference of cereal he replied, “I like Raisin Bran and Fruity Pebbles. Crunch Berries are good.” Throughout the touring the three guys have brother-like relationships and really good friendships. “Everyone we travel with is like my best friend.”
Alkaline Trio will celebrate the release of their new album with
a hometown all ages concert at the Riviera Theater on May 15th.
“Everyone’s invited. No
worries,” said Skiba, anticipating a full house and fun time.
“We want all our Chicago friends and fans to come out and join
us that night.”
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