Alkaline Trio – A Battle For…
Some bands have the luck and money to release albums that are success after success, launching them into fame and stardom.
Others release a much anticipated debut album, only to watch it dwindle away whilst the band moves nowhere. These types of musicians therefore quit at the first hurdle.
However, Black Punk bands and listeners will tell you about a band that has been for the most part held between these two extremes. You may have heard of them, but the chances are they have been around for much longer than you will know. This band is Alkaline Trio.
This Chicago based three piece have come a long way since the start of their careers, but have, even with the release of their latest masterpiece, “Agony and Irony”, still not come to be the holders of world wide recognition. It seems almost a shame, as this is a band that deserves it much more than some significant others.
As you would expect, this struggle has not come without serious personnel damage. With themes of depression, the want and need for successful relationships, drug addiction and alcohol abuse running from song to song, album to album, any dedicated Blood Pact member (Alkaline Trio’s own private membership base) will not hesitate to point out that under the bands dark lyrics there is an element of truth lurking just under the sometimes satirical surface. Let’s take a trip back to where it all began…
“Goddamnit” was the type of album that would be, and was, well received by the under Twenty Five generation. Released in 1998 after a small time and rather insignificant E.P, Matt Skiba probably did not realize it at the time, but he had just released what was later to be regarded as a bit of an Alkaline Trio classic.
Although not quite able to reach any significant chart positions, the album appears to be an insight in to the adventurous life of Mat Skiba himself. Take for example the track “My little needle”, a song presumably about the experiences of witnessing and testifying to periods of drug abuse.
Roughly a year later, another release was distributed. This time all almost all the vocals were to be done by bass player Dan Andriano.
The purpose of this E.P was therefore to get the fan base used to his vocals, as in the future when Alkaline Trio would push there records across more countries, his vocals were to become a significant, if not an equal part, as Matt’s vocals.
The themes of the songs also took a drastic turn, but to great relief, “For your lungs only” was a success as far as E.P’s go. This one was all about emotional loss. Andriano sings hauntingly on the last track of the E.P the following lyrics, of which are some of the smartest lyrics I have heard to date: “And just like an empty sterile room, somehow I made a mess. Like watching new born babies crack from work related stress”.
No one could deny Andriano the right to aid Skiba in the vocal department when his lyrical genius created such an eerie atmosphere in the songs.
In 2000, Alkaline Trio released a split E.P and a brand new full length album. It is the latter, the ten tracks long “Maybe I’ll Catch Fire”, that we will concern ourselves with. This album is a personnel favourite, and I doubt I stand alone with this opinion.
However, after four releases, it would not surprise me if fans were searching for something a little more fine tuned in terms of the sound as a whole. Little did they know this would not come until much later. Those that lost interest here, missed out completely.
More to the point, you can detect a fine tuning in the style the instruments are played on “Maybe I’ll catch fire”. It is also noticeable that the vast majority of the lyrics were slowly becoming less metaphoric and therefore more direct.
Skiba seems to be fully giving all when you get to the venue room anthem “Radio”, which got all the credit for the album. Its depressive and suicidal lyrics, plus the combination of gloomy sounding verses and memorable chorus’s, that seemed to have been too much for any Alkaline Trio fan to have missed.
Then came the self titled album, “Alkaline Trio”. This album was made up of a salvage trip into the catalogue of previous Alkaline Trio work, with the band collecting E.P’s, a cover and a few other songs, and the album was produced by organizing these tracks and simply putting it out to the public.
Given an average of Five out of Five stars on Amazon, the album appears to have been fairly well received by Fans. The theme of long and tormented heart breaks were thrown in there.
This is a theme that many musicians fail to pull off; especially those who have not experience what it is like to be in an absolutely tragic state of mind. This is not the case for Alkaline Trio.
Popular hit “For Your lungs only”, the title track off the E.P I mentioned earlier in this article, is a song on the self titled album that seems too deals directly with the feelings a person goes through when all seems to be lost, and that you cant always go back to the place you once called your home. It brings the reality to us more lucky individuals that for some people, all they know can be destroyed.
However, the point that comes clear is that yet again this album was not a great commercial success, but at this time, at least the fan base was pleased.
“From here to Infirmary”. The turning point. Two songs off this album became household names via there use in a) A television episode, and b) a computer video game. With Dan now singing a third of the songs on the album, the diverse vocal range between Skiba and Andriano sounds, to say the least, very impressive. It is noted that Dan once said:
“I think ‘From here to Infirmary’ is when Matt and I both realized that we wanted to tighten the screws a bit”.
And as you probably guessed already, along with the back catalogue of drug abuse and alcohol abuse, came what seemed to be a subtle theme of self realization. “I’ m dying tomorrow” has the edge that is found in all classics, and definitely has the potential to be one. On this one Andriano, it is discussed, reiterates what it is like to be judged, knowing that we are all going to die equal anyway.
Although given 8.9 out of 10 by the users of metacritic.com, 2002′s Good Mourning was a time of negativity. With Skiba looking back and reflecting that things could have been done better, and many of us noticing that stardom was along way off for Trio, we were left to turn to the ghastly lyrics to see how dark things were getting in camp Trio.
Take the chilling “Blue in the Face”, which was the albums only acoustic number (No wonder people complained that the album did not flow). Take the lyric “It’s about time, that I came clean with you, no longer fine”. It is obvious to anyone that hears that line, sung with such a rasp tone as Matt Skiba can produce, that thinks were not going good.
Good Mourning; you could sum it up as a journey into the heart and soul of the music industries most troubled men.
Following on from “Good Mourning” was Alkaline Trios fifth studio album “Crimson”, released in May 2005. This album was as close to a mainstream sound as Alkaline Trio ever ventured.
With an overwhelming amount of synthesizer work and epic stadium style chorus’s throughout, Skiba cleaned up his vocal act and began to write not just catchy material, but I think had the potential to be suitable for all alternative music fans. Here was an album produced that I believe many people can enjoy, and he wrote it without selling out the original idea of Alkaline Trio. You could tell from the first half of the opening song, “Time to Waste”, that this was still Alkaline Trio. They just had a much more fashionable feel about them.
Within the space of nine months, the band had released three singles off of this album, with a sophisticated and smart music video to match each one of these. I recall at one point, in maybe early 2006, it was difficult to spend more than an hour watching music channels with friends without stumbling across one of these three masterpieces or a band that were in a similar genre.
The much more outward and hopeful lyrics give an insight into Skiba’s mind once again. He seemed to be building himself up for this album as it really is amazing.
The album finale track “Smoke” seems to give an insight into how basic tasks such as smoking a cigarette have helped Matt vent the stress away, with what I guess is when he was dealing with overcoming emotional loss or physical addiction.
Famous song “Prevent this tragedy” is an outward thinking ballad to say the least. The pitch perfect vocals in the chorus, where Matt echoes “West Memphis three, please, I’m begging you, to stop praying for me”, allow us to really get in touch with the valuable cause that this tune has been constructed for.
So with three new singles, a clear and defined commercial sound, plus a more accessible, reflective bunch of lyrics than any other instalment to date, it became a Black Punk craze to love Alkaline Trio as they seemed to be emerging at the top of the genre. Things just kept getting better.
By getting better, I am talking about the latest release, “Agony and Irony”, which followed “Remains”, a Frankenstein of a compilation, including unrecorded songs, past E.P’s and the odd B side and songs. I don’t believe “Remains” was ever meant to be a hit, and only the most dedicated of fans would have been tempted enough to buy this, rather than save there money for the sixth Alkaline Trio studio album.
Anticipation was massive. It was all Worthwhile. The outcome of the gap between the last studio album, “Crimson”, and the new Studio album released June 2008, was “Agony and Irony”: with a slightly more underground sound too it than their last, but without doubt, a fine tuned stadium rock feel.
Never before, however, has Alkaline Trio given a more personnel insight into their lives, with lyrics bouncing themes that were present all the way through their career as artists, plus an insight into the mind of Mat Skiba on more trivial matters.
Synthesiser fuelled song “I found away” displays Alkaline Trio at their best. With a basic but extremely effective chord structure for the chorus, and numerous bass lines that you will be humming for weeks after hearing, it is the lyrics that come above all in the search for perfection.
A friend of mine speculated that the song is about the realization that Skiba has that meditation is a good way to escape life’s horrors. Skiba bellows “I found away, over the fear and through the flames, I’m diving in don’t follow me”.
Although this is all simply speculation, I believe Skiba has become a much happier man than he was a decade ago when Alkaline Trio set out on the road for success, with there constant blend of challenging lyrics and catchy melody. A combination which has always pulled them through, to be where they are now, signed to Epic / V2 records, and still not anywhere near the end of their potential career.
Is success, however, the correct word to use? Within the circles of people that don’t just look at number one slots on a Sunday afternoon on Radio 1, then yes! Ignoring the down time on some releases (such as Good Mourning), of course.
With 36,000 sales of Agony and Irony, predicted by absolute punk.net to hit the thirteenth place on the top 200 Billboard charts, yes! Alkaline Trio are not doing bad at all.
However, the only reason I would question their success is because this band deserves so much more. Although commercial success has generally being on going, with popularity boosting massively after shaking the “Emo” tag that “Good Mourning” brought to the band, I believe the band will, if they choose too, go a lot further. Without a doubt, from seeing the band on two tours, they have improved on stage drastically.
No one can predict what the future holds for Alkaline Trio, but everyone can learn a lesson from the lyrics of there back catalogue.
Posted on June 22, 2009 | Filed Under Music
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