Alkaline Trio: goddamnit
1998
Asian Man Records
Track Listing: 1. Cringe 2. Cop 3. San Fransisco 4. Nose Over Tail 5. As You Were 6. Enjoy Your Day 7. Clavicle 8. My Little Needle 9. Southern Rock 10. Message from Kathlene 11. Trouble Breathing 12. Sorry About That
By and large this album sounds exactly like you'd expect Alkaline Trio to sound. Mid-tempo, Midwestern punk with no shortage of hooks and their usual witty lyrics. The darker, horror-inspired aspect of the band hasn't quite manifested itself yet, so don't let the band's scary zombie makeup on the back cover fool ya!
"Cringe," "San Francisco," and "Southern Rock," have endured as 90's punk classics, and show Alkaline Trio already at full-strength. Vocalists Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano compliment each other perfectly, Andriano wringing every ounce of emotion out of stretched vowels under Skiba's snappier delivery.
For some reason "stretched vowels" sounds really painful.
The only tracks I'd really skip at my Friday Night Record party are "Cop,"with its poppin' funky bass accents, and "Enjoy Your Day," which to me, crosses the line into overbearing emo. I have seen the band do a live performance of "Enjoy Your Day" years later and it was a huge improvement. I actually loved their live version, but the take on the album is unbearably maudlin and overwrought. But the album's other acoustic track Matt's "Sorry About That" ends up being the highlight of the album, showing that a lack of electricity isn't a problem...
Although, I don't think they've quite nailed their winning formula yet (I think that would occur with their very next album) I would definitely recommend this record to anyone even remotely interested in punk rock. Playing this again after so many years brings back warm memories of hanging out with my friends in Michigan, pounding cheap beer in our band rehearsal room. God, I think I must have owned 500 of the band's T-shirts in my lifetime. Hell, I even married a girl with an Alkaline Trio tattoo!
Let's take a look at what else was happening in the world during those halcyon days of 1998:
42nd President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton proclaims "goddamnit," at a press conference after he's caught having "sexual relations" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky...
Ginger Spice announces her departure from the Spice Girls. She is replaced by ex-Smoking Popes drummer Mike Felumlee...
Google is founded, allowing me to Google images of Bill Clinton, the Spice Girls and Alkaline Trio album covers to post on this stupid blog....
Alright, enough of the history lesson...
I went to an Alkaline Trio show right around 2007 or so, where they played this album in its entirety. I know sometime later Asian Man released this...
... which contains a dvd of the band playing the entire album live. I've never watched it so I'm not sure if it's from the same show or not, but I do know that clips from the show I attended were released on the bonus dvd included on the "Remains" compilation. I should look into that someday...
In the meantime let's relive the 90's with a tall, cool. refreshing Zima...
...and sing along drunkenly to "San Francisco!"
...wait, can you even get drunk on Zima?
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