Follow me here: 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, its 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 ones can t help but sing along to those two different-but-perfectly-complementary voices, singer/guitarist Matt Skiba’s triumphan... (More ALKALINE Biography)