ALKALINE TRIO
From Here To Infirmary (Vagrant Records)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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"I've been telling myself these jokes for so long - I'm a has-been who's heckled on the stage."

Well, it's probably not all that bad, but at first, Alkaline Trio sure seems more like an echo than the source of sound. Every little bit of this is played so well you have to applaud, and you even have to listen and maybe even mosh a bit, but something seems too familiar. Still you keep listening, and then you look around and notice the younger ones have taken off on their skateboards and you're left standing there with a bunch of equally bewildered older people, many who have to be considered "ex-punks." What is it?

Then the lyrics start to set in and you realize this is the rarest of beasts: a punk album not about trying to grow up, but about having grown up. That's when it hits you that -- duh! -- everybody sounds familiar at this point. The trick is listening to see if they've got anything for you personally. If you're sixteen and you want to shoot up and force someone to have sex with you and hear songs that make you sound like a hero crashed in your own vomit, you're in the wrong bin. There's still some drugs and alcohol being passed around in the lyrics, but there's still some drugs and alcohol being passed around among those of you who bloodied your foreheads in the mosh pits of 1977, too. The struggle continues, but it evolves. I wonder if the band would shrug and say "who's the old fucker?" Interesting album.

© 2001 - DJ Johnson