Category: New Release

STRUNG OUT U.S. & CANADA WITH PENNYWISE ANNOUNCED!

“Every song starts on an acoustic guitar for the most part,” Cruz begins. “If it’s a good song, it can be played acoustic. For about the past five years, I’ve been pushing the band to release a record in this format.”
The result is six brand new songs, as well as two re-worked older songs, “Matchbook” and “UnKoil.” Today, you can hear the first new track from the EP, “Town of Corazon,” over at Brooklyn Vegan. It’s a surprisingly subdued song from a band who is usually anything but that. As if that weren’t enough, Strung Out is touring the US and Canada with Pennywise, which kicks off this week!

“Kyle is a fan of the band,” the singer says. “I am the kind of person who wants to stray and go out into the unknown when I’m in the studio, but Kyle represents our fans. He didn’t let me stray too far with the melody or the music—just far enough to keep it fresh.”

With no set deadline on the release, the recording process went on for nearly the entirety of 2017, allowing for song arrangements to bloom in ways Strung Out songs never had before. “The songs came out really super-dark, not jingly-jangly acoustic stuff,” Cruz says. “We had to get other musicians involved. Some of it is sparse and intimate, and some of it has a lot going on.”

During the recording process, the band decided they needed to part ways with Jordan Burns, the band’s drummer since 1993. Cruz stresses that this decision was not an easy one to make, but it had to happen for the continued existence of Strung Out. “I think the band needed it,” Cruz admits. “It needed to happen for the band to survive and grow. We got to a point where we were going to break up if it didn’t.”

While in the studio, Strung Out realized some of the acoustic songs still needed drums. So the band enlisted their friend Sean Winchester, an accomplished drummer who has played with Everclear, Buckcherry and more, to fill out their sound. For their upcoming live shows, Strung Out will enlist RJ Shankle of California skate-punk band (and former tourmates) Runaway Kids to man the throne. Cruz is ecstatic about not only the fresh blood in his band, but what it means moving forward.

“Really, the whole theme of this record is rebirth,” he explains. “It’s the rebirth of our brotherhood and being a band. It’s astounding when you can keep a relationship together for three decades. There’s something so special about the music we write. We’re brothers beyond any kind of blood. It vindicates that we’re doing something right.

“I always ask myself, ‘What nerve do I have to get in front of a microphone?’” Cruz continues. “The fact that I kept this relationship together for 30 years says we worked through some shit. In our darkest times, we always came out with something beautiful because of it. In my mind, that gives me the right to get in front of that microphone.”

On Black Out The Sky, Cruz continues to dig deep internally, exploring parts of himself he’s yet to fully understand, taking the listener along for the ride, no matter how bumpy it may get.

“When we were kids, we all said, ‘Fuck God, fuck religion, fuck the government, let’s destroy it all,’” the frontman states. “Great. We did that. Punk rock did that. What are you gonna replace it with? Black Out The Sky is all about looking inward and finding what’s always been there, that intuition, that something to all of us. I don’t know what it is, but it’s the journey to find it and acknowledge it.”

Musically, the EP careens from songs that could be ported to full-band electric arrangements easily (“Requiem,” the title track) to mid-tempo grunge indebted to Alice In Chains (“The Architect”) to a full-on rollicking country song (“Duke Of Sorrow”). Cruz’s favorite number is “Town Of Corazon,” a surprisingly fragile song from a band who is usually anything but that. “’Town Of Corazon’ has the most balls we’ve ever displayed because it’s sweet and tender,” he admits. “It brings reference to spring and a new awakening. I’m so tired of screaming, the same riff, the same breakdown… I can’t stomach it anymore. Slipping in a sweet melody is the punkest thing we could do.”

Nearly three decades in, Strung Out is not driven by trends but instead by each other. As Cruz relays, “There is no ‘me’ in this band. It’s us. Whatever we think of, we’re gonna do it. Sometimes, people want to maintain a youthful aura about their band. That’s gone. We’re old dudes. But we’ve learned a thing or two. There’s nothing wrong with being an old dude. Lemme show you a road that I found; come with me.”

BLACK  OUT THE SKY  track listing:

1. The Architect
2. Black Out the Sky
3. Town of Corazon
4. Unkoil (from An American Paradox)
5. Requiem
6. Duke of Sorrow
7. Matchbook (from Twisted by Design)
8. Presidio

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HEADLINING TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED

Formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1999, The Lawrence Arms have remained unchanged since day one. Sure, the band’s brand of anthemic punk has evolved over their nearly two decades together, but at the core of it all, they’re still just three guys who like to play music together. In honor of the band’s 19 years in the game, on March 30, Fat Wreck Chords will release We Are The Champions Of The World, a 29-song best-of album that chronicles the band’s steady evolution over the past two decades.

Culled from the band’s entire discography, which includes their releases on Asian Man Records, Epitaph Records, and FAT, We Are The Champions Of The World serves as both a retrospective and an introduction to the Chicago institution. The tracklist was handpicked by the band—bassist-vocalist Brendan Kelly, guitarist-vocalist Chris McCaughan, and drummer Neil Hennessy—in order to show how these three friends went from making gritty, lo-fi records to becoming some of the sharpest songwriters in all of punk.

Oh, and just so we’re totally clear here, it’s not a greatest hits album.

“I think you have to have hits to make a greatest hits,” says Kelly, “So we approached the song selection in an attempt to be indicative of our evolution, rather than focus on our ‘hits,’ of which, frankly, there are none.” Instead, We Are The Champions Of The World showcases every part of the band’s storied career, from their 1999 debut album A Guided Tour Of Chicago, all the way up to 2014’s Metropole. “In the end, I’m super grateful for the collective experience and history of being in this band with two guys I have known forever and love dearly and are my fam,” says McCaughan. “I guess that’s what this record kind of means and reaffirms for me.”

With liner notes written by both Kelly and McCaughan, the pair reflect on how each song came to be, sharing anecdotes about what inspired them to put pen to paper. But of course, they aren’t trying to tell you what the songs are actually about, because what’s the fun in that? “I don’t think that it’s cool to be prescriptive in song meanings because that leads to the erroneous conclusion that the song has one meaning: the songwriter’s intent,” says Kelly. “In truth, songs have no meaning until a listener connects with it and imbues it with what it means to them. I did offer a few of my interpretations of Chris’s songs, and vice versa, because even though I play and sing on his songs, I didn’t write em, so I’m interpreting them along with any other listener.”

McCaughan shares that perspective, noting that the band wanted to shed light on their creative process without ruining the mythology fans had built up. “I’ve never been able to really explain or pinpoint exactly what songs I’ve written are about anyway—so I guess that lowers the risk of potential disappointment for people who like our band reading the liner notes and being like ‘Damn, I used to love that song but it’s actually about Tide Pods or the Milwaukee Bucks,’” says McCaughan.

But the biggest perk for diehard fans of The Lawrence Arms will be the five previously unreleased songs included on We Are The Champions Of The World. Taken from recording sessions that spawned the band’s classic 2006 album Oh! Calcutta!, these five songs have been in the vault for over a decade. “They didn’t make the cut because they just didn’t fit in the structure of that album, which ended up being very focused and thematic,” says Kelly. Some of these songs never made it past the demo stage, but even so, they show how tightly focused the band was during this period, with even the scraps left behind sounding vital and potent. “I hadn’t heard these songs in over ten years,” says McCaughan. “I’d basically forgotten they existed at all, so listening back to a few of them was initially like stepping into some strange portal—then as soon as I heard them again my memory filled out.”

And for fans who have been aching to see the band play live again, We Are The Champions Of The World will see the band touring in support of the album throughout 2018. Not only will they be hitting parts of the United States they haven’t been to in years and they’ll even be heading back to Europe for some festival dates this summer. It’s been a while since The Lawrence Arms have hit the road, and We Are The Champions Of the World is the catalyst for the band to get back in the van and spread their unique brand of merriment. And maybe, if all goes well, a new Lawrence Arms record will follow. “I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s pretty astounding that people still care that we do this,” says Kelly. “And as long as that’s the case, we’ll keep making new music.”But for now, We Are The Champions Of The World serves as a celebration for The Lawrence Arms, a band that’s never tried to fit in one specific box and, as a result, have succeeded on their own terms. “We just do our best to do us—be human, transparent, and not take ourselves too seriously,” says McCaughan. “At the core, this is what I love about our band.” That’s the reason why The Lawrence Arms are champions of the world, even if they’ve still yet to write an actual hit.

4/27 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
4/28 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
4/30 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
5/1 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
5/3 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
5/4 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
5/5 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
5/6 – Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater

All shows with Red City Radio and Sincere Engineer.  (Except Chicago which has Banner Pilot instead of RCR)

1. On with the Show
2. Great Lakes/Great Escapes
3. Alert the Audience!
4. 100 Resolutions
5. The Devil’s Takin’ Names
6. Beautiful Things
7. Quincentuple Your Money
8. The Slowest Drink at the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City
9. Are You There Margaret? It’s Me, God.
10. Right as Rain Part 2
11. Seventeener (17th and 37th)
12. Chapter 13: The Hero Appears
13. The Ramblin’ Boys of Pleasure
14. Light Breathing (Me and Martha Plimpton in a Fancy Elevator)
15. Like a Record Player
16. You are Here
17. Boatless Booze Cruise Part 1
18. Brick Wall Views
19. Sixteen Hours
20. Turnstiles
21. An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance
22. The Northside, the L&L and Any Number of Crappy Apartments
23. Porno & Snuff Films
24. Demons
25. The Rabbit and the Rooster
26. Catalog *
27. Black Snow *
28. Laugh Out Loud *
29. Warped Summer Extravaganza (Turbo Excellent) *

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Photo credit: Ben Pier