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Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba on why he hates Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes”

In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world. 

The hater: As Alkaline Trio’s frontman, Matt Skiba has spent the past 17 years in punk-rock purgatory, releasing an album about every other year (the latest, My Shame Is True, is out now) and spending countless hours in the van on tour listening to boring, non-adventurous rock radio. As such, The A.V. Club thought Skiba might have some pretty strong opinions about what songs are so terrible that they get instantly vetoed on the road, no matter what, and sure enough, he did.

Check out the entire article/interview here @ AV CLUB

This record, we’ve definitely cloaked a lot of ourselves in metaphor and there are definitely metaphors through and throughout the record. This record for me was written in somewhat of a vacuum. It was this apology love note to my ex-girlfriend who I’m still very close with. I think the emotions presented on this album…I think it’s very human. I think everyone, whether they know what these songs are about or not, I hope people can apply these songs to their own lives and really feel that someone is singing their feelings for them. I mean that is always the goal, but I feel with this record we’ve come back to closely accomplishing that.

Listen to the rest here @ killyourstereo

(Source: twitter.com)

That’s the whole point and I think there should always be a tongue planted firmly in cheek especially when you’re singing about something that was pretty dreadful for you because you’re not shooting strangers in the desert in Iraq. I have good problems but they’re still problems and they still affect me and I’m going to write about them. But I think you have to be careful how seriously you take yourself and metaphor can be a really good ally [when it comes to that.] 

Check out the entire interview here @ purevolume

This album is great and for fans of “old school” Trio, I think they’ll find at least one thing to be happy about here. It’s most definitely a return to form both in writing and melody. If people still complain after this one they just need to move on because honestly, it’s not going to get any better without completely regressing.

I definitely think this is in the running for best Trio album of all time. Both Dan and Matt’s performances are exceptional. From Matt, howling desperately and mournfully, “tell me everything will be okay,  tell me that you’re still in love with me” and this album basically being a love letter to love lost, subject matter that fans in general have universally agreed has been the catalyst for some of Trio’s greatest tracks, it’s what you’ve come to expect and love out of him.  

Dan with striking, earnest and poignant declarations of love with songs like “Young Lover”  to smooth but starch and angry anecdotes on the opposite with a track like, “I, Pessimist” he grows and just gets better with each release.

Derek packing a punch on the kit, there to emphasis and compliment every guitar lick, definitely one of the most under rated drummers in the scene right now. 

My grade is simple - Great. Fucking. Album.

And we’ve still got an EP to look forward too…

Another new track, “The Temptation of St. Anthony” lyric video. 

And an interview - 

“I went through some pretty rough patches in my life and I’ve come out of them a stronger, more inspired and energetic person. I don’t personally feel that I’ve lost my fire,” says Skiba, confident he once again found a way to channel “the young, angry, fuck-everything, who-cares kid that had no responsibilities,” a fellow that Trio fans grew to know and love on 1998’s now-classic “Goddamnit.”

Read the rest here @ billboard.com 

(Source: mattskibafans.com)