Is This Thing Cursed

Across two decades, eight albums, and a multitude of singles, splits, and EPs, Alkaline Trio has built a reputation as a defining act in punk rock's modern era. Formed in Chicago by vocalist-guitarist Matt Skiba in 1996, the band would come into it's own with it's debut album Goddammit in 1998. Since then, the band has continually evolved, incorporating new influences with each record while achieving artistic, critical, and commercial success along the way. Alkaline Trio's ninth studio release, Is This Thing Cursed? was produced and mixed by Cameron Webb and serves as the group's first album written almost entirely in the studio. It's when the songs began to really come together that the band noticed the new material forming parallels with 2000's Maybe I'll Catch Fire. According to Alkaline Trio, Is This Thing Cursed? is a cousin or sibling to Maybe I'll Catch Fire. Andriano explains, "the songwriting process is almost like what it was back in the day. We would just kind of write a song, be excited about it, then move on. We wrote in that spirit in the studio. I really feel like we made a record that the old school fans are going to dig."