Photo by Jonathan Weiner
Alkaline Trio walks among us once again. On January 26, 2024, everyone’s favorite tortured triumvirate will return in Grand Guignol style with “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs”, its tenth album and first full length offering of new material to be released in (66)6 years.
Recorded with GRAMMY-winning producer Cameron Webb at Studio 606 in Northridge CA, “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs” finds Alkaline Trio stripping its sound down to the skin and bones of its unmistakable sonic spirit, while taking that dark essence to parts previously unknown. Accompanied by the premiere of a fittingly kinetic video directed by Ravi Dhar and featuring pro skaters including Steve Caballero, Chris Cole and more, the album’s first single and title track exemplifies its balance of the eerily familiar and the shock of the new. Oh, and there’s that song/album title…
“My mom worked for years as an emergency room nurse”, says vocalist/guitarist/founder Matt Skiba. “She and her co-workers referred to exceptionally busy nights as ‘blood, hair, and eyeballs’. Well, we’ve been busy making an exceptional record we refer to as Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs, too. We approached this new record in completely new ways. We built the songs together, from the ground up, in the same room which hasn’t happened since the band started. Usually we start with an idea somebody’s already written. This time, we had the unique opportunity to build the songs onto drums recorded at Studio 606 on to two-inch tape using one of the most beautiful-sounding and legendary consoles in rock. It has almost everything to do with how our new record sounds”.
Of the “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs” video, bassist/vocalist Dan Andriano adds, “Sometimes the full circle nature of life is enough to just completely blow my mind… this is one of those times. Skateboarding was my first love, is my favorite sport, and a community through which I was first introduced to punk rock. So when Matt and I read Ravi’s idea to combine our music with an homage to the Bones Brigade’s ‘The Search For Animal Chin’ and throw some spooky zombies in there… we both dug it right away. The work Ravi and the entire production crew put in was insane and it shows… So to kick off the release of our 10th album with this super fun video featuring Steve Caballero, Chris Cole, Ace, Corey and Shea is so much more than a dream come true, it’s true love. This is not a phase”.
In addition to being a darkly shining exemplar of the Trio’s signature blend of wry lyrical wit and bittersweet melodic sensibility, “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs” arrives in a confluence of endings and beginnings—specifically, it’s both the first album to be released via the band’s new label home, Rise Records, and the last to feature longtime member Derek Grant, drummer on every Alkaline Trio record since 2003’s classic “Good Mourning”.
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