So-Cal punk legends Strung Out bring 24 years of fast, raucous melodies to Australia this winter when they play their 1996 hit sophomore album 'Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues' in its entirety.
Strung Out were one of the first bands signed to Fat Mike's (NOFX) Fat Wreck Chords Label and released their debut in 1994. Two years later they followed-up with their most successful album to date and today remain masters of their trade.
Guitarist Jake Kiley has been with the band since the beginning and recalls the period around writing and recording 'Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues' as a time of promise and excitement for a genre in its infancy.
“The mid-'90s was such an exciting time in general for bands like us,” Jake says.
“The bands we looked up to like Bad Religion, Descendents, Misfits, Social Distortion, they were the bands that gave us a buzz to play punk rock and mix it with more of the heavy metal background we grew up with too.
“There was something going on and to be on the floor with that really was an exciting time and we just wanted to be the fastest, most extreme, crazy technical band that we could be and that could be out there.
“We were very motivated by the first Propagandhi record, Lagwagon's 'Trashed', records like that with an amazing amount of musical riffs going on.”
Taking a cue from the burgeoning success of associated acts, for their second album Jake says the band set out on a mission to make the loudest, fastest musical statement they could.
“So all those guys were really inspiring to us and made us want to go 'let's do this to our extreme and make it hold up to what those guys are doing' and made a record that was in some ways a one-dimensional record.
“It's not our most dynamic record at all but it was very much what we wanted to do at the time. We wanted to put out something that was extremely fast, really high energy.
“We were just trying to stand out and we wanted to be the fastest, most technical band we could be, so by doing that record it really got a lot of that out of our system where the next record we weren't as obsessed with that and we tried to make a more dynamic record.”
Strung Out are on tour through June and July playing both metro and regional areas. It will also be a chance for them to show off their new drummer RJ Shankle after the shock departure of long-time drummer Jordan Burns.
“Jordan left big shoes to fill, he was a very innovative drummer and was a very important part of our band for a long time,” Jake says.
“Unfortunately we got to a point where the creative process wasn't really flowing anymore [and] the motivation didn't seem to be there so in order to survive we had to make this call and it's been the best call we've ever made really.
“We have so much energy now and... we're working on brand new songs already so it's been like a whole new blood transfusion in the band; it's a very easy switch as well. [RJ] came right in, he's a funny guy and he gets along with us great so we couldn't ask for a better fit.”
Strung Out Tour Dates
Thu 21 Jun - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)Fri 22 Jun - The Brightside (Brisbane)
Sat 23 Jun - Miami Tavern (Gold Coast)
Sun 24 Jun - Byron Bay Brewery
Tue 26 Jun - Small Ballroom (Newcastle)
Wed 27 Jun - Long Jetty Hotel (Central Coast)
Thu 28 Jun - Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Fri 29 Jun - Narrabeen RSL (Sydney)
Sat 30 Jun - Croxton Hotel (Melbourne)
Sun 1 Jul - Frankston Pelly Bar (Melbourne)
Wed 4 Jul - Fowler's Live (Adelaide)
Thu 5 Jul - Prince Of Wales Hotel (Bunbury)
Fri 6 Jul - Northside Tavern (Perth)
Sat 7 Jul - Hell Hole (Perth)
