Alkaline Trio's 2018 album Is This Thing Cursed? is available now. This is the band’s 9th studio release and their first new music in 5 years.
Produced and mixed by Cameron Webb, Is This Thing Cursed? is the first Alkaline Trio album written almost entirely in the studio. It’s when the songs began to come together that the band noticed the new material forming parallels with Maybe I’ll Catch Fire. According to the band, Is This Thing Cursed? is a cousin or sibling to Fire. Co-lead vocalist and bassist Dan 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.”
In June, Alkaline Trio announced a headlining US tour. Co-lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Skiba notes, “Some people thought we were done. We announced a tour and a lot of the shows are already sold out. Nobody knows that we made a new record. It's not unlike getting somebody that you care about something extra super special for their birthday and you're really excited to give it to them. It feels kind of like that.”