Matt Skiba & The Sekrets – KUTS

You have to wonder what life would be like viewed through the eyes of the Matt Skiba.  Chances are, you’d see red as crimson, the dark of night would be your daylight and your days would be spent employing morbid vocabulary to describe everyday mundanities – you’d be a living, breathing creature of the underworld walking amongst the world of men.  Or you could pretty much just listen to any Alkaline Trio record.  While tempting to think the image is all just an act, Skiba’s penchant for dark imagery extends into all aspects of his career, including numerous side projects, the most stable of which has become Matt Skiba & The Sekrets.

Also the least dreary of his output, Matt Skiba & The Sekrets play a hybrid style of altrock that can only be described as “uplifting” in the dark world of Alkaline Trio.  With marginally increased electronic elements and generally more conventional song structures, Matt Skiba & The Sekrets is Skiba’s playground for songwriting that may be viewed by fans as too tame for the Alkaline Trio brand, but just right for a secondary project.  Without being under the creative microscope, it’s a project that has evolved to early fanfare and resulted in the timely arrival of their sophomore full length, KUTS.

A certain contrast sneaks its way into the album from the early stages.  Musically, opener “Lonely And Kold” exudes a certain “warmth” in its guitars, juxtaposing the imagery of an impending relapse that finds the protagonist “at the bottom of the bottle, lonely and cold.”  Playful may be the best word to capture the refreshingly varied and optimistic guitar tone (the tone feels closest to Damnesia’s full-band acoustic vision).  Even the riff lurching “She Wolf,” which sounds as if it were written for a shared performance with Alkaline Trio co-vocalist Dan Andriano, overcomes the dark imagery inherent in the early passage, “now I’m restless here in pieces, and I’m waiting for relief that just won’t come for this vampire, twisting in the fire.”

With varying production tricks and resonating guitar tweaks from distortion to lingering pedalwork, tracks like the dirty mouthed “She Said” almost bring to light a more fully realized 80’s retro vibe in the same vein that Alkaline Trio drummer Derek Grant attempted on his recent underwhelming solo attempt.  The track settles comfortably after laying down a rumbling chorus and subsequent bass groove.  Light synthy spikes and drum machine effects as per “I Just Killed To Say I Love You” and “Way Bakk When” only serve to further the comparisons.  Producer Rob Schnapf certainly leaves his mark in ensuring that while the subject matter remains within Skiba’s comfort zone (nobody quite writes a breakup song like Skiba), his music doesn’t.  

KUTS once again presents Matt Skia & the Sekrets as a worthy, albeit lighter, supplement to Alkaline Trio’s body of work.  Not only appreciable by established fans, Skiba’s side project possibly targets an older audience beyond the traditionally goth-punk crowd.  But regardless of the source of his fanfare, KUTS continues to prove the longevity and relevance of one of punk rock’s most well rooted and lasting front men.