Strung Out - Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues [Neon Orange]

In 1996, Strung Out were a young band from Simi Valley, California with one album behind them and a lot to prove. Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues, their second LP for Fat Wreck Chords, proved it. It is the record that set them apart from the skate punk pack, played faster, tighter and heavier than almost anything else on the label at the time.

What makes it distinctive is the metal in its blood. Twin guitars trade harmonized leads and palm-muted riffs over breakneck drumming, while Jason Cruz sings with real melody instead of a sneer. "Firecracker" opens the album at a full sprint, "Bring Out Your Dead" and "Solitaire" became live staples, and "Rottin' Apple" and "Monster" show how much hook the band could pack into a short, fast song.

Three decades on, the album is widely regarded as a cornerstone of the Fat Wreck Chords catalog and a blueprint for the technical, melodic punk that followed. Plenty of bands have borrowed its mix of speed, precision and melody, and few have matched it.

This anniversary edition is pressed on neon orange vinyl, a bright new pressing of one of the essential punk records of the 1990s.