Strung Out

Strung Out is an American punk rock band from Simi Valley, California, formed in 1990. They are known mainly for their musical style, which fuses aspects of melodic punk rock, progressive rock and heavy metal to form their primary sound.[1] They have released nine studio albums on Fat Wreck Chords as well as one Live album, 2 B-sides collections, a best-of, a box set and appeared on numerous compilations and skate/surf/dirt bike/offroading videos. They have played on the Warped Tour and continue to tour internationally.

For other uses, see Strung Out (disambiguation).
Strung Out
Strung Out live in 2013. From left to right: Rob Ramos, Chris Aiken, Jason Cruz and Jake Kiley.
Background information
OriginSimi Valley, California, U.S.
GenresPunk rock, skate punk, melodic hardcore, heavy metal
Years active1989–present
LabelsFat Wreck Chords
MembersJason Cruz
Jake Kiley
Rob Ramos
Chris Aiken
RJ Shankle
Past membersJim Cherry
Adam Austin
Brad Morrison
Jordan Burns

Despite not achieving similar levels of commercial success as some of their Californian contemporaries during the Punk explosion of the 90s, Strung Out instead experienced a steady growth in popularity throughout the 2000s as mainstream attention shifted towards heavier and more technical styles music thus favoring Strung Out's more metallic sound. Subsequent releases began charting on the Billboard 200. The band's technical abilities have also earned them credit, alongside acts such as Lagwagon, Propagandhi, Belvedere & R.K.L for raising the level of musicianship in punk music and debunking common stereotypes of simplicity associated with punk rock.

History

The band formed in 1989 in Simi Valley, California. The original lineup consisted of vocalist Jason Cruz, guitarists Jake Kiley and Rob Ramos, bassist Jim Cherry and drummer Adam Austin. After releasing a self-titled 7" record, they became one of the first bands to be signed to Fat Wreck Chords, the record label owned and operated by Fat Mike of the band NOFX. Austin left the band in 1992 and was replaced by Brad Morrison who also left the band and was replaced on drums by Jordan Burns, formerly of fellow Simi Valley natives Ten Foot Pole. Their first album, Another Day in Paradise, was released in May 1994. Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues followed in 1996. In 1998 they released The Skinny Years...Before We Got Fat, a compilation album of their pre-Fat Wreck Chords material.

The band showed notable musical growth on their 1998 album Twisted by Design, which was both speedy and technical but also with darker overtones. The album established a mixture of the fast, poppy sound the band had established with Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues but mixed it with more atonality and more abstract song structures.

Bassist Jim Cherry was fired from the band in 1999 and went on to play in Pulley and Zero Down, but died of heart failure in 2002. He was initially replaced by Craig Riker (later known for his tenure in Deadsy), but the fit was not right, so the band recruited Chris Aiken, whose musical background had a strong impact on the 2000 eight-song EP, The Element of Sonic Defiance.

In 2002 the band released their fourth full-length album An American Paradox, their first release to appear in the Billboard 200. The initial production run contained a bonus song entitled "Don't Look Back". A video was filmed for the song "Cemetery" and was included on several punk rock video compilations. In 2003 they recorded and released a live album as part of the Fat Wreck Chords Live in a Dive series. Exile in Oblivion, was released in 2004, with a video filmed for the song "Analog." Strung Out released their sixth full-length album, Blackhawks Over Los Angeles on June 12, 2007.

In March 2009, Strung Out released a collection of rarities & B-sides entitled Prototypes and Painkillers. The album is the second such compilation from the band who previously compiled similar material on The Skinny Years: Before We Got Fat in 1998.[2]

On September 29, 2009, Strung Out released their 7th studio album titled Agents of the Underground. This has a less political tone to it than their previous one, and it also combines more of the old fast sound with heavy metal influences.

On July 19, 2011, they released the compilation album Top Contenders: The Best of Strung Out. In contains remastered versions of 23 songs, and 3 new songs; "City Lights", "Saturday Night", and "Here We Are".[3]

On August 2, 2012, drummer Jordan Burns revealed to Punknews.org that Strung Out planned to release a new album. Transmission.Alpha.Delta was announced as the title of the album, initially scheduled to be released in the summer of 2014.[4] The album was delayed and released on March 24, 2015.[5]

On April 18, 2018, the band released an eight-song EP called Black Out the Sky,[6][7] which was inspired by Alice in Chains' 1994 acoustic EP Jar of Flies.[8]

As of February 19, 2018, the band announced on their Facebook page that Jordan Burns is no longer the drummer.[9] Soon after it was revealed that RJ Shankle of the band Runaway Kids was selected to be the new drummer of Strung Out.

On January 7, 2019 both Strung Out and Jason Cruz posted to their respective social media accounts that the band was in the studio recording a new album. Cruz later confirmed that the album was not an acoustic recording like Black Out The Sky but rather a full punk rock album.[10] In another series of posts by Jason Cruz revealed Agents of the Underground producer Cameron Webb would be returning to produce the upcoming album.

On May 15, 2019, Jason Cruz announced the name of the upcoming Strung Out Album, Songs of Armor and Devotion on Episode 15 of the Dying Scene Podcast.[11] The album was released August 9th, 2019.

Band members

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Live albums
  • Live in a Dive (2003)[12]

EPs
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References
  1. "Strung Out: Biographie". Punk Fiction (in French). Archived from the original on September 15, 2011. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  2. Kagachi, Chihiro (2015). Punk: A History.
  3. "Strung Out :: Top Contenders: The Best of Strung Out - Records: Fat Wreck Chords". Fatwreck.com. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
  4. "Interviews: Jordan Burns (Strung Out)". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
  5. "Press Release". Fat Wreck Chords. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  6. "Strung Out working on new record". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  7. "Strung Out working on new material". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  8. "DS Exclusive: Jason Cruz on "Black Out The Sky," Strung Out's upcoming dynamite acoustic EP". Dying Scene. May 10, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  9. "STRUNG OUT". Facebook.com. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  10. Strung Out. "Writing a new record". Instagram. Strung Out. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  11. "Dying Scene Radio (Official): Dying Scene Radio – Episode 15 - Band Spotlight: Strung Out". dsradio.libsyn.com. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
  12. "STRUNGOUT.com - The Official Site". Strungout.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
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