''Sing Sing Death House'' is the second studio album by the American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band

The Distillers The Distillers are an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1998 by Australian vocalist and guitarist Brody Dalle. Dalle co-wrote, played guitar and provided lead vocals for nearly every track on the band's three albums ...

, released in 2002 on

Hellcat Records Hellcat Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. The label, an offshoot of Epitaph Records, was started as a partnership between Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, the owner of Epitaph, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid ...

. The song "Seneca Falls" was featured in the game ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4'' is a 2002 skateboarding game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision under their Activision O2 label. The game was ported by different developers to various systems. It is the fourth installment in the ' ...

'' and is a reference to the

Seneca Falls Convention The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. Its organizers advertised it as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in the Wesleyan Chapel of the town of Seneca ...

of 1848.

Recording and production

''Sing Sing Death House'' was recorded in a week. Production was rushed as the band was supposed to have the album completed within two weeks. However, after their engineer disappeared during the recording sessions, the band was forced to rush the album to meet deadlines. Following its completion,

Epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

delayed its release for nine months.

Composition and lyrics

The lyrics on ''Sing Sing Death House'' are more direct than on the band's self-titled debut album. This came about due to criticism of the album's nonsensical lyrics in a review written by ''The'' ''Village Voice'', which greatly affected Brody. Brody called the review "scathing and hilarious and life-altering", but was grateful for the review's honesty.

Critical reception

Andrew Bregman from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

noted the album is "a story with an uncharacteristic ending that punks born of squalor can rise up and create music as impassioned and relatively positive as this", also calling it "authentic". In a 2003 piece called "Bands to Watch," Tim Kenneally from ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' wrote, "the band conjures the spirit of ’77 with razor-bladeriffery while rodyshouts about urban blight, school shootings, and her troubled youth".

Track listing

All tracks written by Brody Dalle except where noted. #"Sick of it all" – 3:10 #"I am a Revenant" – 3:28 #"Seneca Falls" – 3:01 #"The young crazed Peeling" – 3:16 #"Sing Sing Death House" – 1:43 #"Bullet & the Bullseye" – 1:12 #"City of Angels" – 3:29 #"Young Girl" – 2:42 #"Hate me" (Dalle, Mazzola) – 1:10 #"Desperate" – 1:22 #"I understand" – 1:47 #"Lordy Lordy" – 2:19

Personnel

Brody Dalle Brody Dalle (born Bree Joanna Alice Robinson; 1 January 1979) is an Australia, Australian singer, songwriter, and musician. She began playing music at the age of 13 and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18, where she founded the punk rock ban ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Casper Mazzola –

* Andy Outbreak –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Ryan Sinn Ryan Sinn is an American musician. He is currently the bassist for the punk rock band The Distillers. He currently resides in San Diego, California. Sinn joined The Distillers after their first album. At the time he only played guitar, but he ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, vocals Production *

– producers *Donnell Cameron – engineer *

Dave Carlock David Walter Carlock is an American record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His production style has been described as very hands on and song oriented. He received a Grammy Award for engineering Pink's, " Trouble". Biography Ea ...

– engineer *Kevin Guarnieri – engineer, mixing *

Brett Gurewitz Brett W. Gurewitz (born May 12, 1962), nicknamed Mr. Brett, is an American musician and record producer, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the Punk rock, punk band Bad Religion. He is also the owner of the music label Epitaph Records ...

– engineer, mixing *Brody Dalle – artwork *Andy Outbreak – artwork *C.F. Martin – layout design, construction *

Paul Miner Paul Miner (born December 4, 1976) is a former bassist for Death by Stereo, he left the band in early 2005 (right before the band's fourth album '' Death for Life''), to produce, engineer, master, and mix music full-time. Previously he produced a ...

– layout design, construction *Knowles Allen – photography

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control The Distillers albums 2002 albums Epitaph Records albums Hellcat Records albums