''Sing Sing Death House'' is the second studio album by the American punk rock band

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

, 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 skateboarding video game and the fourth entry in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision under the Activision O2 label in 2002 for the GameCube, PlayStation, Xbox, ...

'' and is a reference to the

Seneca Falls Convention The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman".Wellman, 2004, p. 189 Held in the Wesleyan Methodist Church ...

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 music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' 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 Australian singer, songwriter, and musician. She began playing music in her adolescence and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18, where she founded the punk rock band The Di ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Casper Mazzola –

* Andy Outbreak –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Ryan Sinn Ryan Sinn is the bassist for 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 learned the bass parts on their previous album in four da ...

– bass, 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 Ear ...

– engineer *Kevin Guarnieri – engineer, mixing *

Brett Gurewitz Brett W. Gurewitz (born May 12, 1962), nicknamed Mr. Brett, is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of Bad Religion. He is also the owner of the music label Epitaph Records and a number of sister labels. He has produced albums f ...

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

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

– layout design, construction *Knowles Allen – photography

Charts

References

External links

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