After 8 years of dominating the Colorado Punk and Ska scenes Synthetic Elements has been officially declared the “Official Party Band of Colorado”. Not by the Colorado state government, or anything tedious that some balloon knotted politicians might have wrangled endlessly about, but by me just now. The reason behind this illustrious award (that I just made up) is because every Colorado BBQ and pool party I have been to so far this summer has had their new album Trashed Out Paradise playing at some point.

Originally from Fort Morgan, which is a small farming outpost on the ragged edge of civilization between Denver and Fort Collins, Synthetic Elements have gone on to become the biggest punk band in the state. With numerous national tours to their credit, including dates opening for Flogging Molly this past spring on Flogging’s Green 17 Tour, the guys in Synthetic Elements are ready to launch onto the big time national scene.

Their latest album Trashed Out Paradise is 10 songs of rockin ska-punk with a ton of cool highlights all across the album. My personal favorite is the punk pirate anthem “Evelene”. I don’t know how many pirate themed punk songs are out there but I can’t imagine there being a better one than “Evelene”. After that I am a huge fan of the songs “Savor the Taste of Disgrace” and “I Can’t Believe” which again are crowd rockin punk anthems. The song “How Far” is the one the radio stations play because it has a chorus that is so sing-alongable that you will be doing just that after only one listen. The whole album is filled with hooks, horns and vocalist Todd McMullan has gargled with just enough gravel to pull off the rough ska sound.

I recently spoke with Todd McMullan about the new album, “We recorded it at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins with Bill Stevenson and I have always loved all of his work and I know the other guys in Synthetic Elements have too so we were really stoked to work with him. I always wondered what Bill Stevenson was like, read books about him, and I’m a big fan of Black Flag so to meet him was awesome and to work with him was working with my hero.”

Todd McMullan on the origins of the CD title, “Basically I wrote the title song off of the album Trashed Out Paradise about this house I used to live in. It was old and decrepit, and just falling apart. We had so many parties there that the walls were just caving in, it smelled…no, it stunk and everything was just falling to crap. But I loved it. It was some of the best times I have ever had in my life. And the title is about how something totally wrecked and horrible can still be beautiful. Just because something is trashed out and shitty doesn’t mean it can’t be someone’s paradise as well.”

Synthetic Elements just had their 500th show in June of 2010. Here’s Todd on how that gigging milestone felt, “Ever since I was a little kid I never thought like “Oh I’m going to be a doctor or maybe a lawyer” all I thought was “When I get old enough I’m going to get a car and live out of it and be a bum” and now I get to do that but I get to play music with people which is really cool. So yeah, hitting 500 shows is awesome.”

Synthetic Elements are hitting the road again here shortly on a West Coast tour to support the new CD and have just landed a deal with Armed Forces Entertainment to go to Guam to entertain the troops from August 31st to September 5th. Check out their songs on all the usual websites and see them live when they come to your town. You will not be disappointed.

ps. Fort Morgan is a nice little town. It’s not on the ragged edge of civilization. It’s actually next to cannibal island.

http://www.myspace.com/syntheticelements

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