...and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are the favorite sons that Texas never knew they had. The veteran destructive rock and roll force have fired out six albums since the late 90's and have not once showed signs of slowing down.
Their seventh studio album, Tao of the Dead, arrives this February (2011) on Richter Scale Records. Only lead single "Summer of All Dead Souls" is available to hear at the moment, but the band hints at a return to roots of sorts by bringing on Chris Smith, who produced their debut album, to man the boards on Tao of the Dead.
"Summer of All Dead Souls" (which you can listen to at Spin Magazine's site by clicking HERE) is the epitome of a great Trail of Dead song. Like many of the band's best songs in the past, the new single starts off with thunderously monstrous guitar chords crashing in (not unlike the huge guitar chords that kick off "The Rest Will Follow" from 2005's criminally underrated Worlds Apart) before giving way to Conrad Keely's vocals, who keeps up the energetic punk-metal clash of electric guitar and drums behind him. The chorus finds Jason Reece taking lead vocals and exclaiming "We are all the dead souls you refused to see". "Dead souls" is a good way of describing people who refuse to see how tremendously exciting it is to hear a song sounding this energetic from a band who has continued to prosper and put out solid record after solid record in a genre where a lot of artists seem increasingly weary of hitting the drums really hard, maxing out the guitar distortion, and simply getting music fucked up.
FYM writer Will Sellers has been a longtime supporter of everything ...and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have released, especially the 2002 masterpiece Source Tags and Codes and the several albums following it.
Back in January 2005, Sellers attended (and afterward quizzed the band on where to travel to in Europe, as he was just about to spend a few months there) a karaoke performance put on by the band at Claremont, California's Rhino Records and still has a framed and autographed poster-sized cover art of Worlds Apart hanging on a wall at home:
Back in January 2005, Sellers attended (and afterward quizzed the band on where to travel to in Europe, as he was just about to spend a few months there) a karaoke performance put on by the band at Claremont, California's Rhino Records and still has a framed and autographed poster-sized cover art of Worlds Apart hanging on a wall at home:
2 comments:
i was there for the claremont performance. wasn't 'twist and shout' amazing!? i have the worlds apart cover art at home, too. amazing.
I was trying to remember any of the songs what songs they sang at the karaoke thing. I couldn't remember any, but now I definitely remember Twist & Shout! Thanks for reminding me! Rad!
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