| ...AYWKUBTTOD |  |
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is an Austin, Texas based psychedelic folk rock band originally formed sometime during the waning days of the Russian Revolution. Bringing pure fucking rock and roll to the deepest depths of your musically tormented soul. Below are some really old band bios. They're not up to date, because no one can be bothered to write a new one. Most people just need the picture, so that's all I've done. If you're boring, read the old bios. Stolen From MTV.com's ToD Page: Don't be put off by the unwieldy name; Trail of Dead aren't out for blood, they just want to mess you up a bit. The band's hard-hitting sound, a purposefully over-the-top mixture of punk, goth, thrash, and Sonic Youth-style avant rock, is just jarring enough to make you stand up and take notice of the collective angst being vented, but just accessible enough to appeal to those whose ears have been realigned by years of high volume. Hell, a big label like Interscope wouldn't have signed them if they didn't think they could move a few units. Regardless of their commercial prospects, Trail of Dead strike an agreeable balance here between structure and chaos, melody and fury. Kevin
Allen, Neil Busch, Conrad Keely and Jason Reece grew up in the small Christian
community of Planoe, Texas -- a place more known for cattle ranches and its
single corner grocer than for its music. The four boys grew up in close
proximity and shared a love of singing. In junior high they joined the church
choir, where they competed internationally in vocal ensemble competitions. During
college the four lost touch briefly, then reunited in Austin, Texas, where Busch
was attending UT. There they rekindled their old love of singing, and performed
for a while as a four-piece vocal ensemble for church revivals. During a
recording session for the Austin All-Male Ensemble they were introduced to Mike
McCarthy, who would later wean them into recording artists. After some research
in anthropology and physics, the four agreed to try an experiment. With their limited knowledge of the arts and music, they would attempt to create an entity which would express the theory of anthropological unity: in other words, find a singular expression for various aspects of science and humanities in a form that would reflect the pattern that is present throughout the history of man's ability to create art form, literature and music. If it worked, the multiple aspects would function together, giving abstract credence to the theory. If it failed, the separate functions would negate each other, and the experiment would end. They would call the experiment "...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead," after a glyph that was challenging the archeological and anthropological community. Meanwhile McCarthy, who had become a constant presence in their lives, had coaxed the four into a studio. Originally planning to record the group performing two versions of the popular hymns "Lord of All Hopefulness" and "Bell of Creation," they decided instead to put their recent hypothesis into practice. The four's explorations into music anthropology had led them to experiment with idioms in rock music and its commonalties with primitive folk music, especially that originating in Papua New Guinea, Hindu Kush and Polynesia. Converting the tonal and rhythmic variants of the hymn "Lord of All Hopefulness" along a random logarithmic arc, they made the first recording of the "...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead" experiment--"Richter Scale Madness." Over the past several years the four boys, under the name "...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead," have toured continuously throughout the U.S. and Europe, also finding time to record three albums. Their first eponymous LP (Trance Records) saw the four expanding upon the conversion of ecclesiastic hymnal into secular rock disaster theory. Their second foray into sound manipulations, Madonna, (Merge Records) dealt heavily with the themes of iconoclastic worship, the creation and subsequent defamation of popular idols in the post-industrial age, and premature cynicism among modern children due to the pressures of our growing information age. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead's latest album, to be released on Interscope, reflects upon the loss of agrarian innocence in a world preoccupied with numbers and record-keeping, attempting to give us a glimpse into a future that could be either utopic or desolate. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead is currently continuing its research into its theory of anthropological unification, which they intend to publish in full in the near future. Borrowed From Epitonic.com's Trail of Dead Page: ...And
You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead comes over you like a sudden storm. Their
dense songs are full of rolling erratic thunder (drums, bass, and more drums),
slashing alarming lightning (guitars), relentless needle-sharp rain (more
guitars, anguished vocals), howling winds (effects), and sometimes even violent,
wanton destruction. The storm analogy might seem a little extreme, but to
describe T.O.D.'s swirling, powerful sonic assault in conventional terms would
fail to convey the extent to which this music sweeps you away. The band actually started in Hawaii of all places -- back in '94 -- when longtime friends Jason Reese and Conrad Keely began playing together. The two soon moved to Olympia, Washington, where Reece drummed for Mukilteo Fairies, and then a few years later to Austin, Texas, where they first began performing as ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. There the duo recruited bassist/effects man Neil Busch and guitarist Kevin Allen. The group quickly became renowned for its terrifying, anarchic live performances. By 1998, they had released a self-titled debut album on Trance Syndicate. In 1999, they followed that up with Madonna, on Merge Records. Then in 2001, Trail of Dead made the major label plunge, moving over to Interscope to release their Relative Ways EP, which saw the band delivering their signature sprawling paranoid post-punk with perhaps focus and confidence -- and higher production values -- than ever before; it's a surprisingly potent release, considering it clocks in at under 15 minutes. On these releases T.O.D. has established itself as the obvious successors to Sonic Youth -- perhaps they're the band SY would have become if its members had stayed young. Like so many Sonic Youth classics, T.O.D.'s songs tend to start out brooding and quiet, only hinting at the seething, boiling energy that lies beneath the surface, before building towards a series of guitar epiphanies. The music is apocalyptic and angry in a way that seems to befit the social climate of the new century. | ||
