| Albuquerque
Paper - No Date by Michael Henningsen | |
And
You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead If the goddamned world is coming to an
end, as the crackpots predict, by the end of this century, then I would like to
personally thank four friends I've never met from Austin, Texas, who are known
collectively as And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. I would like to thank
them for offering up what can be considered the perfect sountracks to the
apocalypse their self-titled Trance Syndicate debut of a few years ago and their
recently released follow-up, Madonna, on merge Records. I'd also like to thank them for making "the end" seem more like extraordinarily beautiful chos than a series of doom-laden acts of God. Of course, the world probably isn't going to end on Jan. 1, 2000, but. Trail of Dead, nevertheless, continue to pursue and explode the artificially placed limits that bind punk, indie and art rock. Like the Velvet Underground, Trail of Dead hav probably inspired more would-be accountants to instead form bands than anyone in recent memory. And, like other luminaries of the Texas psychedelic scene both past and present, Trail of Dead have given the rest of us something to live for, impending end of the world notwithstanding. Live, the shape-shifting, instrument-switching quartet are a wondrous sight to behold: Bathed in sweat and red lights, the fearsome foursome undulate, gyrate and throw each other headlong into songs that alternately spin well out of sonic control and get harnessed into thoughtfully crafted soothing passages of melodic fascination. Once, infected, you'll never be the same again. Thank your lucky stars while they're still in the sky. | |
