as for me, i like the wrestling bit... rather, it doesn't really sound like wrestling to me. i (think i) hear musicians 'evolving'. to me, source tags & codes is a clear step forward from madonna... (aaah, we could go on like this for ages i guess) (this may all sound like i take a band like ...and you will etc. very serious... i don't, actually. but that doesn't mean i am not interested in their music)
― willem (willem), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 13:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
(With pop of course there is an obvious motive - they want to make lots of money and be famous!)
(I do like perfect execution yes, the word 'perfect' sort of implies liking for me :) But that's not what I'm talking about - Trail of Dead sound very proficient at what they do, I just can't detect any reason for them to do it.)
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 13:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― willem (willem), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 13:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 15:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
just for the record i think guns'n'roses are a crime against music. ten years from now i will probably think the same of trail of dead.
― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 15:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 15:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
The idea of someone getting a thrill from this band suddenly seemed like the most depressing notion in the world - it was an eye-opener because as I say that's exactly the kind of "why do people tolerate such nothingness?" reaction some people have to R&B, say. The aesthetic choices and mental steps needed to really love a Trail of Dead record suddenly seemed to me to be hopelessly alien. And to be fair that reaction hasn't really recurred since to other things, which is why I'm stumbling about trying to put my finger on it.
Willem I dont make it to the Netherlands much no!
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
I saw them twice live and found them hilarious in Chris Katan (sp?) kinda way, but Madonna bores the tits off me. Haven't paid attention in the last couple years, tho.
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 28 January 2003 21:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 00:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
I feel slightly ashamed for saying that Trail Of Dead's new album 'The Century Of Self' is really good. Where did it all go right?
― Doran, Wednesday, 25 February 2009 21:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Definitely a huuuuge stretch to say its "all" gone right, this is another extremely patchy album by the band. Some definite high points, but its also a really bloated and overlong disc. Par for the course, really.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, 25 February 2009 21:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Hmm. I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that; IMO it's really pop-proggy and has stadium ambitions (Jane's Addiction, Manics) but there isn't really a bad song on it. I bet this is what Billy Corgan imagines his music sounds like.
I'm not a fan of them by any stretch of the imagination either although they were always pretty good live.
― Doran, Wednesday, 25 February 2009 21:07 (fifteen years ago) link
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of DUD, amirite?
― ilxor, Wednesday, 25 February 2009 22:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Been listening to The Century Of Self a lot lately, after seeing a really scorching great live show of them last week. I think it's a really solid album, definitely their best since Source Tags And Codes (and I even like Worlds Apart a lot, too).
― Marty Innerlogic, Saturday, 18 April 2009 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link
century of self is fuckin ace. worlds apart is fuckin ace too. source tags is my favourite album of the 21st century thus far. i fuckin love the trail of dead.
― special guest appearance (Roberto Spiralli), Saturday, 18 April 2009 13:09 (fifteen years ago) link
"Mistakes And Regrets" and "How Near How Far" are both pretty outstanding.
― billstevejim, Saturday, 18 April 2009 17:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I wasn't impressee by the new record.
impressed*
source tags was simply one hell of a record. definitely some grand ambitions at play, but the whole thing just scorches from start to finish. some really affecting sweeping guitar lines and a consistently focused quota of rock - there are a good 6 or 7 tracks on here that are real keepers. i think it genuinely feels like an important and exciting record, something that the arcade fire aspire to but have never pulled off with any great conviction.
― Charlie Howard, Sunday, 19 April 2009 02:05 (fifteen years ago) link
I've always suspected that the hate that greeted the post-Source Tags albums is because some people feel betrayed when their loud bands trade in angst for drama. Sure, World's Apart isn't the album that Source Tags is, but it's not remotely a 4 to STAC's 10; that's such obvious knee-jerk backlash.
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 19 April 2009 18:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I am liking this on first listen :-/
― Young Chizzy (country matters), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 23:32 (fifteen years ago) link
"bells of creation" and "luna park" are REALLY good....the entire midsection of this album is startlingly proficient music....while retaining a slight whiff of artless bedwetter sturm und drang....but who cares tbh
― Young Chizzy (country matters), Friday, 24 April 2009 03:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Just cos RS is about, I'll bump...have been listening to these guys (basically the three albums RS mentions) obsessively over the past 2 days...have little to add except that their noise, although crude, obvious, and often very simplistic, is utterly arresting, and somehow completely self-justifying. In other words, glorious. There's just something singular enough about this band to make them work like a dream, something in their *slightly* skewhiff, eccentric approach to song-structure, their humour, their pointed miniaturisation (and acceleration) of the epic. And all the while, it's crude! And artless! And great!
― sorry for british (country matters), Sunday, 26 April 2009 00:49 (fifteen years ago) link
i like their songs
― special guest appearance (Roberto Spiralli), Sunday, 26 April 2009 01:14 (fifteen years ago) link
yah tbh this is the nub of it
really wish "heart in the hand of the matter" reprised its chorus at the end tho...that song's my fave on ST&C regardless but dammit man dammit you can't just write a chorus so freaking epic and then not reprise it after the middle eight yeah i see you're trying to be restrained and maintain some sort of suspenseful album narrative but jesus couldn't you have just given us that chorus again, just once
"will you smile again", on the other hand, is pretty much perfect and brilliant and oh shit that song...the use of jazz trumpet is completely inspired and really frames the song's mood in an unusual, slightly crazed place, whence the resulting build is much more interesting, effective, and unique
― sorry for british (country matters), Sunday, 26 April 2009 01:32 (fifteen years ago) link
"will you smile again", on the other hand, is pretty much perfect...
Except I really wish there was an extended version where the closing barrage of riffage went on for another 20 minutes.
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 26 April 2009 05:10 (fifteen years ago) link
That is the last perfect song they did.
― Simon H., Sunday, 26 April 2009 05:23 (fifteen years ago) link
i like "Life" a lot. the piano is sultry & nimble. it's the only song in their catalog i would call sexy. is it perfect? i don't know. i don't really try to identify perfection, but to my ears it stands up against any of their songs.
― myndbloom, Sunday, 26 April 2009 10:01 (fifteen years ago) link
'another morning stoner' remains the most definitive and important statement the band made for me. i remember getting a bit of a thrill when i first heard it and being particularly touched by the knockout punch of its closing bars. this band really manages to encapsulate huge sounds effectively.
― Charlie Howard, Sunday, 26 April 2009 10:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Jesus, I'm completely obsessing over "Luna Park"...I think for all my bluster about progression and surprise, I'm still a total sucker for a neat build, a killer key-change, a tempo-alteration, pounding piano and skyscraper guitars, especially if they're all deployed at once
― sorry for british (country matters), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 21:46 (fifteen years ago) link
<3 trail of dead <3
just so fuckin wildly awesome. unreal.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 04:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Lol every time at
Kids: Yaaayyyy!Conrad: Hey fuck you man!Kids: Hahahaha!
― this must be what FAIL is really like (ledge), Tuesday, 22 September 2009 09:38 (fifteen years ago) link
That song is so lazy compared to what they did up till then.
― Evan, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 12:15 (fifteen years ago) link
I listened to Source Tags for the first time in a few years today, I'd forgotten how brilliant it is from start to finish. One of my favorite albums of this decade probably.
― bakerstreetsaxsolo, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 22:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Saw them this past weekend. They were alright.
― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
ok.
i fucking love 'lost songs', and 'so divided'
how have i missed out on this band ..
did they ever hit the uk in the same way as the usa ?
― mark e, Thursday, 5 September 2013 18:57 (eleven years ago) link
I love the first three albums still! And at least half of the Elena's Tomb EP.
― Evan, Thursday, 5 September 2013 19:04 (eleven years ago) link
i don't know that they can really claim to have made much impact in the US or elsewhere. they got some notices in the UK music press around the 2nd album, which is when i first heard them, and i think source tags reviewed well in the UK but without making any kind of splash that i recall.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:06 (eleven years ago) link
they had an ep on chemikal underground of all labels c. the first album that i dug up later
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
typical.
i pick up the later era material and fall for that which i guess is not worthy to the real fans of the band.
xpost : chemikal underground !! well i never ..
― mark e, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:10 (eleven years ago) link
so divided is horrible but everything since then has been good - lost songs is great. source tags and worlds apart are best of course. madonna is very good, first one is kinda half baked but couple of barnstormers on there.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:13 (eleven years ago) link
i seriously love the excessive production/melody groove of so divided, but now i have heard lost songs i can hear why it was hated by fans of the band
― mark e, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:16 (eleven years ago) link
well i think worlds apart would check those boxes but does it much better. maybe so divided is better than i give it credit but i couldn't bear it at the time, and it was kind of a cobbled together, 'get out of this record deal' affair together with obligatory cover version and recycled old track.
anyway, it is not for me to try and dissuade anyone from liking any part of this band's output, hooray for trail of dead.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:21 (eleven years ago) link
I though ...so divided was enough to get me off the bus, but then I saw them around Century of Self period and remembered how much I liked them.
It may or may not help Mark, but the hand of Sonic Youth hangs heavy over the first album and less so (but still noticeably) over Madonna. They don't really become a really original band until Source Tags.
― Ian Glasper's trapped in a scone (aldo), Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:54 (eleven years ago) link
summary : i need 'source tags'
cheers folks ..
(oh, and listen to lost 'songs again', it's rather good .. )
― mark e, Thursday, 5 September 2013 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
Actually pretty stoked to see 'Source Tags' in full tonight ... Sure hope it 'guns' tonight as good as rekkid still does...
― BlackIronPrison, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:15 (ten years ago) link
Tao of the Dead was surprisingly good. I should really give Lost Songs a spin.
― Simon H., Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:25 (ten years ago) link
saw the source tags show on friday. wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be really good.
― BringTheAuBonPain, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:31 (ten years ago) link
wtf are you guys talking about So Divided rules
― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 00:19 (ten years ago) link
Saw them perform for the first time yesterday, even though I've been listening to them since the early 00's. Fantastic show, they seemed to be having a really good time, too. Lots of personal favourites were played:
The Opening CrescendoAll Who WanderIt Was There That I Saw YouInto the Godless VoidIsis UnveiledDon't Look DownChildren of the SkyHow Near How FarBells of CreationLet It DiveWorlds ApartWeight of the Sun (Or the Post-Modern Prometheus)Ebb AwayHomageClair de LuneCaterwaulWill You Smile Again?Relative WaysMistakes & RegretsAnother Morning Stoner
They came back for an encore, think it was a song from the last album (possibly "Blade of Wind").
― willem, Friday, 28 February 2020 10:21 (four years ago) link
The sound was good? I saw them on the Madonna anniversary tour and the mix was atrocious, but I'd love to give them another crack live.
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Friday, 28 February 2020 10:36 (four years ago) link
Yeah I heard about sound issues during last year's ST&C "jubilee" tour. Yesterday's sound/mix was great - I even thought the volume could've been cranked up a bit but that was easily solved by getting closer to the stage. I'd say give it a go if you get the chance!
― willem, Friday, 28 February 2020 16:21 (four years ago) link
They broke up?
Conrad Keely announced via an Instagram post in March 2023 that "the Trail is closed", and later clarified that the band had no plans to either tour nor make any more music in the traditional sense, citing a disastrous final tour, exhaustion, and the inhospitable state of the music industry towards smaller bands as the main drivers behind their decision.[2]
― behold the thump (ledge), Thursday, 5 October 2023 09:13 (eleven months ago) link
Their last tour does sound like a nightmare: https://www.patreon.com/posts/73901821
― behold the thump (ledge), Thursday, 5 October 2023 11:22 (eleven months ago) link
Not loading for me
― Evan, Thursday, 5 October 2023 12:03 (eleven months ago) link
Works for me in chrome on desktop and phone?
Are all the trail of dead fans on holiday? I'm going through their whole catalogue (albums anyway), two to go. Do they have a bad album? No. Do they have a nadir? Absolutely not, fuck you pitchfork. Do they have a bad song? I'm not sure that they do. Astonishing band, incredible body of work. Why didn't I try and see them live? (I did once, at an ATP, I don't think I saw a proper tour, lol my memory). RIP.
― behold the thump (ledge), Friday, 6 October 2023 12:55 (eleven months ago) link
OK yeah it was just my phone at the time.
― Evan, Friday, 6 October 2023 13:24 (eleven months ago) link
I've listened to XI half a dozen times over the last few days, it's absolutely one of their best. As grandiose and prog as anything they've done but not unleavened with humour (fuck the potatoes!), a dash of punk, a flirting with psych / krautrock. 22 songs, impeccably sequenced, no duds, nothing superfluous.
― behold the thump (ledge), Monday, 9 October 2023 09:06 (eleven months ago) link
That ATP show was pretty amazing all told, I only saw them a couple of times outside that including a really early show (I think the s/t had just come out, or was about to) where they were pretending to trash their kit at the end of the set and a guy got up on stage and actually did push all the amps over, which led to a giant fist fight between the band, their roadies, and some of the crowd.
― Hello I'm shitty gatsworth (aldo), Monday, 9 October 2023 11:23 (eleven months ago) link
lolll i saw them in new york once where they “trashed” their gear and i remember thinking that i would know them by the trail of unimpressed roadies
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 9 October 2023 11:36 (eleven months ago) link
I've been a fan the whole ride, really bummed if this is truly it for them but that tour does sound rough. The only time I caught the, live was at Lollapalooza one year when they played early in the day's blistering heat but they still put on a killer set.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 9 October 2023 15:18 (eleven months ago) link
i was technically brother-in-law to their touring guitar tech for a while and he had some wild war stories from the road. this was back in the late 2000s-early 2010s.
one for the "when you like the wrong album" thread: i will always have a soft spot for the worlds apart and so divided material. even though i don't know the whole catalogue that well, i have to agree with ledge in that i've always been impressed by their consistency. crazy the amount of hype they had at one point.
― the adventures of Yari and ixa. (Austin), Tuesday, 10 October 2023 00:12 (eleven months ago) link
Source +}^]#]}
― calstars, Saturday, 25 May 2024 21:41 (three months ago) link