...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. C/D?

Classic? If they aren't, they're very close.

Amen to that!

Of course, the 10.0 was just absurd though.

Yello!

how do these two fit together? i'm seeing more of a drone band in BRMC as compared to the post-hardcore structuring of TOD. love the music. dislike the lyrics. lots of blood references = worn territory.

???

hardly. they were one of the most irritating live bands i've seen for (a) INCREDIBLY tedious instrument trashing and (b) almost as tedious instrument swapping and (c) sounding like a damp rag hitting a pole in comparison to their records

And what's with all the bitching about BRMC? Honestly, they do the JAMC better than the JAMC! They're hardly the most orginal band around, but I would much rather listen to their debut than to "PsychoCandy".

At least the Reids' vocal boredom was somehow compelling.

And they're still outdone by their imitators.

(This is exactly what a lot of people feel when they hear lots of the music I like, and since then I've become less hostile to that viewpoint I hope, even though I agree with it even less too.)~

i was thinking about replying along those lines exactly but decided not to because i do not really know all the music you like... but i guess it all has to do with the subjective way people perceive music (sounds like a banality, but i don't know how to put it differently right now)

"The problem of boredom in alt.rock music is probably just the problem of me noticing boredom in alt.rock music more easily. (That's the generous interpretation, anyway). I don't hear musicians expressing anything much, and I don't feel much need to express anything much back, since all I do hear is musicians wrestling with structures. If the structures are new enough to you then you might get a jolt anyway - the rock you like best is the rock you hear first, in other words, which makes rating individual bands a bit pointless.

But isn't wrestling with structures interesting anyway? I don't know - when I was writing the first sentence of this I put "(b-dum b-dum)" after "boredom" as a nod to the Buzzcocks and then I took it out because it didn't do anything other than prove I'd heard the Buzzcocks. Most of what I hear in this music is a succession of similarly petty micro-choices. I can imagine someone settling for that, but I can't imagine anyone being satisfied with it."

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)

(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.)

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of DUD, amirite?

Tao of the dead is their best record

just about every song on Source Tags is great. which is unusual for a record that takes so many risks/ mixes things up so much etc.

worlds apart is great but has a lot of embarrassing moments, which makes me like it more tbh.

i think i dismissed it at the time for gaucheness but i don't really hear that now, or i've just come round to it somehow. certainly the intro to the title track is lulz and should alone have convinced me to stick with them, but the bombast, the pseudo-russian folk song trappings, the 'lookit those cunts on mtv', it's all working for me right now.

time to catch up on everything after. so divided is sounding a little thin...

All their post-Source-Tags output has been at least good, full of hidden gems too. Unobtrusive album track 'Luna Park' for instance must be one of the greatest non-regular-songwriter tracks I've ever heard (up there with, say, Desire Lines by Deerhunter) - so much so I wonder why they don't let that guy write more stuff

what exactly is embarrassing on Worlds Apart? i don't think there's a weak song on there. the backlash was just ridiculous, like "Hey, ROCK BAND, STAY IN YOUR PLACE." there's just as much bombast as The Smashing Pumpkins, which were criminally uncool for years but are only starting to get begrudging p4k acceptance.

eh i just mean its bombast is occasionally carelessly deployed, plus the lyrics are often terrible in a really cynical and self-serious way (title track)

don't get me wrong i looooved that record in high school and still have a lot of affection for it.

the new record is GREAT btw

Unobtrusive album track 'Luna Park' for instance must be one of the greatest non-regular-songwriter tracks I've ever heard (up there with, say, Desire Lines by Deerhunter) - so much so I wonder why they don't let that guy write more stuff

jason reece? i mean he only has a few songs per record but i'd argue they're usually the best there. especially on the new one ("lie without a liar," "lost in the grand scheme")

Worlds Apart has Caterwaul, which I think is a Jason Reece song, and also one of the beat TOD songs. During one performance in Vera (2005 I believe) it was Jason who sung/screamed it in the audience, ending in a mass singalong. It was awesome.

beat = best

"caterwaul" was an encore for the source tags & codes show i saw and everyone went crazyyyy

it was surprisingly the emotional apex of the show

one thing tht was cool about ST&C was that you had not only Keely and Reece but also Neil Busch ("Baudelaire," "Monsoon"), whose songs and voice were totally distinct. Wish they coulda kept him around.

and yeah "Lie Without a Liar" is one of their new best ever, immense song

i love the song worlds apart. the HEY FUCK YOU MAN! at the beginning mixed really loud, "look at those cunts on mtv," references to the twin towers... im pretty sure hes taking the piss

lol i'm listening to tao of the dead for the first time and the best two songs on here are jason reece too ("weight of the son," "ebb away")

meanwhile tao of the dead fucking rules

Always appreciated the relative bluntness of the alt-nihilism in stuff like "worlds apart" and "let it die" - though when the 'fork is already having raver's remorse that kind of directness can be used against you (see Travistan)

it actually warms my heart to see ilm talking kindly about trail of dead right now, awwww you guys... 🐱

I haven't heard any of the albums after Century Of Self, but now I feel like I should check those.

This was one of my favorite songs for a very long time. Nothing after this EP really stuck with me, though I haven't listened to recent records closely. It seemed like after this EP they suddenly were trying too hard to be "epic" or "deep" or angsty. Overall they came off much much less mature sounding to me from then on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYMY4Ak24JM

The recent albums are vv different from the mid-period stuff, somehow both proggier and much more disciplined

not to mention way less vocal/lyric-driven than before, a good move imo

Yeah I'm going to check out the most recent again for sure.

their cover art is totally hilarious

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61jr9gk8r1L.jpg

It looks like the cover art of a bad steam-punk themed RPG for Dreamcast.

a new 12-book fantasy sci-fi series for middle-grades readers

Yeah I can't defend that cover. The album's really good though.

What's to defend? As gt says, it's hilarious.

Re: Crowning of a Heart - not to be that guy, but I like the demo better:

https://youtu.be/OWNh1LOUxx8

Oh that's great! I didn't know it existed. At first it sounded a bit too shy, but once it started picking up I realized why it can be preferable.

um

the new album is *fucking amazing*

first half of it at least

anticipating some sort of extra-ludicrous blowout format for album 10

I like hearing this band's name to the melody of the first line of the verse of Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears

do these guys still smash all their equipment at the end of every show?

yep, the new album still rules

i even like the second half now

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 Crescendo
All Who Wander
It Was There That I Saw You
Into the Godless Void
Isis Unveiled
Don't Look Down
Children of the Sky
How Near How Far
Bells of Creation
Let It Dive
Worlds Apart
Weight of the Sun (Or the Post-Modern Prometheus)
Ebb Away
Homage
Clair de Lune
Caterwaul
Will You Smile Again?
Relative Ways
Mistakes & Regrets
Another Morning Stoner

They came back for an encore, think it was a song from the last album (possibly "Blade of Wind").

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.

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!

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]

Their last tour does sound like a nightmare: https://www.patreon.com/posts/73901821

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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.

OK yeah it was just my phone at the time.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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