...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.
The featured "Mistakes and Regrets," comes from Madonna. It's a powerful maelstrom of ferocious end-of-the-world energy that translates cerebral anxiety into visceral angst in fascinating ways. "Relative Ways," from the 2001 EP, demonstrates Trail of Dead's ever-increasing songwriting acumen, offering a surprisingly cogent meditation on contingency and context. Expect this brilliant, unique, highly intelligent band to be around for a long time.
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