Albums by this artist

Source Tags & Codes (Recommended) (2002)

... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

Source Tags & Codes

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

NATN Recommended ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Source Tags & Codes Interscope, 2002 RiYL: Sonic Youth, Slint, Pearl Jam, Fugazi

You wouldn't know it by examining a roster that includes everyone from Limp Bizkit to No Doubt and Sting, but somebody over at the Interscope A&R department has got an ear for the good stuff. Indeed, I'm willing to opine that Source Tags & Codes, the label debut (and third album overall) from Austin, Texas' ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead is one of the best slabs of ass-kicking rock'n'roll I have heard in years -- possibly ever. The fact that it may not wind up reaching any more ears than the group's last two indie-released albums did is unfortunate, but I guess that's for Vice President Fred Durst to worry about come the late February 2002 release date.

Since its inception in 1994, Trail Of Dead has made a name for itself, particularly in the U.K., via its anything-goes live shows and its undeniable musical intensity. Nobody's claiming this makes the group revolutionary, if anything, Trail Of Dead's sound is clearly rooted in the turbulent cacophony of Sonic Youth, the dynamic mastery of Television, and the unbridled fury of D.C. hardcore acts like Fugazi. But somehow, these somewhat obvious reference points do little to detract from the visceral rush of the album's 11 tracks.

There is an intangible brilliance in the group's ability to vault from charging indie rock verses into dark, Pearl Jam/Built To Spill-style breakdowns (opener "It Was There That I Saw You"), or in the welding of stick-in-the-brain hooks to riveting instrumental infrastructures such as "How Near, How Far" and the title track. The album also maintains a spacious and lo-fi vibe despite the presence of piano and strings on a handful of tracks, including "Heart In The Hand Of The Matter," which, for my money, bests almost everything on The Strokes' Is This It.

Throughout, Trail Of Dead make off like indie rock legends at the top of their game. Thurston-and-Kim afficianados may wonder if "Monsoon" is some lost outtake from Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, while you can bet Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto wouldn't mind nipping "Days Of Being Wild" or "Homage" for a future Fugazi album.

If there's one track here that raises an eyebrow slightly, it's "Relative Ways," which has already been released as the lead cut of an Interscope EP (interestingly, Interscope tried the same tactic by releasing an EP around "The Ice Of Boston" when it signed like-minded rockers The Dismemberment Plan in 1998). The track, while certainly catchy and interesting, is a bit too streamlined compared to its surrounding songs. But like "The Ice Of Boston," it's suitable as a quick intro to the Trail Of Dead's world of sound.

It's on closer "Source Tags & Codes" that the group proves it's just as adept at walking a straight line as it is with ear-splitting distortion and tricky compositional detours. The song conjures indie rock magnificence with the kind of glum, bittersweet soul-searching ("Spend half your life deciding what went wrong / try to find out what took you so long") that any 20-something knows too well. A one-minute string overture straight off a Rachel's album reminds you of the amount of terrain Trail Of Dead has marched across in just over 45 minutes.

Here's hoping this is the left-field hit that'll knock the "hard rock" behemoths dead. It's likely to do the same to you and yours.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"