And You Will Know Us
By The Trail Of Dead
Madonna

Music writers are the enemy. This is especially true if you're a prog rocker, because all we're likely to do is mercilessly ridicule you. However, if, just for example, someone should decide to wed the spacious atmospheres of prog with an ear-splitting emo/metal alloy, make the songs really quite succinct and intercut them with interesting sample collages, then I for one would become extremely friendly. If they also happened to think of the best name for a band ever, I'd probably have a hard time stopping myself from becoming a groupie.

Well, for a while now I've been barely keeping myself in check, because, as the extremely perceptive amongst you may have begun to suspect,And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead do exactly this. Their second album revolves around the huge chart smash (ok, that's a complete lie, but it should be true) "Mistakes And Regrets," which someone as hip as you, the reader of this esteemed publication, may well have heard by now. It kicks off the album, after a cool intro, with instantly classic chiming guitars and Trail of Dead's characteristic drumming, which seems to involve some kind of flourish about once every two bars but still remains completely tasteful. Then, as soon as the listener is sitting comfortably, the band erupts. Here the vocals also kick in, but you can't actually hear them because the guitar sears through the mix so loudly.

Happily, the rest of the album lives up to the initial promise of the opener and, perhaps surprisingly, touching moments not a little reminiscent of early Pavement—such as the concluding "Sigh Your Children"—emerge from the alternately raucous and listless psychedelic soup. Famed for staging anarchic live shows, Trail of Dead have once again fulfilled their potential on record. Madonna is packed with memorable songs, sounds current without trying too hard and is just as entertaining as their name. As is the thought of a slightly dim pop fan making what should prove to be a somewhat surprising purchase.

Reviewed by Robin Howells
03.05.01

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

Merge
1999


Racializing Crime:
Racism, White Liberals, and the Limits of Tolerance

Shame of the Cities
Gentrification in the New Urban America

Faster, Poetry, Slam! Slam!
Scenes from the National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX

I Love to Burn the Flag
"Sometimes the stars would ignite, sometimes the stripes. Sometimes, the whole thing would go up in a blaze of Old Glory..."

Black on White:
Black Writers on What It Means to Be White
Edited by David Roediger

PR Watch:
Edited by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton


Fabrication Defect:
Tom Zé, Brazil's Cultural Cannibal, Poops a Pearl

Smoke Signals:
A History of Native Americans in Cinema