Trail Of Dead Wakes With Lost Songs

When Austin-based indie rock/punk/prog band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (Trail Of Dead) released Tao Of The Dead, Jason Reece and Conrad Keely were mostly going it alone. Lost Songs finds them moving together effortlessly again, this time in several different directions.

While they started to write the album as a duo, they did so while living in different countries. Reece was home in Austin. Keely was living abroad in Cambodia, an experience that changed him and his world view. It changed him so much that Lost Songs isn't a fantasy. It's real life, cruel and course.

The change is reflected everywhere — in the theme, lyrics, and composition of every track. Most apparent, they shifted away from their signature symphonic sound to find a new sonic rawness. They also enlisted Autry Fulbright II on bass (who joined for Tao Of The Dead) and Jamie Miller (TheStart) on drums and guitar, freeing up Keely to play more instruments (guitar, piano, or drums) whenever he wants.

Lost Songs is urgent on world events and apathy.

There are no real analogies in Lost Songs. Everything is above board, fiery and direct. Ask Keely what a song means and he has an answer without so much as a blink.

"Up To Infinity is about the Syrian civil war," Keely said. "We believe tyranny and despotism suffered by people anywhere, is intolerable and should not be treated as an internal matter, but completely justifies intervention by the international community."

The song, Up To Infinity, was also dedicated to Pussy Riot, the feminist punk-rock collective in Moscow that saw three of its members arrested and prosecuted in Russia. They were charged with hooliganism after they entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and broke into an impromptu performance as part of a protest against the re-election of Vladimir Putin. Although Putin had asked the courts not to judge them too harshly, they were each given two-year prison sentences at a penal colony.

Up To Infinity is also a riveting romp with a few defused cathartic interludes before it erupts and then tapers off to set up the next track. The lyrics call for unbudging action against injustice, considerably more direct than their epic steampunk storyline last year. Catatonic is that direct too.



"The music was there first, and I kept thinking 'Catatonic Youth,'" Reece told RollingStone in a piece that has since been adopted as the band's Facebook bio. "We need something new every day, something to make us feel alive. That was kind of the impetus, the fuel for the song — that, in a sense, everybody's pretty complacent in America."

There is no denying that the entire album is overflowing with such social and political commentary, but Reece is also quick to point out they're asking questions more than preaching a point of view. In fact, finishing the album away from family and friends at a studio in Hanover, Germany, became a channel.

As a result, Lost Songs is an explosive album, among the most passionate that the band has ever put together. And even though Up To Infinity and Catatonic have garnered attention in interviews and with the dedication to Pussy Riot, the album is loaded down with more than two great tracks. Half a dozen of them are even better.

The balance of the album from Trail Of Dead.

The opener Open Doors truly sets the tone of the album, alluding to the idea of opening doors for others to walk through. There is also the newfound rawness in the sound and a greater emphasis on guitars. They strip back the next track, Idols Of Perversity, even further. It gives the entire song a throaty, bass-laden primal effect.

Pinhole Cameras quickly kicks up the urgency again. The track, which ticks off a thread theme similar to Open Doors with more depth, has become a personal favorite. It's about living with disinterested tunnel vision, and what it's like to take it all in without blinders.

Another timeless track from Lost Songs is Mountain Battle Song. It's best described as an even-paced, percussion-driven brooder that shares an anti-war sentiment against blind obedience and loyalty. It catches some attention and then compels people to listen.

Other highlights from the new album include Heart Of Wires, Lost Songs, and Opera Obscura. All three songs easily illustrate the diversely savage musicianship that Reece, Keely and company consistently have developed over the last year. In contrast, Flower Card Games drops down the pace but contains the same fervent message. Plenty of people like Time And Again too, but it doesn't fit.

Lost Songs By Trail Of Dead Bleats 8.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Lost Songs is masterful in a much different way from their overtly ambitious steampunk storyline. In focusing on real world problems, it's as if the band suddenly woke up with a mission. And even though there is a thinness in the overall theme — world leaders are making a mess of things and people are too petty and apathetic to notice — it still hits hard as an album spilling over with great music.

This review considered the 15-track deluxe album over the initial release. Lost Songs by Trail of Dead is available on Amazon. You can also download the deluxe album from iTunes. But given Keely's artistic eye, physical editions are generally worth it. So are the live shows.

Dead Sands Blow Over Brooklyn Rock

Danny Wood never likes to stand in one place for too long. Originally a bass player for a five-piece Austin-based metal band that liked to break things (The Rise), Wood jumped over to …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (Trail of Dead), taking the place of Neil Busch in 2004.

He stayed with Trail of Dead until 2007, while playing simultaneously with the lesser known indie rockers AM Syndicate. Through it all, there was still one thing missing for Wood. None of these band were really his. They were established acts and he was along for the ride.

All that changed in 2008 when he stepped out from behind the bass and fronted Borrowed Eyes. And for the past several years, he has become more comfortable in the role (even while playing with the band Midnight Masses).

Still, as good as they are for a soulful indie folk-fused Southern rock band that fulfills Wood's desire to produce timeless music, it's his newer project has the definite edge and caught our attention.

Dead Sands dances on the edge of all that is psychedelic rock.

Joining Wood is Borrowed Eyes bandmate Justin James, Jessie Nelson from Head Automatica (among other things), and Miyuki Furtado, who is another Midnight Masses vet with an equally full plate. Originally one-third of the Brooklyn-based The Rogers Sisters (and others), Furtado is taking up drums for Dead Sands while trying to get Divining Rod, his own solo project, off the ground.

Collectively, that means Dead Sands members have cross-genre experience that measures somewhere around a mile deep. And all of it is part of the Dead Sands sound, especially metal heaviness, folk fuzz, electro finesse, and indie angst. Wood really hasn't let himself play this loose since his time with Conrad Keely and Jason Reece.



Rain Prayer is just one of three lengthly tracks on their first EP released on Don't Cry Records. If you haven't heard of Don't Cry, the East Village record company headed by Nick Hook Tiombe Lockhart, there's a reason. It only releases music that they love.

For Dead Sands, it must have been love at first sight. The band only first debuted live in April, with their first gig played as part of a free concert at The Union. They had just launched their  Facebook, MySapce, and Twitter accounts a few days before. And they've been too busy since to bother with the little things, like a band bio.

They just piled in for the ride. It's turning out to be a wild one.

While they might not have settled on defining their sound beside "full on" (which is accurate), Wood, James, Nelson, and Furtado have decided that they love playing heavy long-play jams and fuzzy vocals. They love it so much, all of them signed on to produce not one but four EPs as part of what will eventually lead to an LP for Centuries.

For now, the EPs will be named Centuries I, II, etc. They've already finished recording the second. Mixing for Centuries II was wrapped in July. That's not bad for a band that was passing out cassette tapes a few months ago (and still do).

When you consider the groundwork already laid and that their first live session was unforgettable (albeit rough around the edges), Dead Sands is off to a beautifully gritty and growling start. This fan clip captures the potential, even if the Centuries track had yet to be perfected (it gets better as it progresses).



It seems obvious that Centuries, despite being the title for the four-EP set, still needs to be smoothed out. But there isn't any question that the song was the perfect closer for this concert and convincing enough for Don't Cry to release the band's self-produced EP. It feels right, especially with the embellishments as it closes out.

Centuries I By Dead Sands Storms An 8.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.  

Centuries I might be a three-track EP, but those three songs serve up 15 minutes of meandering psych rock that drifts in and out between aggressive and mind numbing. Rain Prayer is my favorite, but plenty of people like The Hand, which grabs up a Simon & Garfunkel lyric line at its open. Futile Fall has some obvious Pink Floyd undertones, and that's the guts of this work — a little bit of everything over the centuries, psychedelic style.

Centuries I by Dead Sands is available on iTunes. Centuries I is also available on Amazon. You can also pick up cassettes anywhere you see them live in the New York area. Visit their Facebook page for upcoming shows. Dead Sands has the mettle to be a psychedelic powerhouse.

Trail Of Dead Discovers The Weight Of The Sun

Austin-based alternative rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (Trail of Dead) seems rightfully anxious to release its seventh album, Tao of the Dead, on Feb. 8 and 9 (Feb. 15 on iTunes). Who isn't ready for it? Ever since Jason Reece and Conrad Keely started pursuing their indie roots and regained their independence two years ago, they've only gotten better.

Joining Reece and Keely this time around are longtime friend Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith (producer of the band's seminal 1998 self-titled LP) and indie producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead) on a 16-minute opus titled Tao of the Dead Part 2. Part 1 is 11 tracks or chapters, with each track standing on its own or played together as one long song.

The format not only pays homage to Keely's childhood influences but could also resurrect the allure of well-composed albums. There is an art to something like that, an increasingly rare art as most people sample albums one single at a time. That's not to say there haven't been opportunities to sample.

Trail Of Dead Teases With Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus).

The second single released from the upcoming long play album, Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus) seems to have a little less buzz than the first, Summer Of All Dead Souls, which was released last November. The new tease is an equally strong — I'd say stronger — introduction to their new stripped four-piece sound.

There is something to be said for fast-track recordings when masterful musicians enter the studio. Recorded in 10 days, but obviously extensively pre-rehearsed before stepping inside the booth, Trail Of Dead have captured a flair for immediacy. Combined, the two singles set an energized pace for what is likely to be a breathtaking album.

The entire album is hard boiled into a science fiction storyline set in a steampunk milieu. The music can stand on its own, but the art is equally inspired, bridging a 6th century Tao Te Ching into the fantastical future imagery inked by Keely and foreshadowed on a special Tao Of Dead reveal site (check out Conrad Keely too). Along with the art and contents as part of the build up, Trail Of Dead has been sharing roughly produced acoustical snips of the upcoming album.

The one shot bedroom acoustic sampling pales in comparison to the final production. The single Weight Of The Sun starts as a simple melody before drifting into its dramatically rhythm-infused chorus. What the acoustic does do is slip into the melody and lyrics with a spontaneity seldom shown by artists.


No surprise from Reece and Keely. Despite their successes, they have never been ones to take themselves overly seriously even if the idea of resurrecting the rock sympathy stylings of previous decades, complete with a graphic novel, might play that way.

Weight Of The Sun Weighs In At 8.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

If Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus) is any indication of what to expect in February, Trail Of Dead won't disappoint anyone. Whatever Keely, Reece, Autry Fulbright, Aaron Ford, and "an unspecified person we will simply call R" composed in Connecticut has all the makings of a riveting compilation. I'm already looking forward to revisiting it all once the album is out.

In the meantime, Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus) is on iTunes. You can also find Summer Of All Dead Souls there. Weight Of The Sun and Summer Of All Dead Souls are also on Amazon.