The Loop : And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes (2002)

For this band, it was truly a case of not judging a book by it's cover. One afternoon in high school, my brother busts into my room (like he often did) and says "Dude, wanna hear the most ridiculous band name ever I just heard? And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead!" We both got a good laugh out of it and batted back and forth our theories on how they were likely a death metal band and/or wore eyeliner. We then went back to our rooms and listened to bad pop-punk, but I digress . . .

Eventually, this band started following me everywhere. My brother would frequent the ASU record store, Hoodlums and pick up some of the swag they had around the counter and low and behold, there was a huge sticker for Trail of Dead that he brought home for me. I liked the design and still found the band name funny, so I stuck it on my briefcase (yes, briefcase, I was really awesome) and took it to school. At that point, the boy who I had a major crush on (who shall remain nameless as he and I are Facebook friends. Basically, he had sideburns at 15 and I loved him) came up to me and started talking about the sticker and how much he loved the band. Having not heard them at all, I hope I did a good job faking that I loved them too.

Later on I saw the video for "Relative Ways" on Subterranean and was blown away by how they WEREN'T what I thought at all. At some point during a miscellaneous record store trip, I ended up stumbling upon the record and buying it. Oddly enough, a big reason being that I liked the cover.

Needless to say, the record blew me away. It was complicated and dark while feeling unpolished and sometimes muted. The force behind having a set of dueling drummers instead of just one set a tone for some incredibly heavy songs that to this day feel so complex that I find new sections I hadn't heard before. Their follow up record, Worlds Apart was an even stronger record, but this is clearly the album that pushed this band into the forefront and created an indie rock frenzy that still packs some pretty large rooms to this day.

However the only thing I was dissapointed with was when I finally saw them play live in college. Despite all the complexities, they seemed to just be phoning it in. They were so wrapped up in the sequence that it almost felt like they were just going through the motions. I might have just caught a bad night, but I think that coupled with the fact that they have yet to really be defined has created a disconnect that has kept them hitting a glass ceiling all these years.

However, this record did connect with an entire legion of fans who were thankfully not stupid like me and gave this band a chance, despite their complicated name.