..And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead - "So Divided"

[Elgyn]

I wasn`t even aware TOD had another album out after "Worlds Apart" until someone mentioned it in a Top 50 Of 2006 thing in Under The Radar magazine.
I really like their older stuff, and I also really liked "Worlds Apart", which was....uh...worlds apart from their older material.
Has anyone heard this new(er) album "So Divided"? Reviews on Amazon are really mixed, and the guy at my local "indie" record store hadn`t heard about it either. Was this album released 'secretly' or something?

[The Heart Collector]

it wasn't released secretly, their career just completely died in the eyes of critics after Worlds Apart, which was by no means a bad album and in fact had quite a lot of great songs.

So Divided isn't as good, though. I like it but it's not really like Source Tags & Codes in any way. It sounds like 70s stuff played now. It has some good songs though, but a lot of pompous stuff. Strangely enough, I saw them on their tour in support of the album and all their songs, even stuff pre-Source Tags, sounded uniform. Live their new material is typical ToD, which makes me think 'gawd people stop complaining'.

Also judging by interviews and by that incident where band members fought onstage, I would say this is their last album.

[Elgyn]

Yeah I heard this might be it for them. Sad, I think they`re a really cool band. Same thing happened with Smashing Pumpkins - they started doing different things (instead of making the same record over and over again), the fans complained, and the band said "screw it" and quit.

[The Heart Collector]

From an interview with the singer/songwriter

"There's nothing glamorous anymore to what we do; there's barely any profit in it"

"To be honest, I don't really know that record sales affect-- in the long run-- the career of a band as more-or-less insignificant as we are. We've never recouped a record. Our record sales don't make us or lose us any money. We don't really make money off of it, so it's like, "What do I care?" If I wrote a platinum record, maybe that would be a different story, but these days, we're too insignificant for it to really matter."

"On the previous record, I was trying harder to be optimistic, but I also wasn't really writing about myself, for the most part. Whereas all the stuff I wrote on this record is definitely about how I've been feeling and what I've been going through, and I didn't mince words or try to paint a prettier picture than what I was going through."

"I guess I'm a little disillusioned by the fact that you can play live for years and years, and it doesn't seem to make any difference in how well you do as a band. There were times I was convinced that we were one of the best live bands out there, but it didn't mean that we were being asked to play festivals or anything of that sort. There were a lot of other bands that were far more celebrated. Right now, I'd rather be working on a new record than playing live. You feel like it takes years off of your life, putting so much into something that you're not getting much out of, health-wise."

"When we were working on Worlds Apart-- the record that Pitchfork gave two stars [laughs]-- I felt like we were working on something that I thought was a statement of how records could be, not [just] the songs, but to make a whole record say something, or be narrative, or make a statement about something. But I certainly didn't feel that way when I was writing this record. I didn't even want to try to feel that way. [It was] kind of a "once bitten, twice shy" thing."

"Growing up, the inspirations I had, the people that inspired me to be a musician, they weren't your small, indie, underground bands at all. When I was growing up listening to music, the bands that I was into were big mega bands, 70s dinosaur rock: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Rush, these people that sold out stadiums. In my mind, that was the goal. And U2, they weren't just popular; they had a kind of devotion about them. People believed in what they were saying. So now I've gotten to this age where I feel like, if I'm still playing clubs and stuff, why bother?"

"Pitchfork: You want to share the music with more people.

Conrad: Of course I do. There are six billion people on this planet. These shows we're playing, we're playing for a capacity of 500, 600, maybe up to 1000 in a place like Milwaukee or Chicago, but a city like Chicago has 6 million people in it. I know that the other 5,999,950 people are going to see big hip hop acts and...who knows? I can't even name half of the bands that are on the top 40 right now, because I've made myself oblivious to it."

"Who am I reaching out to in the end? I'm reaching out to the people who enjoy the music that I write. It's a really small audience, but I'm not a kid anymore, and I want to be able to feel a sense of security that an adult would have: a house, maybe help my mother out with a house, to feel that I can look forward to financial security. But I don't know that that's something that's ever been afforded to us by what we do as a band. When it comes down to it, when you're thinking at the end of the day, "Why was this worth it in the end?" those are the things that you're going to end up thinking about. Your fans aren't going to pay your rent. They're not going to help you with a mortgage, are they?"

"We've had a lot of help through licensing. But you see, to me, if the money's in licensing, then I don't want to be on the road; I'd rather be licensing my songs to movies, because we certainly don't make money from touring. I know that people think you're supposed to, but we've actually accrued a lot of debt from touring. The only thing that we've seen profit from is when a TV show will license a song, and I don't even have to do anything for them to do that. I can just sit in my living room, and that takes care of itself. So to me, what's the incentive for playing when licensing is the only thing that seems tangible?"

"When you're a performer, you have the compulsion to perform. You have this kind of desire to do what you do in front of crowds of people. I think, ideally, I'd like the tour to be more like a series of one-off concerts that were more special than a long series of road engagements that are more like club shows."



I pretty much quoted the entire interview.

Then later in the tour

"Guess it wouldn't be a Trail of Dead/Blood Brothers tour without a little bit o' the old violence. Details remain sketchy, but according to several eyewitness reports and a couple shoddy YouTube videos, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead guitarist Kevin Allen collapsed several times during the band's November 18 show at St. Petersburg, Florida's Jannus Landing Courtyard.

The Austin-based combo eventually cut the gig short, but not before vocalist/guitarist Conrad Keely ceremonially smashed his instrument and shoved an ailing Allen into an amp.

As Pitchfork reader and show attendee Gabe wrote, after Allen reemerged following his initial collapse, "Conrad then walks to the mic, announces that this will be their last song, lifts his guitar over his head and smashes it. He then ran over to Kevin and pushes him backwards (it was one helluva running shove) into his amp. Kevin and the amp hit the ground, hard.

"Conrad keeps going right off stage and onto the bus (it was a courtyard venue, [and] the stage exits to the front gate, where the bus was parked). The rest of the band looked shocked and bewildered."







STICK A FORK ON EM, THEY'RE DONE

[countchocula]

I think McDonald's is better than this band.

[Elgyn]

Originally posted by countchocula
I think McDonald's is better than this band.

Well, DUH! I mean the sensation of biting into a Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese beats listening to ANY band.

Anyways....

I got "So Divided". It`s alright, but seems real disjointed......it almost sounds like these songs could be re-worked b-sides from "Worlds Apart". It`s weird because the first half sounds real different and VERY poppy, nothing like anything they`ve put out.....then the second half is really good and sounds like a natural progression from "Worlds Apart".