Conrad Keely Talks Trail of Dead Past, Present, Future
There's nothing glamorous anymore to what we do; there's barely any profit in it. Conrad Keely is frustrated and not a little defeated. When s third album, Source Tags and Codes, grabbed the ears and hearts of listeners and critics (including ) in 2002, he seized the opportunity to write and record a follow-up that would top it in every way.
And it flopped. 2005 s Worlds Apart took a beating by critics (including ), and it didn t help that it happened at a time when Trail of Dead were undergoing some difficult personnel changes.
Cut to the present.
The band s fifth album, So Divided, is scheduled for a November 14 release on Interscope, and they are in the middle of a massive tour with . Recently, Keely spoke to Pitchfork about the album (and music in general), the tour (and touring in general), the powerlessness we all feel, and what-- if anything-- makes being in a band still worth it. Pitchfork: The release of So Divided was pushed back six weeks, and then it leaked.
There was a rumor that you leaked the album yourselves. Is that true?
Pitchfork: How did that rumor get started?
Conrad: I guess they thought it would be funny if we d done it ourselves, but I don t know why we would leak the record when we worked so hard on it.
Pitchfork: I thought it was telling that the letter on your website kicking off the current tour was addressed to fellow pirates.
Conrad: Well you know I d be a hypocrite if I said I didn t do that type of thing, but I don t usually look for records that are unreleased.
Pitchfork: Is it just a source of frustration for you, or have you thought of a way to solve the problem?
Conrad: I really don t think it s something I can waste my time worrying about. I don t know how it affects record sales or if it does.
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.
Raucous indie roots band have been snapped up by , Pitchfork can exclusively announce.
After releasing two albums this year-- on and on (the vinyl version of the latter is out December 5, by the way)--the sextet plans to have their next full-length ready for the world by next August. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Sullivan told Pitchfork that Oakley Hall chose Merge for several reasons. They re incredibly nice, approachable people, which is always a plus when you have business, he said.
We did a tour with M. Ward this September, and he was a major cheerleader for them; he couldn t recommend them enough. We hit it off with him and really respected his opinion.
They re also the kind of label that s getting rarer these days, [in that] you can trust the Merge brand. We look at everybody else on that label, and I m a fan of every one of those bands. We wanted to be a part of that tradition, and we re very excited about it.
are revving up to spend many, many weekends in the city (and weekdays, for that matter). Unfortunately, their traveling companions happen to be Panic! at the Disco and Jack s Mannequin, but hey, at least they ll have a chance to visit some of North America s finest destinations.
Like the metropolis of Sunrise, Florida, where Bloc Party will kick things off tonight at the scenic Bank Atlantic Center. lengthy holiday break, Bloc Party will ditch the pop-punk acts and tour the UK, presumably as headliners. in the U.
S. The follow-up to 2005 s producer Jacknife Lee (U2, Snow Patrol). It will be preceded by a single, The Prayer , on January 29 in the UK.
. On it, superfans can scope out a detailed recording timeline, track notes, titles and comments on lost songs and B-sides, and more.
As do Richard Buckner, Jennifer O'Connor, Two Dollar Guitar concept of both the garage band and, uh, the garage.
Opened in 2004, their shoots to provide an affordable venue for local creative souls to put on shows. Since its inception, the space all mediums, music included. week, the (art) Garage is holding one of the biggest tiny venue events we ve ever been made aware of.
The week-long spree of shows, 12. Highlights include the Slits and the Apes (tonight, November 7), the Mountain Goats and Jennifer O Connor (tomorrow, November 8), Come see the softer side of , with these two previously unreleased acoustic versions of Shift (from their debut ) and Reprise (from this year s ). Originally recorded earlier this week for a French radio session but never aired, these takes feature the band in rainy-day mode, sleepwalking (in a good way) through the finger-picked fog.
The Grizz also recently got their acoustic on for , performing Plans , Shift , On a Neck, On a Spit , Little Brother , and Knife (the latter including exaggerated doo-wop vocals and finger snap percussion). In addition to the tunes, the band sat down for an interview, in which they admitted that they re part of the Brooklyn gentrification problem and called TV on the Radio s Kyp Malone the guy with all the hair on his head and face . Grizzly Bear are on tour in Europe as we speak.
In Canada, the hallowed land of Godspeed You Wolf Parading Broken Social Pornographers, national pride must be measured by the sheer number of side projects a given band has spawned-- which would make Vancouver resident a model Canadian citizen. When the one-time Jerk With a Bomb dude s not fronting psych-rockers , he s scaling sex-damaged , while his Black Mt. bandmates Matthew Camirand, Joshua Wells, and Jeremy Schmidt do their respective thangs as (the former two) and (the latter).
And this is just the beginning, McBean recently told Pitchfork.
If [label ] want[s] the next Black Mountain record, McBean teased, they have to put out everything that we hand them. They have to spend as much money as we want on our side vanity projects.
We ll get to those vanity side projects in a moment, but first, that new Black Mountain record. McBean and Co. have been working sporadically on the follow-up to last year s much-loved, , and hope to complete it this January.
As for the new disc s sound, I guess you ll have to see, said McBean flatly. It s different songs-- it s not the same songs recorded again. We re not trying to make a Kid A or anything.
It ll be a rock n roll record, probably. in the palms of their hands..
.a bit too literally, if you Jardine. (It s the pair s first official collaboration in over a decade.
) The figure depicts Wilson in 1966. writes on BrianWilson.com, Someone recently asked me why this, rather than say, a bobble-head doll?
Personally, I just think a bobble-head may be too baseball game, too comic book ...
I know Brian s more creative fans, and I m sure we ll be seeing the OK, glad to see he thinks this whole thing is as absurd as we do. figure s head was sculpted by an unnamed artist, then cast into supplies last. Each of these pieces will be numbered, likely by London, and their boxes signed by Wilson.
interested in the plastic, plaid-panted star can purchase the figure exclusively on Wilson s website and current tour. And when the action on your asses..
.well, don t say we didn t warn you.
We re losing our edge-- to the preternaturally hip elementary schoolers of North Haven, Maine.
With the aid of drama teacher Courtney Naliboff and choreographer Ken Jones, the students of staged a musical late last month at based on s album. You saw the -- now scope the videos for a whopping six tunes, replete with milk-white costumes, balloons galore, and a live rock n roll band! They re actually really, really nice.
, Deerhoof s latest LP, Friend Opportunity, hits the streets January 23, 2007, courtesy of . We hope this one spawns puppet shows, synchronized swimming routines, themed dinner parties, and doctoral theses.
Photo by Alice Bissell.
Flaming Lips Honored With Alley in Oklahoma City? thoroughfare in Oklahoma City-- where frontman Wayne Coyne resides-- named after them, reports. But not just any old thoroughfare: an alley.
..littered with open dumpsters, and.
..poorly lit at night, the site writes.
Note to Wayne: if you decide to visit this alley, pack the giant protective bubble. David Holt, an aide to the city s mayor, Mick Cornett, believes naming the Bricktown alley after the Lips (it is currently untitled) might inspire clean-up in the area. The re-naming ordinance-- which also seeks to slap country superstar Vince Gill s name on another street-- will go before the OK City Planning Council on November 9.
Then, according to a city council representative, the city council will hold a final vote during a meeting on November 28. Wayne wants this to happen and he sees it as a symbolic small road, the post reads. The fact that it s an alley is even more appealing to him.
..like a secret passage.
Though it may have dumpsters and parked cars, it s real and authentic...
It isn t Disneyland [and] they don t want that...
it s not an obvious homage to entertainment...
it s about finding something special in an unexpected place.
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