Pitchfork

Ryan Schreiber & Kevin Keenan report:
Back about this time in February, we at the Pitchfork Newswire brought you the good word, as relayed to us by the winsome Neil Schield of Interscope Records, that Austin's finest purveyors of theatrical bombast, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, have plans to release a new EP packed with freshly recorded material and myriad bonus delights in the form of an enhanced (we dare say "enchanted") CD-ROM multimedia spectacular. Said bonus delights, however, remained a mystery... until a couple of sentences from now.

Though initially said to contain only four songs, it has just come to our attention that a fifth track, titled "Intelligence", has been added. "Intelligence", a collaboration between Trail of Dead multi-instrumentalist Jason Reece and his pal Tyler Jacobsen, first appeared on the UK single for "Relative Ways" back in September of last year, and as such is the only not-totally-brand-new track here, but if nothing else, it saves you economics-class-needin' squanderers from dropping $12 on a three-song import.

As for the multimedia bonuses, you can expect videos for both "Another Morning Stoner" and "Relative Ways", an artwork gallery with elaborate doodles by Conrad Keely, and a sort of behind-the-scenes type thing we're still not too clear about. (Sorry, we tried. This Neil character's totally cagey.) The disc has also been given a firm release date of April 1st, and as previously reported, is ostentatiously titled The Secret of Elena's Tomb for Elena Lucrezia Piscopia Cornaro, a 17th century Benedictine Oblate who died of tuberculosis at the age of 38, having devoted her life to charity. Tracklist:

01 Mach Schau
02 All Saints Day
03 Crowning of a Heart
04 Counting Off the Days
05 Intelligence

Meanwhile, the band is expected to play the Los Angeles stop of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in June and has announced a 10-date North American mini-tour. They've also got a performance planned for the opening night of South by Southwest, at Emo's Main Room with Union Youth, Soviet, Kinski, Jungle Brothers (?!) and electroclash up-and-comers W.I.T. Dates:

03-12 Austin, TX - Emo's Main Room [SXSW]
04-14 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues
04-15 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
04-17 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04-18 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
04-19 New York, NY - Irving Plaza
04-22 Toronto, Canada - Opera House
04-23 Lansing, MI - University of Michigan
04-24 Chicago, IL - Metro
04-25 St. Louis, MO - Mississippi Nights
04-26 Columbia, MO - Peace Park SpringFest