Pitchfork: Trail of Dead Hard at Work on Fourth Album

Trail of Dead Hard at Work on Fourth Album
But still giving us shit about the diss on their last EP

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are working hard to complete their follow-up to 2002's Source Tags & Codes, having hunkered down at their own Mob House studios in their homebase of Austin, Texas. According to a report from Billboard, the band have been slaving away for over a month now with longtime producer Mike McCarthy, and are tentatively aiming for a fall release.

The album hasn't got a title yet, but it does have songs, which we guess is the important part. Billboard lists working titles for a handful of tracks, including "Let It Dive", "Mushroom Trip in Mexico", "How the Best Will Fall", and uh-- we'll let them sort this one out-- "The Five Penises in Dwarfland." Another song, titled "Will You Smile Again", is reported to be "a seven-minute epic in 5/4 time, bookended by the kind of rapturous rock riffing for which Trail of Dead has become well-known."

The publication also managed to secure interviews with virtually everyone involved in the creation of the record, and reveals that, while Trail of Dead spent the months prior to the Source Tags & Codes sessions diligently rehearsing their parts, the band's methods are somewhat more spontaneous this time out. Says co-frontman Conrad Keely: "We didn't really rehearse the songs over and over again to get them prepared... We wanted to do this a little more organically and come in and build them in the studio. Doing it this way, you don't get the red light syndrome where time is money. We can stretch out and be a little more creative and try out as many ideas as we want."

Keely also hints at what may be a more experimental direction: "I definitely want to expand the instrumentation. I've been getting into lots of different types of classical and ethnic instruments. But I've also been getting into a lot of electronic recording. Those two blend together in a really strange way. To be able to bring the past up and to use exactly what is current really makes you contemporary." As far as bettering Source Tags & Codes, a record to which Pitchfork awarded a rare 10.0 rating upon its release in 2002, band member Jason Reece seems extremely optimistic: "I think we're definitely trying to impress ourselves. It's a goal of ours to make something that will stand the test of time. Source Tags is a good record, but we want to top ourselves."

Trail of Dead have only got one show scheduled for the coming months-- like everyone else, they'll be playing the Coachella Fest in Indio, California-- but they're eager to get back on the road, and will reportedly be embarking on a small tour to premier new material from the forthcoming album as soon as it's complete.