Pitchfork

There are benefits to being on a major label like Interscope-- big recording budget, nice tour buses, money to buy food, plenty o' chicks (or dudes, if that's your thing)... but there's also a downside. Say you (and by you, we mean ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead) have completely finished your long-awaited and much-anticipated fourth album. Now let's say that said album was scheduled to be released at roughly the same time as albums by U2, No Doubt and Eminem.

You might argue that people who are planning on buying those albums aren't necessarily the same people who might be in the market for a Trail of Dead record. But here's the thing: Interscope appears to be goddamn hoping they will be. And so it is that Trail of Dead's new album-- which, according to a post by co-frontman Jason Reece on highly trustable fansite Trailofdead.org has been finished since early July-- will be pushed back to January to accommodate the fans of egomaniacal hip-hop stars and over-the-hill arena rock bands.

According to a more recent post on Trailofdead.org by other frontman Conrad Keely, the band is disappointed, but understands the label's stance. "I know, this is abominable news, especially since we worked so hard all year to get it out in time, but they don't want to have to dust [our album] under the rug. This happens in the industry sometimes. There are other reasons, such as we don't wash our hair and we need to take promo pictures." The record, entitled Worlds Apart, was originally scheduled to be released October 5th, but no firm date is now planned.

Fortunately, the band have thankfully taken the long view, and should be making themselves quite available over the next few months. According to Keely: "We still plan to tour the U.S. and the UK, and even pre-release a single, if you really want us to (yes, please -ed). "It will most likely be the title track of the LP and a couple other things. So in the end, it's only a couple months longer and then hopefully all hell will break loose."

In addition, the extra time will give the band plenty of time to come up with an album cover that meets our exacting standards. "I am currently trying to design the best album artwork possible because our last release Pitchfork gave the Worst Album Cover of the Year award to," says Keely. Okay, but guys, to be fair, Calexico actually took #1 on that particular list-- and it was just stupid old newswriter Eric Marth's personal list anyway! Not that it was really a great cover or anything. We're just sayin'. Anyway, the tour details are still largely up in the air, but what we have is yours:

10-19 Towson, MD - The Recher Theatre
10-21 Cambridge, MA - The Middle East
11-05 Seattle, WA - Neumos

Finally, the band announced back in July that bassist Neil Busch has decided to leave the band due to "severe health problems." Though several posts on the site allude to the possibility of Busch's possible return to the fold, Keely's most recent post says only, "I heard from Neil today and he says he's doing well." His replacement for the band's live shows is, at least for the moment, Danny Wood from Austin band The Rise, though Neil did contribute to Worlds Apart prior to his departure.