And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

The year was 2002. I was 16. I lived in America. There was a store called Best Buy, and they used to have a $5 section. You could pick up some great new albums by bands not well known and for the price, even if it was bad, you would not feel ripped off. That $5 bin opened my mind to music and exposed me to most of what I listen to today.

One of the greatest albums I got from it was called Source Tags and Codes and was by a band with a most kick-ass name: And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Earlier in the year I'd seen the band name on a shirt worn by one of the guys in Brand New, and I thought it was a cool band name with an awesome graphic (side note, I own that same shirt and wear the shit out of it). That, coupled with the weird hardcore come indie come prog-rock sound that emanated from my speakers, sealed it. I was a Trail of Dead fan boy.

I still am.

In 2009 I finally got to see them, playing at the Zoo. Although their sound wasn't great (the levels were way too loud and drowned out most of the sound) I was in heaven. I was going to post the video I took of that night, but because of the high levels it just sounds like distorted noise. Instead, here's one of the same song played live:

Over the years, their plethora of albums came and went across all sorts of sort-of-related genres: noise-rock, prog-rock, hardcore, alternative, indie, but without fail, every album would have lots of moments when I'd just sit back and think, "whoa, this is epic."

They put out a new album this year, which was almost a return to form of the greatness of Source Tags and Code (I gave it a 4/5 in my Twitter reviews). To go on the back of this album, it appears we're getting a tour!

September 9 at the HiFi (18+)

I hope the amazing sound system at the HiFi does justice to this amazing band.