If the bask of pretentiousness, eighty-plus degree Lone Stars and American Spirits seems a little stronger around the Austin area for the next twenty days or so you can blame the Southwest by Southwest Conference (SXSW). SXSW celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and so far seems it will be packed with a pretty wide spectrum of will bes, has beens, and I-hope-they're-enjoying-themselves-because-they-blows.
Artists of all sort come to Austin for the "Conference,"* from the latest documentarian's film that uses fish-cleaning as a metaphor for her budding lesbianism to the coked-up dude with a $20 Casio keyboard playing synth pop outside of the Taco Truck. The internet has served the week well as people can actually familiarize themselves with the acts coming at least a couple days before, not to mention the internet's unparalleled ability to create and sustain a rumor mill that leads to absurd expectations**.
*There are short talks by industry gurus, but the term is still very loosely used- "Conference" applies more to the increasingly zeitgeist-setting interactive/technology part of the fest, which was the blast-zone to Twitter's astounding popularity just a few years back.
**Rumored groups: Radiohead, Rolling Stones (because obviously the world's most beloved rock group would kick off its 50th year celebration in a town its probably been to three times at most), Kanye, Pavement- get a grip folks.
Two confirmed groups (ie- committed to play multiple shows throughout the week) are OFF! and ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. I'll get into each band's individual characteristics but, for the focus, I'll cut right to the lede: One's newest album closes with a six-part 17 minute song; its competitor's album consists of 18 songs that last 17 minutes. Does swinging for the fences pay dividends or was that a-hole Shakespeare right when he said "brevity is the soul of wit?" Perhaps my journey to sharpen my personal tastes might help elucidate your answer.....*
*It won't
Like most, when it comes to music, my tastes are essentially binary- I like something or I don't. While enjoyment can come from a variety of levels- ironic, melodramatic, narcotic-use-friendly, scholarly- my tastes derive from my initial gut reaction, and first impressions are nigh impossible to shake. My initial response when exposed to ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead (Trail of Dead for now on) was "what a silly little thing to name your rock band- I don't think I will be listening to you." Granted, this was 2005 and bands like Arcade Fire and the New Pornographers were making me feel all 22ish with their sunshiny power-pop and anthemic lines like "Every time You Close Your Eyes/ LIES/ LIES."* Bands that had "Trail of Dead" in the title were an easy workout for the ridiculing muscles. After much pleading from a fellow music nerd, I gave "Another Morning Stoner"** a spin. While it had some charm it was overwhelmed by a tight-wound seriousness and emo-ish tone that exhausted almost as much as it bored. I moved to Charlotte and besides seeing the occasional record review or placement of "Stoner" on a few music sites as one of the best songs of the 00s I completely ignored Trail of Dead for about five years.
*Never got around to showing the man who's boss. Oh well.
**Which might as well have been the subtitle of my undergraduate experience
Fast forward about six years and I had just gotten home after the ten hour drive from New Orleans with a hangover fitting of a five day stay in a party city celebrating a best friend's wedding. Without probing too deep, I'll just say it was a trip full of peaks and valleys and by the end of it my mind kind of retracted into a full fledged "big question" mode where I was contemplating topics to the point I just wanted to hide from the world- this is referred to as "analysis paralysis" in some circles*. Anyway, someone had sent me a link to the new Trail of Dead album, "Tao of The Dead" and for whatever reason- maybe it was the anxiety, the boredom, the Austin connection, whatever- I decided to give it a full fledged listen.**
*It was just a really fucking serious hangover in retrospect.
**Looking back I'm surprised I did- the band seems incapable of naming anything without the nerdy seriousness of the "Han Shot Greedo first" crowd.
The album rocks. A mix of Rush/Yes prog-rock, Queen of the Stone Age stoner metal, Radiohead disillusionment, with a side of hallucinogenic-guitar playing I always (incorrectly) identified with groups like the Mars Volta. While I wouldn't suggest really digging into the lyrical content, which is some vaguely leftist statement about the impending Orwellian wasteland we will be living in if gay people can't get married*, it plays like an album and not a collection of songs- a rarity in a music climate where most artists are making sure they can market their song as a ring-tone or at least get $1.29 at iTunes.
*Or something- I don't understand half the lyrics and feel no pressing need to research. I know it has something to do with one of the band leader's recently-penned graphic novels. It aggravates me how good the album is because it is SO ripe for criticizing the bat-shit crazy lyrical devices going on.
The album ends with the topical 17 minute work I was mentioning earlier: "Strange News From Another Planet: Know Your Honor/ Rule by Being Jut/ The Ship Impossible/ Strange Epiphany/ Racing and Hunting."* Few bands have the gall to think people would listen to a studio-recorded song for 17 minutes, much less one as fractured and sporadic as this one. Yet it works, and works well. Themes overlap constantly but in a flowing, natural way. It builds, destroys, smooths, and reconstructs, repeatedly. In yet another hilariously grandiose gesture, there must be forty instruments contained in the song, but their intro and exit are so smooth and seamless it seems like every one of them are essential- although a house of cards this song is not. Its a polarizing tune no doubt, but the one thing I find so impressive is that it has a inimitable perpetual propulsion but has a firm enough sense of control as to not go off the rails- it builds to its orgasmic points masterfully. It certainly won't be a breakthrough song that will fill the prog-stoner void in FM radio**, but it is a love letter to fans of the genre. Simply put: it's a rock gem that no one in the genre has had the balls to do in decades; a song that clocks in at over 1,000 seconds yet wastes none. Grade: A.
*I did not make that up- it really is the name of the last song- it takes my iPod about twenty seconds to scroll through it in its entirety.
**It's twice the length of "Freebird"
The other horse in this race goes by the "could you guess we're a punk band" name of OFF!* Formed by ex-members of L.A. hardcore bands such as the Circle Jerks and the like, the group's album "First Four EPs" is as assertive a debut disk as has ever been released. Taking a cue from British art-punk deities Wire, songs rarely breach the one minute mark- which also leads to frustrations because a lot of these licks are as catchy as anything Green Day has committed to record**. While most of the band members are well into their 40s, they still play with a juvenile anger of the 17 year olds smoking butts off the ground and snarling at those with collars on their shirts. While this teenage mentality also leads to their truculent, simplistic lyric-writing (sample song names: "Now I'm Pissed," "Panic Attack," "Fuck People," "Full of Shit"), the rhymes fit the riffs. There is almost no variety in the album though- clearly this was intended, but nonetheless you can't give an "A" to an album that seems allergic to even changing the beat measures of their songs. Grade: A-
*Yes, the '!' is included in the proper name.
**A concern I hope they address live- they only have one album and I would prefer not to wait in line for 30 min+ to see a set that takes half that time.
So what's the better use of your seventeen minutes? The two pieces I compare are so different in tone, musicality, structure, point, etc. its hard to really place one above the other. While I find the OFF! album to be a genuinely more fun listen, Trail of Dead's epic album-closer has too much to admire not to declare victor. Whatever the case, at least I know I've got at least 34 minutes of SXSW accounted for.
Oh, and the sub-title of this piece is a reference to this song (which sounds nothing like Trail of Dead or OFF!) so if you've been reading this as a courtesy to me but have no interest in either group, here is a little rock masterpiece as a thank you from your appreciative author. Catch me at SXSW- I'll be the one without pounds of metal in my face.
