Thank God for ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

I have had this album for what, a year now? And only recently, in the last few weeks, have I become completely addicted to it? It's so weird the way that can happen, but it has. I feel like a teenager again with this album. In these days of iPods and iTunes, a person rarely buys a cd and proceeds to listen to it in order from beginning to end, but despite the fact that this album is on my iTunes, I do just that. Trail of Dead has music for every feeling, every occassion and it's almost all present on this single album. The only thing that's missing is a song for when you really need to rage and you're so pissed off all you want to do is scream along with something aggressive. The only song for that is "A Perfect Teenhood" from Trail of Dead's album Madonna. Last year Joel saw Trail of Dead in Köln where they put on what sounds like a stellar performance they finished off by breaking all of their stuff to the aforementioned song. He sent me the song right away claiming Trail of Dead was the most amazing band ever, or something to that degree. I listened, but it was way way way too heavy for me at first. The sort of thing that really puts you on edge and makes you want to grind your teeth before bed at night. But then it grew on me in a major way and when I got World's Apart, I got ready for more grinding and edginess only to be surprised by the most diverse, quality album I've heard in a long time. My favorite songs are Caterwaul and Let it Dive and I almost got a speeding ticket last week listening to them while driving.

I have my fingers crossed that they will play a show in Europe while I'm there. Sadly, they'll be in Austria, Germany and Belgium this weekend. They're two weeks early!! I don't leave for Switzerland until August 1st. But, with a new album due out in October, they'll be back on the continent again, for sure. Check out their fansite blog at www.trailofdead.org. It's some of the more hilarious writing I've encountered and I'm pretty sure it's all penned by Conrad Keely, Trail of Dead's own frontman.