Also I remember an interviewer asking the singer what he had in his pockets once and he had a sheet of acid and a zipdisk
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 17 October 2016 21:26 (seven years ago) link
xxp I think they still do pretty well in continental Europe, esp. Germany. Many countries don't forget/dismiss bands to the extent that we do in the UK/US.
Couple of others I could go for but it's probably going to be Century of the Self for me. So many good songs.
― ultros ultros-ghali, Monday, 17 October 2016 21:31 (seven years ago) link
The zipdisk is the proggiest of all discs. Bloated but it does the job really well :) xp
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 17 October 2016 21:32 (seven years ago) link
The press always slagged Conrad's voice but I love it. I guess the best litmus test for this band is the "HEY FUCK YOU, MAAAAAN!" at the beginning of "Worlds Apart."
― flappy bird, Monday, 17 October 2016 21:38 (seven years ago) link
Not much humour in their catalogue iirc but that is a lol for sure.
― quis gropes ipsos gropiuses? (ledge), Monday, 17 October 2016 21:58 (seven years ago) link
Had to vote Tao, amazing album
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 17 October 2016 23:41 (seven years ago) link
feels a bit wrong that we did this before they got to their tenth album, hope that's some kind of three-hour monstrosity
also no one ever reps for it but I REALLY like the debut, "Novena Without Faith" is beautiful
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 17 October 2016 23:42 (seven years ago) link
going for the debut as i feel it won't get the love it deserves.
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 18 October 2016 00:51 (seven years ago) link
Finally heard this band recently after avoiding them because I had a wrong impression of what they sounded like because of the name. Hate it when that happens.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 03:25 (seven years ago) link
these guys are my favorite rock band of all time, every album owns
― yolo mostly (sleepingbag), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 03:40 (seven years ago) link
Wondering if the Tao of the Dead cover belongs on a certain image thread.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 03:45 (seven years ago) link
I loved this band up to Source Codes but was a bit disappointed by Worlds Apart and got off the bus after that - I've caught up all the later albums since then but none of them really grabbed me as a whole (although there were definitely great songs here and there). I probably need to revisit the last four.
― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, 18 October 2016 11:08 (seven years ago) link
i actually legit can't decide between century of self and tao of the dead; they sound so reinvigorated on century, and the songs are really strong and feel like hybrids of worlds apart and madonna, aggressive, digressive, and pretty. tao conversely feels like the record they'd always wanted to make
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 14:30 (seven years ago) link
also i just learned there's a tao of the dead part 3!
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 14:32 (seven years ago) link
double guitars, y'know??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v09TM7Z25qg
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 17:07 (seven years ago) link
Some days I think Giants Causeway/Far Pavillions is the best way to open an album ever.
― ultros ultros-ghali, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 17:13 (seven years ago) link
Going to listen to all albums after ST&C tonight while writing an essay, that should be fun. Worlds apart, really loved that one, but after that I probably didnt invest enough time and energy in their albums.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 17:18 (seven years ago) link
i love ix too but i feel like it doesn't really start until "lie without a liar"
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 19:08 (seven years ago) link
PSHAW jaded apostles and million random digits are both great
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 19:25 (seven years ago) link
they're good but idk the momentum feels kinda off before "lie"
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 19:39 (seven years ago) link
Listening to Lost Songs myself and it's very enjoyable and BIG sounding, but I think their compositions were much more inventive on ST&C. Watched an old Conan performance of Relative Ways and while that song seems simple and BIG as well it's also intricate and in control.
― Evan, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 20:01 (seven years ago) link
Jaded Apostles is a weirdly slow track for second on an album, but at least it's a good song
― imago, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 20:02 (seven years ago) link
Ha, just got to Pinhole Cameras and that guitar part that opens it is clearly recycled from Relative Ways
― Evan, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 20:12 (seven years ago) link
I mean thats where my head went, at least
The whole ST&C thing feels like 'is the dress gold and white or black and blue?' (it's gold and white), i just don't hear the 'inventive compositions' or interesting lyrics. Worlds Apart is so much more idiosyncratic and powerful. I don't dislike ST&C though, "Baudelaire" rules.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 20:15 (seven years ago) link
Yeah your post upthread is like the exact opposite of mine. I found that very interesting! It's cool to see that if they lost one set of fans another set was enjoying them more than ever.
― Evan, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 20:24 (seven years ago) link
This thread has fucked up my priorities, 70s soul funk album poll going down and all I'm listening to is trail of dead.
― quis gropes ipsos gropiuses? (ledge), Thursday, 20 October 2016 08:13 (seven years ago) link
omg <3 bus lines
― quis gropes ipsos gropiuses? (ledge), Thursday, 20 October 2016 10:09 (seven years ago) link
Century Of Self is good but it'd be better imo (and a candidate for #1) if it didn't have Isis Unveiled OR Halcyon Days on it. (LJ, hating on the longest songs??) But seriously - after the jet-fuelled opening duo, to skip the Will You Smile Again retreads and head straight for Bells Of Fucking Creation - and then the rest? I just find the long songs unwieldy on this one.
ST&C is probably everyone's favourite because of the bassline on It Was There That I Saw You. Maybe all the basslines. They lost an awesome bassist, but I think they probably grew as songwriters.
― imago, Thursday, 20 October 2016 14:24 (seven years ago) link
I also listened to Tao Of The Dead and it didn't quite grab me as I'd hoped, except for Summer Of All Dead Souls and maybe the one after it. But it wasn't exactly dull either so I'll have to give it more listens
― imago, Thursday, 20 October 2016 14:27 (seven years ago) link
i can't even hear the bass on ST&C!
but man. "Baudelaire" just BANGS. such a killer fucking song
― flappy bird, Thursday, 20 October 2016 17:40 (seven years ago) link
the bass on 'IWTTISY' is maybe the single greatest thing this band has ever done
― imago, Thursday, 20 October 2016 17:59 (seven years ago) link
I've read the P4K reviews of all their albums today. ST&C got a 10 rating, which seems about right. I can't find a single flaw in that album. They've been kind on the band after they tanked it with Worlds Apart, rightfully so as they managed to fight their way back again (even though I still love Worlds Apart in all its glorious bombast). The last two albums I feel I've neglected, so will put those on again tonight.
I honestly do not why I created this poll when I did, it just felt like a right time to revisit this band. And it has been.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 20 October 2016 18:08 (seven years ago) link
― imago, Thursday, 20 October 2016 17:59 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
on further consideration, the answer to this is the bridge of 'bells of creation', which might be in the top ten rock bridges ever
― imago, Friday, 21 October 2016 19:31 (seven years ago) link
i think the song "So Divided" might be my favorite thing they've ever done
― flappy bird, Friday, 21 October 2016 20:33 (seven years ago) link
it's really great yeah
― imago, Friday, 21 October 2016 20:53 (seven years ago) link
I've listened to ALL THEIR ALBUMS now and worked out my TOD CD-80! It features tracks from all but one of their albums:
1) Open Doors2) Novena Without Faith3) It Was There That I Saw You4) Will You Smile Again5) Summer Of All Dead Souls6) Wasted State Of Mind7) The Ghost Within8) Flower Card Games9) Bells Of Creation10) Heart In The Hand Of The Matter11) So Divided12) Luna Park13) Lost In The Grand Scheme14) Caterwaul15) Intelligence
Brad and flappy will be pleased to note their own favourites in here, because they really are great songs. Nothing from Madonna though! I didn't really get on with it. Maybe if Aged Dolls had had that outro removed I might have included it, but the songwriting didn't really hit me. I think they got much better after that. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this playlist. If only it could be made to segue properly - most of the tracks end mid-segue into something completely different
― imago, Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:03 (seven years ago) link
Great list LJ. Mistakes & Regrets a serious Madonna-ommission imho, but I can see it wouldn't fit in the run you put together.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:34 (seven years ago) link
that's a pretty solid effort imago! They are not an easy band to anthologize in this way, especially since they are deceptively diverse sonically.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 23 October 2016 20:24 (seven years ago) link
You ought to check out Elena's Tomb. Shouldn't be ignored if we're starting to talk about songs.
― Evan, Monday, 24 October 2016 01:56 (seven years ago) link
did you read my playlist lol
― imago, Monday, 24 October 2016 04:05 (seven years ago) link
Heh, overlooked
― Evan, Monday, 24 October 2016 04:59 (seven years ago) link
Have put together a (chronological) CD-80 of my own, heavier on the first few records and only two tracks in common with Imago's but I do plan on giving all his picks a second chance:
1. Fake Fake Eyes2. Prince With a Thousand Enemies3. Mistakes and Regrets4. Claire de Lune5. Sigh Your Children6. How Near, How Far7. Heart in the Hand of the Matter8. Relative Ways9. Crowning of a Heart10. A Classic Art Showcase11. The Rest Will Follow12. Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory13. So Divided14. Isis Unveiled15. Fall of the Empire16. The Doomsday Book
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 24 October 2016 14:06 (seven years ago) link
haven't really thought about what my favourite trail of dead song is but my instinct would be to say another morning stoner, and i am perplexed and dismayed at its omission from these cd80s.
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 24 October 2016 14:28 (seven years ago) link
Gavin's taste is much more in line with mine it seems. For instance, speaking of Elena's Tomb, I do not like the last two tracks and for awhile Crowning of a Heart was my favorite song by them.
― Evan, Monday, 24 October 2016 14:57 (seven years ago) link
this has been one of my favorite youtube videos for years. Trail of Dead in 2003, they start going into Richter Scale Madness but the stagehand is desperately trying to signal that their set time is up. they keep playing out of spite and the dude starts getting really heated and they start fucking with him hard. then they trash the stage lmao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shYl9-zDb64
― flappy bird, Monday, 24 October 2016 17:42 (seven years ago) link
idk if this fits on one cd but my essential tod would be something like:
let it divewasted state of mindhow near how farall saints dayawestruckebb awaybells of creationthe dragonfly queen/how to avoid huge shipsbaudelairepictures of an only childfields of coalrelative waysweight of the suna classic arts showcasethe wasteland
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Monday, 24 October 2016 17:50 (seven years ago) link
Hahahaha. That is amazing. Seriously what is the dude's problem? Xp
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 24 October 2016 17:51 (seven years ago) link
i guess that was their thing, i saw them on the co-headline tour with qotsa in 2002 and they played way into qotsa's time. jason took the drum kit apart mid-song and put it back together out on the floor in the crowd. was a top 5 live show for me for sure. not for the qotsa set tho, for some reason they seemed ticked off.
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 24 October 2016 17:56 (seven years ago) link
Haha are you sure that isn't some character one of their roadies is playing? It was kind of too perfectly timed and executed!
― Evan, Monday, 24 October 2016 17:59 (seven years ago) link
sold. I've wanted to catch them live since catching that "Mistakes and Regrets" performance on that show Matt Pinfield hosted (lol)
― Simon H., Monday, 18 March 2019 18:54 (five years ago) link
they were great on the source tags tenth anniversary tour which uh i guess we're creeping closer to the 20th
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Monday, 18 March 2019 18:55 (five years ago) link
yeah this year marks the 20th of Madonna
incidentally I relistened to the s/t today and while it's badly in need of a remaster, it's still great. "Novena Without Faith" is so beautiful
― Simon H., Monday, 18 March 2019 18:57 (five years ago) link
Hate to say it, but they were absolutely dreadful when I saw them a month ago. I don't go to concerts a lot anymore, but I really wanted to see these guys. But It. Was. Bad. A huge disappointment. It was billed as a ToD plays Madonna/ST&C concert. They did play Madonna from start to finish, but bailed after three or four ST&C songs. Not that it mattered: they were horrible. They pulled up a wall of sound that obliterated all melody, everything that makes their songs such great songs. I know Madonna by heart so I know which song follows which song, but you couldn't make out the songs they were playing at times. Too much feedback, too much noise, a great injustice to what makes them so great.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 18 March 2019 19:27 (five years ago) link
oh no :/ hopefully they've got that sorted by May
― Simon H., Monday, 18 March 2019 19:35 (five years ago) link
Hope so too. You can always go and buy a nice hand-drawn Keely drawing at the merch stand, that's something.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 18 March 2019 19:46 (five years ago) link
A buddy of mine saw them a few weeks ago in Vera, Groningen and according to him they were great. Loud, but great.
― Marty8501 (Marty Innerlogic), Monday, 18 March 2019 20:12 (five years ago) link
That was the same show I was at :) It was loud, and terrible. The loudness obliterated what I find ToD's strength, which is melody. They did not find that balance, at all. There's no need for them to be this loud. It felt like they tried to obscure bad vocals/bad play by just blasting their songs out there. Plus: bailing three songs into ST&C - my fave ToD album - was nagl, to say the least.
Idk, ymmv, but I was bitterly disappointed by one of the bands I admire most.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 18 March 2019 20:25 (five years ago) link
They played well in TO last night - their drummer in particular is great - but the mixing and tone was absurd. Specifically, their lead guitarist was so amped up (both in terms of amplitude and maxing out distortion) that it drowned out everything but those drums! Conrad was literally inaudible. Completely baffling choices. The set was Madonna plus a couple Source Tags tunes, though it took me a full 45-60 seconds each to figure out what those were due to the sound.
― Simon H., Thursday, 9 May 2019 12:51 (five years ago) link
This was nice to see, incl some great trivia I hadn't previously heard.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/and-you-will-know-us-by-the-trail-of-madonna/
― Simon H., Sunday, 10 November 2019 12:20 (four years ago) link
never got why people think that's the classic, including the band itself seemingly, they got much better later on
― imago, Sunday, 10 November 2019 12:25 (four years ago) link
go back and correct your atrocity of a worlds apart review cowards
― imago, Sunday, 10 November 2019 12:26 (four years ago) link
I think the review is correct to say it's not seen as *the* classic (see poll results!) but was important nevertheless, and was a big part of that loose scene of "aggro" indie acts mentioned
lol at "Totally Natural" being inspired by Dogstar, who even Keanu recently admitted sucked
― Simon H., Sunday, 10 November 2019 12:32 (four years ago) link
i guess in context it was important
― imago, Sunday, 10 November 2019 12:35 (four years ago) link
that completely contrived Farmclub performance that's mentioned is absolutely what got them on my radar in the first place. I wasn't aware Iovine had taken such a personal interest in them, though
― Simon H., Sunday, 10 November 2019 12:42 (four years ago) link
The pitchfork sunday reviews lead with this quote:
Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible.
I guess that means they had deleted the original review from their archive?https://web.archive.org/web/20060508094809/http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/a/and-you-will-know-us-by-the-trail-of-dead/madonna.shtml
(it's not nearly as embarrassing as some of Ryan Schreiber's reviews, and the number rating they gave it back then is just about the same)
― enochroot, Monday, 11 November 2019 00:53 (four years ago) link
That’s really funny. I was wondering why they wouldn’t have reviewed it the first time around. That original review is godawful, of course.
― quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Monday, 11 November 2019 00:55 (four years ago) link
https://youtu.be/bbXNaERHIfA
new one X: The Godless Void and Other Stories (lol) out in January. single's good, Keely is....sort of really singing on it?!
― Simon H., Thursday, 14 November 2019 16:33 (four years ago) link
Singing's not too bad! Not blown away by the song, but I'm not left hopeless, which is something
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 14 November 2019 16:44 (four years ago) link
this sounds pretty good! the instrumental bridge is where it's at
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 14 November 2019 17:08 (four years ago) link
Aaaww, I love this! The singing is so nice, though I think I prefer when the guitar is a bit lower in the mix and all murky. Hope there's something as good as A Million Random Digits on the new one.
― tangenttangent, Saturday, 16 November 2019 11:35 (four years ago) link
A lovely little 90s alt-rock song! Nice of Conrad to show us a bit of his life in Cambodia while he's about it
― imago, Saturday, 16 November 2019 12:50 (four years ago) link
But yeah, hoping for something more dynamic next. XI was a really strong album imo
― imago, Saturday, 16 November 2019 12:51 (four years ago) link
Sounds great
― June Pointer’s Valentine’s Day Secret Admirer Note Author (calstars), Saturday, 16 November 2019 14:51 (four years ago) link
new one is moody AOR comfort food and I mean this as a compliment. the vocals are, as aforementioned, mysteriously improved.
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Friday, 17 January 2020 16:19 (four years ago) link