…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Announce Album and Tour.
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are returning after six years with their 10th full-length studio album X: The Godless Void and Other Stories – due out on 17th January 2020 on InsideOutMusic. The new LP comes as the band enters their 25th year together and along with the news today the band is releasing the first single and official video for “Don’t Look Down”.
Watch the video here:
The new album will be released as a Limited CD Digipak, 180g vinyl + album on CD & as digital album, all featuring the iconic artwork of Conrad Keely. Pre-order’s start tomorrow.
X: The Godless Void and Other Stories was produced by …Trail’s own Conrad Keely alongside engineer Charles Godfrey (Sinkane, of Montreal, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Work on the new album began in earnest in 2018 after Keely returned home to Austin following five years in Cambodia, rejoining fellow founding member Jason Reece. As a result, the album sees Keely detailing “the sadness of moving away from a place that I loved,” while also taking inspiration from Steven Pressfield’s book The War Of Art to face his own demons regarding the creative process. “I feel like I’m writing pop music,” he says, “it’s just not Top 20 pop. It’s the pop music I wish was on the radio, the pop music I would’ve grown up with.”
Reece agrees, citing Talk Talk, Killing Joke and Laurie Anderson as inspirations. “There’s definitely the idea of loss, leaving someone or something important in your life, but it’s more abstract,” he explains, adding that the track “Into The Godless Void” in particular deals with “this existential woe that all humans tend to go through – feeling that weight that plagues the mind.”
X: The Godless Void and Other Stories comes as the duo enters their 25th year together as a band. After playing their first show together in 1995, they quickly became known for their powerful and cathartic live performances that often ended with them destroying their instruments on stage. They released their self-titled debut album in 1997 on King Coffey’s Trance Syndicate label and in 1999, sophomore LP Madonna followed on Merge Records. Three years later, seminal LP Source Tags & Codes would cement the band’s status in rock lore after it earned them a rare Pitchfork 10. The band subsequently released Worlds Apart (2005), So Divided (2006), The Century of Self (2009) and the triumphant Tao of the Dead (2011) which led to a live performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that had Questlove tweeting, “damn!!! @realtrailofdead came and kicked ass in 2 mins!!!”
Critical acclaim continued with Lost Songs in 2012 which Rolling Stone wrote, “…explosive indie-prog is defined by the push and pull of Conrad Keely's epic mysticism and Jason Reece's primal punk surge.” 2014’s IX had NME calling it, “…their most focused and thrilling…,” Uncut added that the LP did a “…a good job of tethering grand ambition to signature intensity” and Billboard said the album recalled, “the ponderous grandeur of 2002’s seminal Source Tags & Codes.”
After a steady flow of albums and touring, the six years between IX and X: The Godless Void and Other Stories made up their longest break and found both Reece and Keely working on other projects. “When Conrad moved to Cambodia, we both had time to live our lives and do different things,” Reece explains. “Coming back to the band, there was a new vigor to it. It all feels exciting still.” They’ve also reverted to the live format of their early years with Reece and Keely alternating between drums and frontman duties – a musical partnership that dates back to high school and feels fresh and familiar all at the same time.
The band have also announced European headline shows in support of the new record, find the full list below:
Sun 09 Feb 2020 Dunquerque, France, Les Quatre Ecluses
Mon 10 Feb 2020 Paris, France, Le Petit Bain
Wed 12 Feb 2020 Cologne, Germany, Stadtgarten
Thu 13 Feb 2020 Bielefeld, Germany, Forum
Fri 14 Feb 2020 Basel, Switzerland, Sommercasino
Sun 16 Feb 2020 Reutlingen, Germany, Franz.K
Mon 17 Feb 2020 Munich, Germany, Strom
Tue 18 Feb 2020 Vienna, Austria, Flex
Wed 19 Feb 2020 Berlin, Germany, Festsaal Kreuzberg
Fri 21 Feb 2020 Hamburg, Germany, The Stage Club
Sat 22 Feb 2020 Copenhagen, Denmark, Loppen
Sun 23 Feb 2020 Stockholm, Sweden, Stockholm Nalen Klubb
Mon 24 Feb 2020 Oslo, Norway, Vulkan Arena
Wed 26 Feb 2020 Amsterdam, Netherlands, Melkweg
Thu 27 Feb 2020 Nijmegen, Netherlands, Doornroosje
Fri 28 Feb 2020 Brussels, Belgium, Botanique
Sat 29 Feb 2020 Brighton, Sussex, England, Patterns
Sun 01 Mar 2020 Bristol, England, The Exchange
Mon 02 Mar 2020 Nottingham, England, The Bodega Social Club
Tue 03 Mar 2020 Edinburgh, Scotland, The Mash House
Wed 04 Mar 2020 Manchester, England, Night & Day
Thu 05 Mar 2020 Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Riverside
Sat 07 Mar 2020 Leicester, England, The Cookie
Sun 08 Mar 2020 Huddersfield, England, The Parish
Tue 10 Mar 2020 London, England, The Dome
Wed 11 Mar 2020 St Albans, England, The Horn
