And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
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Music CD Cover
Artist: And You Will Know Us By the Trail of DeadEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-02-26
Music Label: Interscope Records
Soundtracks:
- It Was There That I Saw You
- Another Morning Stoner
- Baudelaire
- Homage
- How Near How Far
- Heart in the Hand of the Matter
- Monsoon
- Days of Being Wild
- Relative Ways
- After the Laughter
- Source Tags and Codes
Free Music Notes for Source Tags & Codes
Free Music Review: The Soundtrack to My Own Teenage Riot
Hit: 5 Stars
When I was 17, I discovered Source Tags & Code almost accidentally. I think I stumbled across it while trying to get into At the Drive-In (which never happened), the band who a lot of people say the Trail of Dead owe their sound. Very shortly after that, I started to smoke pot. The two things are completely unrelated except for the fact that this became my favorite album to listen to when high, and I listened to this album almost everyday for more than a year. It seemed to embody everything I felt and looking back, it really seems to define that whole era for me. I remember listening to it and worrying what exactly I wanted to major in in college - which I imagined would shape the whole future of my life. I remember listening to this for perhaps the 79th time, while particularly baked, and outlining a review for this album in which I explained how it was a brilliantly subtle concept album with a story arc describing the ego of any and every teen in America (I won't get into it, but I still somewhat believe it), and wondering why it wasn't the most popular album in the country, and stating for sure that it would be remembered as ahead of it's time.
"It Was There (That I Saw You)" couldn't be better for the first song. A quiet, simple guitar riff quickly joins the sound of a distant tv and what could only be described as space static. No sooner than the 15 second mark, the bass distinctively drops in half a beat before the loud, distorted, chiming punk chords and Conrad lets out one verse and a chorus about an old girlfriend ("but as time went on, I wondered what went wrong, I wondered what became....of you...") which segues into a great bridge/fuzzed out guitar jam that builds and builds until it bursts back into verse two with another bass dropout and even faster, louder, chimier (is that a word?) guitars and a climactic repeat of the chorus. This sets up the tone for the whole album, as most of the songs go by that same formula of Intro-verse-chorus-cool breakdown-verse-chorus-climax, some more intensely, others less so. I actually didn't like this song so much at first only because it's sung in what sounded to me like the whiny Good Charlotte pop-punk that was circulating at the time.
"Another Morning Stoner" is, even on the first listen, immediate a standout. The two guitar intro, one playing a riff right up there with Cobain's best, the other adding cool atmospheric fills grabs your attention and leads in to melodic, buzzsaw guitars on the verse. I think it was the second single.
"Baudelaire" has fast power chords and lyrics about the poet most famous for writing about boredom being the greatest sin. The fact that this is one of the most forgettable songs on the album is a compliment.
"Homage" is exactly what it's name implies. It's an homage to post-punk screamo bands such as Fugazi and Minor Threat. It's very fast paced and great if you were ever a fan of post-punk. If not, you won't like it.
"How Near How Far" is immediately another album highlight. The mellow, slowly crashing drums combining with a great echo-y guitar riff open the song then the pace is quickened for the verses, until it returns towards the end and builds while the refrain "how near, how far, how lost they are" is repeated about 15 times. This song is so amazing it will be playing in your head for a week after hearing it.
"Heart in the Hand of the Matter" begins with the coolest opening lyrics since "I was born in a crossfire hurricane" from Jumping Jack Flash. You just have to respect any song that begins with "ride the apocalypse" and a continues on with"there's nothing that could be done/we've lost all control/I walk in the shadows of your tortured realm/and I'm so damned/I can't win/with my heart in my hands again." At first, this song didn't really grab me. But, after actually listening to the lyrics I really came to think this is easily up there with the best songs on the album. "Heart in the Hand" leads perfectly into "Monsoon," which must be the most epic song of ToD's career so far. The great lyrics continue with such gems as "roll of thunder like a voice that commands/raindrops fall like the blood from your hands/pray to a God but I doubt that he's listening/this world's a gutter that he likes to piss in/millions of people quietly sleep/dreaming of deserts as the puddles run deep." Musically, "Monsoon" wears it's Sonic Youth influence right out on it's sleeve. James Reece even sounds like Lee Renaldo here.
"Days of Being Wild" blasts off right out of the gate. It's the loudest, fastest, and as far as I'm concerned, best song on all of `Source Tags'. The lyrics about "all night amphetamines" being "alive in jail/alive and well" fit perfectly being shouted over the hammering drums and guitars that sound like their trying to impersonate the sound of metal being viciously torn apart. The song climax's with a chorus being desperately shouted with the poem "Graffiti Deposition" read over it, ending in the line "a middle finger to the institution" and it all just works so surprisingly well.
"Relative Ways" was the first single, which of course means in this case that it's the most straightforward rock song here. Again awards for cool lyrics must go out for "our electric guitar hangs to our knees/got a couple of verses I can barely breathe/it's alright it's ok/it's coming together in relative ways" as well as the repeated lines "it's ok/I'm a saint/I forgave your mistakes".
"After the Laughter" is a instrumental interlude that continues the riffs from "Relative Ways" but quietly and on piano. It's a perfect comedown and a perfect lead-in to "Source Tags & Code" which is one of those perfect album closers where the guitars and lyrics just seem to put you into that totally warm, happy, nostalgic mood without fail every time you listen to it. There's nothing more to be said about this song, you can't not like it. Stick around after the song is over because after a few seconds you hear a very unlikely beautiful violin concerto which is the album's true coda.
Now I'm 21. Finally, I've answered all those questions I used to ask myself while stoned and blasting this in headphones. With the last grains of teenager-dom finally washed away, I still find myself coming back to this CD quite often. So, I'm starting to think that my very first impressions of `Source Tags' were totally right. This isn't just some teen angst [...] you listen to when you're young, then forget. This album is truly one of the greats, one that will be up there with those few albums that have seemed to define entire sections of your life. Albums that when played, have the power to transport you back to all the good times, all the bad times, and at the same time be an excellent album musically and lyrically. `Madonna' before this laid the groundwork, "the St. Elena's Tomb" EP hold's more of the same type of sound found here, before `World's Apart' blew ToD's possibilities wide open with a blend of different song styles. But none of those albums can touch the landmark greatness of `Source Tags & Codes."
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