oOo ather press >>> CULTURE CD Reviews find You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead fidam Honsinger Editor Source Tags & Codes ae | haven't heard the band’s two previous albums and | have never been to one of their apocalyptic instrument demolishing shows, (as a matter of fact | borrowed the CD) so why, you might ask, am | reviewing ToD’s latest disc? Well, because | have read Baudelaire and experienced a monsoon in South East Asia in 1992, references found in two of Source Tags & Codes’ track titles. Oh, and | like their name. Call it post-punk, sonic metal, whatever, this CD is accessible to anyone who likes licking nine- volt batteries while skeet shooting Radiohead discs in a torrential downpour. These guys from Austin Texas know the salvation of their generation is not to be found in love, fat pay cheques, or state of the art electronics, but in catharsis—hyper energy that crescendos and then collapses in four minute intervals, only to relish the moment between songs and start again. | don’t know if | read it in Discorder or on a brick wall under a bridge somehere, but the new aloum builds on Madonna’s (their previous album) heavy metal cleavage and busts the whole thing open with lyrics that echo a vision of debauchery and silicone until there is nothing left but the real thing raw and perfect. With all the on-stage mayhem that the band is notorious for, Source Tags & Codes is tight, in tune and sometimes downright melodic, suggesting that they save their instrument smashing for their live shows. Put it on, crank it up and be sure to listen to the lyrics. Piebald Geoff Gauthier OP Contributor We Are the Only Friends We Have The CD opens with a huge wall of guitars and then suddenly goes quiet; an acoustic twang, then a quirky off-key voice begins a descent into the changing lives of friends of long ago, a band that disbanded, a van that died, and memories of the road. And it only gets better from there. Piebald’s new release, We Are the Only Friends We Have is 11 tracks of super emo-pop excel- lence from Andover, Massachusetts. The immediate aesthetic of Travis Schettel’s vocals compli- ments the rich history of the band, including tours with such acts as New Found Glory, and Saves The Day, Piebald has also released multiple compilations, and several seven inch vinyl recordings. The first single, “Just a Simple Plan”, is a shining example of the rest of the album. The song opens with an intro of the Edgerly After School kids singing the chorus with Schettel and an acoustic guitar in a classroom. Schettel asks them to “sing like you got an ‘A’ on your report card,” and the cute little tots belt out the chorus like no one’s business. The song radiates with masterful overtones thanks to the producer Paul Q. Kolderie. The bass is dirty and bouncy while maintaining the low end, and the guitars blaze on with a strange fuzzy clarity. The album contains some jerky genre shifting that is sometimes annoying and sometimes brilliant. On “Fear and Loathing in Cape Cod”, it starts out as a simple acoustic song, goes wildly electric to the point of being almost ska, and then back to the acoustic again. Just behind the chorus are well- timed but ill-fitting trumpet blasts. It gets quite confusing. One of the standout tracks on the album is “The Monkey Versus the Robot’, where the band seems to have the stark realisation that they have the best job in the world. The lyrics are gorgeous. There are two stories of people who are all consumed by their work-a-day worlds, a man who works for the weekend and a woman who works to go back to work. The band thanks luck and a lot of practice for the ability to play music professionally and forcefully reiterate it in their songs with lyrics like “we’ve got a job to do and this is it. We’re nobody’s robot, we’re nobody’s monkey.” One other cool bonus of the CD is the 26-page photo spread of the band with random strange aieballd e APE THE ONLY FRIENOS WE Maw e | objects, like a guy in a bear suit, a pinata, and an old-school Triumph motorcycle. The stark honesty of the words in combination with the unique vocals features Piebald as a good hard listen. The music rocks and even the sketchy stuff is still good. There are a lot of indie rock albums out there, but this is one that should make your list.