Lost Songs - Album Press Release - TOPBUTTON Digital

“Lost Songs”
Available as:
Ltd. Ed. 2 CD Book (incl. 180 pages of text [excerpts from “Strange News From Another
Planet”] & illustrations by Conrad Keely, 4 extra songs and a segued version of the album on disc 2)
Standard jewel case (incl. a preview of the first part of chapter 1 of Strange News From
Another Planet” in form of a flip through e-book enhancement)
180g gatefold 2LP vinyl edition (incl. the standard version of the album on CD)
Release Date: October 22 nd , 2012
Formed in late 1994 by singers/guitarists/drummers Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, Trail
of Dead has evolved over the years expanding their line-up while still being creatively
driven by the core founding members. Friends since childhood, Keely and Reece started
playing music in the indie rock town of Olympia, WA and eventually relocated to Austin, TX
where they started …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Their first release was a
self-titled album that came out on Trance Records in 1998 and was succeeded by Madonna
in 1999 on Merge records. …Trail of Dead toured the US with Superchunk shortly after and
in 2002 they released Source Tags and Codes on Interscope Records. Over the next four
years the band released two additional albums on Interscope Records – World’s Apart and
So Divided before parting ways with the label in the fall of 2007. In the Spring of 2008,
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead launched their Richter Scale Imprint and
thanks to a partnership in the US with Justice Records and in Europe with Superball Music,
their sixth studio album The Century of Self was released in February 2009. In the Spring
of 2010 the band entered a worldwide deal with Superball Music and their Richter Scale
Records Imprint and they released TAO OF THE DEAD in February 2011. In the summer of
2012 the band headed over to Hannover, Germany to record their eight full-length studio
album Lost Songs – due out October 22 nd on Richter Scale/Superball Music. Currently,
Jason and Autry are based in Austin, TX, Conrad is based in Cambodia and Jamie lives in
LA.
FACTS ON LOST SONGS:
Hello, we are ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. This is our eighth album, it
was recorded this summer in Hannover, Germany. The music was partly inspired by the
apathy to real world events that has plagued the independent music scene now for over a
decade. It was also inspired by artists such as the Cure, KARP, Ros Sereysothea, Human
League, Hildegard von Bingen, and a few others. We feel that because the lyrics can say
more about the album than we could, we would simply share them with you.
We would like to dedicate our efforts to Pussy Riot, and any and all artists who have
attempted to exercise their creativity under the oppression of government, as well as the
endemic oppression of an indifference to passion present in our mainstream culture.
- Conrad Keely, Phnom Penh 2012

INFLUENCES INCLUDE:
Fugazi, Melvins, Bikini Kill, KARP, Unwound, Sonic Youth, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Genesis, Pink
Floyd, Public Enemy, Yes, J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, etc.
TOURED/PERFORMED WITH…
Superchunk, Secret Machines, Blood Brothers, The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Doves, Audio
Slave, Foo Fighters, U2, The Sex Pistols, The Sword, Mogwai, Dinosaur Jr., Queens of the
Stone Age, Explosions in the Sky, Peaches, Spoon, My Bloody Valentine, Dethcock, Pains of
Being Pure at Heart, Sleighbells, Surfer Blood, Rival Schools
RANDOM FACTS:
- Source Tags & Codes - Received highest possible score of 10.0 on Pitchfork.
- Conrad and Jason met in high school in Hawaii
- Went to college together at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA
- Moved to Austin, TX and started playing as a guitar and drums duo under the name
You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
- Conrad has done album artwork for band’s albums as well as others including The
Sword, Fugo, Amanda Palmer and Eagle Claw and has showed his work at galleries
across the world.
Line-Up:
Conrad Keely – Vocals, guitar, drums, piano
Jason Reece – Drums, vocals, guitar
Autry Fulbright II – Bass, vocals
Jamie Miller – Drums, guitar
Trail Of Dead online:
www.facebook.com/andyouwillknowusbythetrailofdead
www.trailofdead.com
Selected Discography:
S/T (1998, Trance Syndicate)
Madonna (1999, Merge)
Source Tags & Codes (2002, Interscope)
Worlds Apart (2005, Interscope)
So Divided (2006, Interscope)
The Century of Self (2009, Richter Scale/Justice Records)
Tao of the Dead (2011, Richter Scale/Superball Music)
Lost Songs (2012, Richter Scale/Superball Music)

Open Doors
It might have been the page and pen
Were once enough to save the world
Now it doesn't answer
Tables have been turned
Save your smile, and woe betide
These seven simple offerings
Daylight hides the answers
Walking through open doors
Light defines our states of mind
They push us through our sufferings
To lose ourselves in laughter
Life lets you flow
Understand how underhand
We reinvent ourselves again
Waiting for the answers
And walking through open doors
Bright as day and soft as sky
The oracle goes passing by
Giving us no glances
Life lets you flow
Fear is not when all is lost
And all is lost when suffering
Daylight hides the answers
Walking through open doors
It brings to mind that simpler times
Were once enough to save to world
Now it doesn't matter
Time has been scorned
This song is named after a series of
performances I recently took part in, which
took place in small villages around different
provinces of Cambodia as part of a cultural
exchange entitled "Open Doors". The tour was
conceived and organized by Marcel
Crompvoets, who is currently involved in APLE,
or Action pour les Enfants
(http://www.aplecambodia.org/) an
organization to help fight human trafficking
and abuse of children in Cambodia.
Pin Hole Camera
I've seen this city through eyes of pin hole
cameras
Shadows grey and upside down
I've seen these streets stretch like slides in
panorama
Vanish into darkness on the edge of town
I've walked the alleys with my camera in my
pocket
I've stopped to watch the sun set, Ladybird
Lake, Austin
I've captured moments, places, faces lost and
empty
I've seen them starving, living in this land of
plenty
It makes me sorry
My pin hole camera
These photographs
Reveal no answers
I've traced the lines of broken prayers on empty
spaces
Recorded time in strange and cryptic wire
transmissions
Postponed the days I felt fit to reveal the
deception
Does deception reveal itself?
I've kept the world a secret in my instamatic
I've captured history upside down
Taken light from others heedless of their vision
Lost memories to anger in a split decision
It makes me sorry
This world of cameras
Our photographs
Reveal no answers
These lyrics addresses our dependence upon
photography in modern communication, and
invites us to question the validity of what we
see in the photographed images that we are
inundated with on a daily basis.
Up To Infinity
The darkest days they lie before us
The world, a monster coming back to eat her
master
Remember when we bathed with candles
The granite eyes of Horus danced about our
naked mantles
This cross, which cross
Which cross is the one
This cross, which cross?
You'll hang the witches from?
A mother screams, a child answers
Her flesh is ripped apart and dashed upon
the flagstones
A father cries, a soldier dances
Streets of fire, raped bodies piled among the
ashes
Which son, which son, Which son is the one?
Is this son the one you waste your kingdom
on?
The seven songs of spring, a dish to set
before the king
The solemn secret signs for those who died
before their time
The fallen king is found, his mouth is gagged
his hands are bound
The seven fiddlers play for those who won't
survive this day
A mother scream
Which son is the one?
This song is about the Syrian civil war. We
believe that tyranny and despotism suffered
by any people, anywhere, is intolerable, and
not an internal matter, but one which
justifies international intervention.
Opera Obscura
Anchors away, we raise the canvas
Ride the rising wind across the blank space
Brace the sails tie down the main stays
Fix down the hatches while the storms rages about
our heads
Would I come crashing down into the Storm
Out of a dream to fly the wind god is born
Fire in the hold, release the captives
Embrace the fury as the torrent screams about us
Across the waves, across the planets
Across the empty skies our hopes are dashed like
antlers
I would come back across seas of the remote
I will come back to you and bind you to your oath
The lyrics of this song are specific to my novel
Strange News From Another Planet, the first
preview of which was published with our last
album Tao of the Dead, and upcoming sections of
which will be included in the deluxe version of
this album.

Flower Card Games
A space, a line, a thought, a crime
A peace of mind, flower card games
A throne, a jewel, an empty pool
Break all the rules to flower card games
I cross the empty space, deny myself again
Somehow I break away, flower card games
I won't resign to be defined
I can survive these flower card games
Can we play flower card games?
I am the ghost, I am the son,
I am the one flower card game
I will devise, conquer divide
I will be here in time, flower card games
I won't deny the shame, I won't hide it away
I want my love to play flower card games
I will escape the chains I will come back again
I want my love to play flower card games
Flower cards are a game from Korea. Jim
Morrison once said "All games contain the idea
of death".
Place to Rest
Lay on the ground
Taste of the shade
Save your last sound
Burn it away
Lights on the hill
Wolves on their way
As above
So below
Fight for the throne
Hunt for the horn
Dreams had been sown
War has been born
The wolf hath devoured
Where oaths hath been scorned
As above
So below
Shadows waiting for the day
Gyre and gimble in the wabe
Bastard son sent to the wall
Bastard bitch sits on the throne
Life so cheap for one so young
Flesh so soft for one so dumb
This song is about Game of Thrones.
Heart of Wires
Out from the wires under the ambience
Born from the violence haunting the town
Indigo stains, eyes that answer
To one with no one around
Here on the many cold day she walks among
this heart of wires
Steal her memories back from the boy whose
mind has come alive
Blood becomes oil melts into acid
Thoughts become blurs on the monitor lights
Who is to say that life is not sprung up
From silence that dwells in disguise
Here amidst the cold razors she walks among
this heart of wires
Give her memories back to the boy whose
mind comes afire
Who from the heart of these wires
Rises up from the mud
Into their graves, I'll bury the stones
Make silent their innocent tongues
Here amidst the cold razors she walks among
these heart of wires
Seize the beast and the boy and bring them
back to me alive
Here on her bellicose days she stalks among
these heart of wires
Steal her memories back from the boy whose
mind has come alive
Adsel come back here!
I will come after you.
I will come back here.
This song, specific to Strange News From
Another Planet, concerns a cyborg creation
called Eloise IX.
Catatonic
We had so many dreams
We had so many breaks
Who were we trying to save?
What were we trying to say?
Where are we meant to go?
What are we meant to do?
Why are we standing still
When all about us moves?
Catatonic
Looking for something new
Eclipses reason
We're catatonic
I see dying in your palms
I see nothing in your eyes
I see torment in your past
See boredom in your glass
A scene of us alone
So endlessly remote
Nothing to conceal
Or fill the depth we feel
This song was originally called Catatonic
Youth. It is a portrait of an over-privileged,
dispassionate generation.

Awestruck
Meriam, her boy in hand
Lies awake and thinks of him
Who was she to ask for then?
Wandering lost in grey
The singing of the amber waves
Moving through the cloud sea scape
Get out!
Get awestruck!
Universal song of men
From the lips of a girl who takes
Her place among the hall of saints
Raise your eyes up to the sun
Sing a verse for everyone
Answer for the wrongs you've done
This song references two characters from Strange News.
It was inspired by my travels and time spent in
Cambodia.
It is meant as a rallying cry to encourage all people, but
especially young people, to step outside of their country
of origin and travel our rapidly changing planet.
For the first time in history a global community exists
as a result of the internet but also aided by relative
accessibility of air travel. The phrase "Charity starts at
the home" once meant our immediate community, but
now it means the entire planet. In order to affect any
real change and understand the upcoming changes we
are about to witness it is absolutely necessary for us to
step outside of our comfort zone and dare to be
awestruck.
Time and again
I had this crazy feeling that I had lost you again
Looked about to find out where you are
Turned around and caught your frown standing on the street
Dressed the color of your guitar
When I took you to the places I'd been to as a kid
Cities where the sidewalks never lie
We were drifting through the crowds, I saw you glancing away
Terrified to meet my eyes
I hope you understand I won't be easily turned away
But if you need me to I'm happy to oblige
Somehow I can sense that you are lost and hesitant
In the sum of your denial
I know too well the strain of losing someone you've tried to save
Friends of ours who fell to bitter ends
To have our best put to the test, knowing that we failed them
Time and again
This song is dedicated to the many wonderful friends who have
shared our musical journey but who no longer play with us.
Mountain battle song
In the summer of that year we moved the men down from
the highland
Our bodies were tired but our beds warm and dry
In the valleys the tribes had formed a secret alliance
That morning our general moved us east across the Rhine
Drums beat down the valley, through the forests in the
distance
Coming from all sides we heard cold and savage cries
As the sunset that night we knew we'd meet the resistance
But we didn't know that we the sons of Rome were going to
die
My wife, she writes to tell me of our little praetorian
In the Forum theres talk of more wars on the way
And I think as I lie here beside three fallen legions
Die for what you believe in, not the gold you get paid
Down with the Emporer
This song is about the Battle of Teutoburg forest, the
events of which took place about seventy kilometers away
from the studio we were recording in.
The battle was a great defeat for Rome, and a particular
painful one since three legions were annihilated by,
essentially, an undisciplined alliance of barbarian tribes.
This song also addresses the theme of tyranny. It is a bonus
track on the deluxe version of the album.

Bright young things
Riding up their faces down bright young things wade through town
Starved souls come to life with pursed up lips and starstruck smiles
See the creatures on the prowl pushing through the sea-foam crowd
Bedridden femme fatales lining up to follow them around
I have caught this city
It won't me go
Archives of wasted times in hazy states and drunken minds
Hung beauty on the walls who risk the world to bare it all
Gloss writers stuck for say ask why it has to be that way
Stare at their nascent lines and wonder why they lack for rhyme
Our sick generation
Our festival
Stop to watch the sun sink down beneath a line of manmade clouds
Rode through the flood zone mire with broken lights and one good tire
Raced up the temple hill, took a blessing for a cheap thrill
Disposed it for a laugh, post it to a face book photograph
I love this city
Its a spectacle
A laugh a minute
Raised to avoid the lie, never learning how or why
Taught to defend that right but never knowing what to fight
The schooling we'd forget chained us to a world of debt
Waste paint on what we feel, without the art to make it real
But we love this city
We won't let it go
And we are this city
I watched the sun sink down beneath the line of manmade clouds
I watched the undead rise and walk the streets in search of life
I've seen you back away, talking to yourself for days
I've seen you sifting through a trumped up list of what life did to you
And I thought you'd make it
But you let go
Let yourself go crazy
Archives of wasted times in hazy states and drunken minds
The schooling we'd forget chained us to a world of debt
Gloss writers stuck for say ask why it has to be that way
Waste words on what they feel without the pain to make it real
And I thought you'd make it
But you let go
Let yourself go crazy
Your festival
Sick generation
A spectacle
How I love this city
It won't let me go
This song is inspired by Austin, Texas and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is an exercise in contrast.
It also addresses the folly of a system that forces its youth into debt just for wanting to be educated.