Trail of Dead Creates Chaotic Blend of Rock

Slick pop may be clogging up the charts, but antiheroes still have their place in rock ‘n’ roll, at least judging from the recent major-label signings of such bands as New York’s retro-punk Strokes and the Austin noise-mongers called And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

At the Troubadour on Saturday, Trail of Dead blended chaotic elements of classic rock and post-punk into a not-entirely-satisfying antidote to the current singing-dancing order of things.

The band continues the tradition of aggressively loopy, grandly conceived Texas punk purveyed by such icons as the 13th Floor Elevators and the Butthole Surfers. It has a penchant for offering endless variations on its name’s origin and a reputation for onstage destruction.

There was plenty of sonic mayhem, but Saturday’s show wasn’t too physically chaotic until the end, when the drum kit was unceremoniously flung about.

Co-founders Conrad Keely and Jason Reece swapped vocal-guitar and drumming duties throughout the hourlong set, which essentially amounted to an undulating, urgent-to-languid wave of buzzing feedback and grinding riffs, studded with fun moments of angular almost-pop and muffled anthems.

This edge-of-the-abyss exuberance certainly tapped the visceral essence of rock a la the Who, the MC5, Sonic Youth and the Pixies.

However, unlike all of the above, Trail of Dead’s hooks (not to mention actual tunes) were in short supply.

The most memorable line uttered was a quote from Patti Smith (“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”).

Indeed, Trail of Dead had the same been-there, done-that effect that the Strokes have on some listeners. But can it turn the world’s attention away from ‘N Sync et al.? Well ... at least it might give the kids something to think about.