Trail of Dead rises, on its own terms
A sense of zippy reinvigoration permeates the sprawling new album by . . .And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and frontman-songwriter Conrad Keely credits two big, opposing moves for its energy.
"I think a lot of it had to do with getting off of Interscope and the renewed enthusiasm of doing it for ourselves," he says of the band's split from its major label home following 2006's underwhelmingly received "So Divided."
The unconventional rockers - Keely, cofounding singer-songwriter/drummer Jason Reece, and a rotating lineup - actually had fun recording "The Century of Self." "One illustration of how they were feeling while making the album is the sheer amount of tambourines on the songs," says producer Chris Coady, laughing.
Trail of Dead, which brings its tambourines and sonic maelstrom to the Middle East Downstairs Sunday night, didn't leave Interscope for typical reasons. Keely says there were no suits haunting the band's recording sessions saying they didn't hear a single.
"We were given so much artistic license that we were also given no direction," he says on the phone from an Orlando tour stop. "And who knows, I might've actually preferred to have a sit-down talk with [Interscope head] Jimmy Iovine and had him map out what he thought a record should achieve, but we never had that opportunity."
Consequently, Keely says he and the band were less than pleased with the last two Trail of Dead albums. Critics and fans - who had enthusiastically embraced the group's abilities to seamlessly knit prog and punk on the acclaimed 2002 album "Source Tags & Codes" - agreed.
The ship is righted on "Self" as the band throws caution to the wind and everything else against the wall as it creates a dynamic bed in which to lay Keely's philosophy- and literature-influenced tales.
The songwriter also found a new source of inspiration. Just as the band was celebrating its move from the big leagues back to the indie realm - "Self" is out on Trail of Dead's own Richter Scale Records, in conjunction with Justice Records - Keely relocated from Austin, Texas, to Brooklyn.
"I'd lived in Austin for so many years, and I felt like I'd gotten too comfortable," says Keely. "I wasn't really being challenged by my environment. So moving to New York was about as big of a challenge that I felt I could get away with without moving out of the country."
That step stirred his creative juices and led to the more urgent, experimental sound of "Self," which finds the group melding snotty punk barks with classical keyboard riffs, vintage guitar rock interludes, and Celtic flavors that offer trace amounts of Green Day, the Rolling Stones, and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer.
Unsurprisingly, in conversation, Keely easily moves from Stravinsky to the Ramones to acclaimed author M.M. Kaye. "Self" producer Coady says the entire band is steeped in such diverse interests. "I can see how it all comes together as a wash of sounds because there's so many influences," says Coady, who has worked with the similarly fearless Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio. "The pool that they're pulling from is pretty wide."
Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com. 
