1215 20TH ST. DENVER, CO THUR AUG 12 FRI AUG 13 SAT AUG 13 SAT AUG 14 SUN AUG THUR AUG 18 19 EMILY WOLFE FRI AUG Lorem 20 SAT AUG 20 SAT AUG 21 SUN AUG THUR AUG 25 F 26 FRI AUG 27 SATI AUG 27 90s & 00s DANCE PARTY SAT AUG HYPE! BRUNCH WITH WES WATKINS Lorem BIG STYLES AND DANAE SIMONE PRESENT: LADIES NIGHT: TEAM NICKI VS TEAM CARDI Lorem ipsum dolor sit BRUNCH WITH WES WATKINS THE DOCKSIDERS 70s & 80s YATCH ROCK SIEMBRA A TROPICAL DANCE PARTY BRUNCH WITH EL JAVI MUSIC 11REINA DEL CID CITIZEN DAN A TRIBUTE TO STEELY DAN BRUNCHING UP THAT HILL: THE STRANGER THINGS BRUNCH FUTURE CLASSIXX BRUNCHING UP THAT HILL: THE STRANGER THINGS BRUNCH Lorem SHAMIR WITH MYYLO Lorem Four Play BY JOHN BEAR When Austin band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead began experiment- ing with the quadraphonic format to mix its eleventh album, XI: Bleed Here Now, members Conrad Keely and Jason Reece realized they had been missing out on the surround-sound experience. “[The quadraphonic format has] been around, but for whatever reason, musicians have not really embraced it,” explains lead vocalist Keely. “I think they just weren’t aware of its accessibility. Quadraphonic is simply just getting a mix for four speakers.” XI: Bleed Here Now is currently available on all major streaming platforms. The 22-track re- cord includes guest appearances by Britt Daniel of Spoon and Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls. Trail of Dead plays the hi-dive on August 16. Quadraphonic sound, which implements four audio channels, was introduced in the early ’70s, and thousands of recordings were made using the format. Because it requires four speakers, it wasn’t compatible with a lot of home stereos at the time and was initially a commercial failure. But it saw a revitaliza- tion in the ’90s, when surround-sound home entertainment systems became increasingly popular. Keely sees the quadrophonic format as a viable way to mix records, considering that headphones such as Air Bud Pros have become more sophisticated with spatial audio capability. “It will increasingly become more pre- dominant in the industry with Apple Music streams and now Atmos mixes, which is the best way to listen to the record if you have a surround-sound setup,” Keely says. “With the industry getting more into VR and the metaverse and all that, it will become more common to have surround-sound mixes.” Keely says that as he started to explore the format, he listened to the quadraphonic mixes of numerous older records, including Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. He realized that music fans are often miss- ing out on some great-sounding records by limiting themselves to stereo or mono mixes. “We kind of live in a surround-sound RESERVE A TABLE AT OPHELIASDENVER.COM 28 world,” he says. “When we try to simplify a mix down to the stereo fi eld, it’s kind of like turning everything into a photograph rather than the three-dimensional reality we actually live in.” He’d like to hear what other artists — dream-pop duo Beach House comes to mind — can do with the format, but also what re- mixes of classic albums such as Radiohead’s OK Computer or Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet might sound like. Experimental Conrad Keely and Jason Reece of ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. rock band Yeasayer’s fi rst album, All Hour Cymbals, would probably sound awesome mixed in quadraphonic, he adds. “To hear them mixed for surround sound would be a music appreciator’s dream come true,” Keely says. “Suddenly, you can isolate different things when you hear the mixes. ... Most people know Ziggy Stardust, but the quad mix of that is fucking amazing.” Trail of Dead has always experimented in the studio, so messing around with quad- raphonic sound was a natural progression. Keely got the idea from friend and record producer KamranV, formerly of Interscope Records. KamranV has recorded a quadra- phonic record with synth pioneer Suzanne Ciani, and Keely was already a fan of Ciani’s Buchla Concerts 1975 album, so he was in- trigued at the thought. “I realized that if we mix in quadraphonic, it would really allow us to spread out these instruments,” he says. “If you hear our album on true quadraphonic, separated quadra- phonic, you’ll hear that. There’s one drum set in the front and one in the back.” Although the quadraphonic format is primarily based on how the album is mixed after recording, Trail of Dead also did things in the studio to make the mixing easier. “When we were recording the string section, rather than just having stereo mi- crophones on the string section, we made a point of putting four mics on there,” Keely says. “We knew that was what we were going to end up doing.” XI: Bleed Here Now also has plenty of the- atrical instrumental compositions between the songs. But in spite of the somewhat novel mixing approach and its expansive length, it isn’t a concept record. The songs’ lyrics aren’t bound by theme, either. “Taken by the Hand” was written when Keely was eighteen, in 1990, and might actually be the oldest Trail of Dead song to be recorded. Meanwhile, “Protest Streets” was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests in Austin in 2020. “There was a very anti-war or anti-confl ict feel for ‘Kill Everyone,’” Keely says. “The thought of the impending environmental crisis and the sense of the divide in America [inspired] ‘Growing Divide.’ A song like ‘Water Tower’ was really a song about a certain point in my life, when I was growing up in Olympia.” He notes that every Trail of Dead album is a product of its time, and says he doesn’t consider himself a nostalgic person searching for some golden yesteryear. “I’m more of a futurist,” he says. “I believe the best is yet to come. We have to strive to make a better future rather than being enamored with the past.” ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, 9 p.m. Tuesday, August 16, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway, $25. Learn more at trailofdead.com. AUGUST 11-17, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com KRYSTAL MORRIS
