And you will know us by the trail of dead

Thrasher Magazine, April, 2003 by George Petros

What fuels it all? Jason: "We appreciate anything that's psychedelic." Do you, smoke herb? "Oh yeah. Everybody does--we've been known to take ecstasy before a show. It adds a whole new world of experiences." No complaints from the audience? "Nope. We actually managed to stay in tune with one another." Conrad, do you smoke herb? "I do. Kevin will never do it." How about psychedelics? "As a child I did many. I did mushrooms when I was nine. With parental supervision. My stepfather believed in ritualistic drug-taking, and he raised me with a really good attitude towards drugs as something that can help to expand one's mind, but as something that should be avoided as an addiction or a crutch. And, all the ways that psychedelics can expand one's mind can also be achieved without them--definitely. You can achieve great levels of thinking."

Prior to Source Tags & Codes the band put out two albums: an eponymous debut on Butthole King Koffee's Trance label in '97. then Madonna on Merge, and now this here Interscope extravaganza. These guys have arrived! Conrad: "Interscope has a unique spot in music these days in its ability to take chances. They're more willing to take chances on weird things." Do you consider yourselves weird? "I would think that everyone else is weird, If that's normal, maybe I am weird,"

Conrad, a half-Thai whose original surname was not Keely but Sobsamai, did the cover of the new album with his painter partner James Olsen. "He paints, I draw. I'm an illustrator. I drew the picture on the inside of the jewel case. I did the cover--it's a composite of three works. Also I did the band logo, which is pencil on bristol board."

As for skating, Trail Of Dead has seen it. Neil ran a Houston skate park with his dad. Jason did his time on the board: "I briefly lived in Hawaii and I skated Walos. Ulu Watus was another place. Christian Hosoi skated there, and so did Johnny Kop." Were you good? "Not really. I had fun. We'd bring our boom box and listen to hardcore bands like Minor Threat, JFA, Suicidal Tendencies. We were into blasting hardcore and skating."

Jason explains the band's target demographic: "Only the highly-intelligent girls that are studying to become doctors and lawyers and scientists go to our shows. Only the MENSA girls go to our shows. They have to be a genius before they step through the door. Whereas the guys don't need any brainpower to go to our shows. They just need to know how to kick it and rock it. They just need to get bloody and bruised and cut their hearts out and set them on the stage." Mayan style!