And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead "The Secret of Elena's Tomb" - A 5-song EP from the emo kids with a ridiculously long band name. There is quite a lot of variation on this. It ranges from moody dischordant emo to epic sounding rock to dark electronic music. I found some of the lyrics a bit pretentious, but I guess that's what being emo and indie is all about sometimes. The music is solid and they do a great job of mixing in simple elements to complex orchestration. The song on side B seems to be quite a departure from their usual stuff and is really cool. Overall I liked this a lot. If you like the moody emo rock you should definitely check this out.
My Picks: A1, A4, B Katie P. 7/3/03

A1) Starts with quiet midtempo guitar strumming and builds with the drums and bass. Once vocals come in it picks up speed to an uptempo song. A few builds and falls. Kind of dark and moody and then angry vocals. Fades out into weird spacey sounds that fade into the next track.
A2) Sort of fades from last song, but hits in with a solid sliding guitar line. Solid midtempo number. Really nice instruments on this. Lyrics are kinda weird. Has another space droning that ends abruptly.
A3) Quiet guitar goes into a solid midtempo number that is pretty lazy and laid back. Vocals are nice and music gets a little moody when there aren't any vocals. Really nice build near the end. Funny little horn outro.
A4) Guitar strumming with soft vocals. Midtempo and quite pretty. Drones that start to fade and then build to an abrupt stop.

B) Starts with slow quiet guitar. Vocals come in. Wait, is this a drum machine? Yes indeed. Wow, this really works. Dark and moody at a nice uptempo pace. This is kinda weird, but it's pretty damn cool.