Trace Mountains
Dean Engle*When the pandemic arrived just a few months after Dave Benton released his last album as Trace Mountains, the singer-songwriter decided to turn the terrible timing into a creative opportunity.
“It was certainly disappointing to not be able to tour in support of Lost in the Country,” Benton tells Rolling Stone. “But at the same time I love just jumping immediately back into the process of making a record…I feel like I hit a groove with it so much [more easily] because I had no downtime or break from writing songs.”
Over the course of 2020, Benton dove deep into the writing process for House of Confusion, the upcoming third Trace Mountains album, out October 22nd on Lame-O Records. The record, as the former LVL-UP singer-guitarist describes it, is a more questioning, inward-looking collection of songs, compared to the rock & roll optimism of Lost in the Country.
“In hindsight, I really think of that album as my mission statement,” Benton says of his critically acclaimed second album. “House of Confusion feels like it’s taking a harder look at life and getting into the nitty-gritty a little more.”
Case in point: “America,” the album’s disco-rock-inspired lead single, which Benton began writing as he finished up Lost in the Country. “It was just a song about hating my job and my life,” Benton, who was laid off by his day job during the pandemic, says of an early version of the tune.
But as the Kingston, New York-based musician wrote the rest of House of Confusion, “America” eventually came into focus: “I decided I’d stick with this theme about the false American Dream but put it in the context of a road song,” he says. “The idea is that the narrator has this disappointing secret about America that he is reluctant to share with his fellow passengers.”
After beginning with the acoustic meditation “Seen It Coming,” Benton’s new record proceeds with 10 more rootsy pedal steel country-rockers and breezy ballads about the proverbial and literal open road.
“The only way I can describe the feeling is like there’s a storm on the horizon,” Benton says of “Seen It Coming.” “That’s the kind of image that represents the whole album for me: It’s a road album, a journey. There are no answers, only questions.”
House of Confusion, Trace Mountain’s third LP, will be released on October 22nd.
NEWS
Placebo have kicked off their 30th anniversary tour by dusting off some tracks for the first time in over 20 years, and also playing new single ‘Helen Keller’ live for the first time.
The new dates come as the band are celebrating the 30 years since they dropped their 1996 debut album. To mark the occasion, they have announced a huge UK and European arena tour, where they have vowed to predominantly play material from their first album and their sophomore record ‘Without You I’m Nothing’.
At the opening night at Krakatoa in Mérignac, France, Brian Molko and co. delivered a stacked 19-song set, which began with ‘Pure Morning’, and immediately went into the first rendition of ‘Come Home’ in 20 years.
Another rarity came straight after, with the first live performance of ‘You Don’t Care About Us’ since 2001, as well as ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ and ‘Allergic (To Thoughts Of Mother Earth)’ which were played for the first time since 2018 and 2014 respectively.
‘Drowning by Numbers’, ‘Bruise Pristine’ and ‘My Sweet Prince’ were all introduced into the setlist for the first time since 2001, ‘Brick Shithouse’ was aired out for the first time since 2003, ‘Scared Of Girls’ was played for the first time since 2010, and both ‘Lady Of The Flowers’ and ‘36 Degrees’ were broken out for the first time in nine years.
The rest of the set was made up of ‘Teenage Angst’, ‘Bionic’, ‘I Know’ and ‘Every You Every Me’, and the band wrapped up the performance with two covers: Depeche Mode’s ‘I Feel You’, and Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’.
It wasn’t until a later show at the Super Bock Arena in Porto, Portugal, that Placebo broke out their new song ‘Helen Keller’ for the first time – playing it 13 songs into the setlist.
Check out more footage from the tour so far below, as well as the setlist from night one.
‘Pure Morning’
‘Come Home’ (First time since 2006)
‘You Don’t Care About Us'(First Time Since 2001)
‘Teenage Angst’
‘Bionic’
‘Without You I’m Nothing” (First Time Since 2018)
‘Allergic (to Thoughts of Mother Earth)” (First Time Since 2014)
‘Drowning by Numbers” (First Time Since 2001)
’36 Degrees” (Alternate Version – First Time Since 2017)
‘I Know’
‘Brick Shithouse’ (First Time Since 2003)
‘Scared of Girls’ (First Time Since 2010)
‘Bruise Pristine” (First Time Since 2001)
‘My Sweet Prince’ (First Time Since 2001)
‘Lady of the Flowers’ (First time since 2017)
‘Nancy Boy’
‘Every You Every Me’
‘I Feel You’ (Depeche Mode cover, live debut)
‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ (Kate Bush cover)
Placebo dropped the single ‘Helen Keller’ on September 28, and it sees them reach back to ‘H.K. Farewell’, a hidden instrumental from the era of their self-titled 1996 debut. In the track, they retain the eerie keyboard melody from the original, and push it to new dimensions with a heavier, more anguished feeling.
The title refers to the American author, who was also a disability rights advocate and political activist, who became deafblind as a young child and went on to become an internationally renowned writer and campaigner.
As well as the tour, Placebo also celebrated the 30th anniversary of their debut by releasing a reimagined version of the record. For the LP, Molko and Stefan Olsdal returned to the original master tapes and reworked all 10 songs from the 1996 record – describing it as a “director’s cut” that helped them inject the original songs with three decades more experience.
The ongoing tour will reach the UK and Ireland in late November and early December, where they will play Nottingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, London and Cardiff. See all the dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Dates will head to Latin America in 2027, beginning in São Paulo on February 20 and running through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia before wrapping up with shows in Guadalajara and Monterrey in March.
Placebo dropped their last album of new material in 2022, with ‘Never Let Me Go’. That record was given a four-star review by NME, which described it as “a renaissance rock record with an experimental edge”, adding that it found Placebo “inspired and ready for a new era”.
