Back in 1967, the Who brought instrument smashing to America. In 2000, ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the high-voltage art-rock band from Austin, Texas, returned the favor, blowing away English audiences with its thrillingly destructive stage show at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in East Sussex. Unlike the Who, however, the members of Trail of Dead often end up worse off than their equipment, suffering bruises, gashes, even the occasional impalement. "Hopefully, things won't escalate to the point where we're having limbs and things chopped off," says singer, guitarist, and part-time drummer Conrad Keely, who bears an eerie resemblance to the young Don Ho, "but a tour isn't a tour without a good injury." Their second album, Madonna, earned them raves, and not just from confused fans of the Material Girl. Interscope Records liked it enough to release the band's as-yet-untitled follow-up—a thrashing blend of dissonant, swirling soundscapes and blistering hard rock—at the end of February. "When we go into the studio," says Keely, "I'm thinking Dark Side of the Moon here, you know? Or De La Soul Is Dead." So what's with the goth name? Keely, whose bizarre pseudo-intellectual dissertations are a staple of the group's Web site (trailofdead.com), answers with characteristic insincerity: "Our lawyer said we can't talk about it, because a manufacturer of a leading laundry detergent is saying we took the name off its label, which is not true. So you can go ahead and print that if you want."