Explosions was formed in July 1999 by Rayani (guitar), two friends he grew up with in Midland, Texas, Mark T. Smith (guitar) and Michael James (bass) and Chris Hrasky (drums). They came together in Austin, home of slacker culture and the richest indie music scene in the American southwest.
With the Taiwan shows, the band will be coming to the end of nearly four months of touring, including about six weeks in Europe.
"This is our best tour yet. We actually came home with rent money," said Rayani.
For Explosions, day jobs are still necessary between tours and when they travel, it's in a clunky, loveable and fully carpeted Dodge Family Van with four captain's chairs.
On the latest tour, a milestone for the band was opening a Houston show for Fugazi in front of 2,000 people, the biggest crowd they've ever played for.
Behind the music, Explosions' songs are often inspired by movies or world events and are heavy in narrative overtones. One track on Those Who Tell the Truth contains a lengthy soliloquy from The Thin Red Line, and another coming out on the next album, Six days at the Bottom of the Ocean, was inspired by the 66-man crew of the Russian submarine Kursk, who were trapped and suffocated on the sea floor.
So maybe one can imagine the spooky resonance people found between Explosions music and the events of Sept. 11, 2001, especially with the freakishly coincidental release of Those Who Tell the Truth.
To be honest, Rayani thinks it was good for the band, mostly because it got them lots of publicity. Around 30 college radio stations refused to play them, he said, and a major music magazine, NME, ranked them second on a list of bands in need of a name change.
But if anything, what was behind Those Who Tell the Truth was more Austin irony, less prophetic subversion. They got the album name from a guy working at Star Seeds, a well-known Austin cafe, who described to them a documentary about the assassination of his favorite filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini. He said the film was called Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die.
"And we were, like, that's about the greatest title I've ever heard in my life," said Rayani. But the band changed it a little, taking into account the power of the words and acts of the martyred. So they added the second phrase: "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever."
Later they discovered that the documentary whose title they stole had never even existed. Now is that eerie or irony? They'll probably choose to describe it as the former.
What: Explosions in the Sky
Where: Zeitgeist, B1, 122 Chunghsiao E. Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei
When: Tomorrow 8pm and Sunday 3pm
Tickets: NT$950 through Acer ticketing
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