“The Wasteland” appears in the middle of longtime Austin crew …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead’s seventh album Tao Of The Dead. Considering all the conceptual elements present — take a look at the above album art and title, of course, references to Robert Smithson, and songs with titles like “Weight of the Sun (Or the Post-Modern Prometheus), etc.” — you might as well play it safe and brush up on T.S. Eliot while listening to the sunny psychedelic pop song.

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The difference between appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2010 vs during the Almost Famous era is huge, but the sentiments and rock ‘n’ roll satire remain gently pointed in “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone,” a song written by Shel Silverstein and first recorded by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show in 1973. Right, Silverstein is the children’s book writer/artist behind the heartbreaking The Giving Tree and Where The Sidewalk Ends, A Light In The Attic, etc., but he also did those cartoons for Playboy, wrote theater pieces, and penned a ton of songs like “A Boy Named Sue.” Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute To The Songs Of Shel Silverstein — produced by Bobby Bare, Jr. and Bobby Bare, Sr. — shines a light on a few, collecting “Sue” (here performed here by Todd Snider) and 14 others. The updated take on “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone” features Pixies’ Black Francis and Joey Santiago along with Bare Jr. on guitar, David Vandervelde on bass, and Aaron Ford of  …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead on drums. The irony’s not lost that two of the folks from the band who influenced Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer, Blur, etc., but never got rich doing it are singing about making $10 million dollars a show, piloting limos, and having their way with blue-eyed groupies. And, right, the cast of Glee beat them to that cover.

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There was dust, rain, then mud. There was Eddie Vedder, sitting in with Kings Of Leon and calling Perry Farrell up onstage with Pearl Jam during a reportedly monstrous, festival headlining two-hour set. There were Brooklynites and Brits, Dave Matthews and Phoenix, The B-52s and Mos Def, John Paul Jones and Karen O. Basically there was a little of everything spread around Zilker Park this year, so we sent photographers Pooneh Ghana and Jon Gitchoff to capture what they could for our gallery. Enjoy.

Longtime and multi-syllabic Austin sextet Trail Of Dead went about reminding you of their presences via Festival Thyme, the EP where you first got a taste (via alternate takes) of “Inland Sea” and “Bells Of Creation” from the band’s sixth album The Century Of Self. Now, just as L.A. quintet Isis prepare to unveil their own collection of swirly post-something epics, the Texans bring us the swirly “Isis Unveiled” in colorfully ominous and multi-patterned video form: Get acquainted with demons from hell, an army of Dead, and Conrad Keely’s face.

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Recently you had a mixed reaction to AYWKUBTTOD’s soaring, piano-lined “Inland Sea,” from the Texan rockers’ forthcoming Festival Thyme EP. Another track’s up for grabs at RCRD LBL, “Bells Of Creation.” Conrad says it’s inspired by School Of Seven Bells, and Mormons. One is more obvious than the other.

“Bells Of Creation” comes from the Festival Thyme EP, and also appears on the band’s as-yet-untitled full-length, out in early ’09 on their Richter Scale label.

When we last spotted …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, they we are at All Tomorrow’s Parties. That weekend at Kutscher’s was wrapped tightly in nostalgia, but Austin’s longest are back with a new EP that’ll work as a stopgap before a new album, so this is about the (immediate) future: The Festival Thyme EP’s out tomorrow. The four-song collection comes with three new tracks, including the “Bells of Creation (Machete Mix),” which will show up in different form on their January ’09 full-length (more on that in a moment). Collector’s can take home the EP either as a 10″ picture disc in an edition of 3,000 (this one has a cover of the Replacement’s “Within Your Reach”) or as non-vinyl version (i.e. digital, physical) version that includes “Inland Sea.” We have the tacklists and the piano-lined, appropriately nautical “Inland Sea.”

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Day last of All Tomorrow’s Parties’ first foray in the great state of New York featured another blockbuster, ’90s-leaning lineup, although this one was extra special: acts hand picked by the triumphantly returning My Bloody Valentine, and evidently proud of it. Each thanked Shields & Co. in their own way, repeatedly, echoing weekend long talks through Kutsher’s about how much the band meant, then and now. The first such set we caught was Lilys, who interestingly (and not unexpectedly) rejected their early MBV-inspired shoe-gaze material for the later Kinks-esque stuff a la “Nanny In Manhattan,” “Better Can’t Make Your Life Better,” etc. Pushing the anxiety of influence to extremes, Kurt Heasley made a joke about “Tone Bender” after a few people yelled out requests for it, saying it was “a mistake” putting it on record. (They did play “Ginger,” old timers.)

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P4K pointed us to an interesting news report yesterday, detailing …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead’s fiery frontman Conrad Keely’s very public and acid-tongued breakup with Interscope records and Jimmy Iovine. It’s a fun read:

So as has already been announced, …Trail of Dead has once again made history, this time being the first band to drop Interscope. OK, we’re not the first. Actually, Trent Reznor beat us to it. Let’s just say we’re the first rock band to do so… this year. Ever since label head Jimmy Iovine started dating the lead singer guy of the Pussycat Dolls it became impossible to get him on the phone, so that was a first bad sign. Then their idea of marketing became keeping it a secret that we’d released a record. The industry is in a strange place these days, and the only way they can make money is to sell urban pop music. Which is what I thought we were writing, but apparently I was wrong.

That’s not saying the label didn’t do great things for us. At the expense of a massive debt to them of half a million dollars, they really helped us to grow. They’ve taught us about the worthlessness of A&R people, how to yell at idiots running an art department, and how to shake hands with smiling retailers who have no idea who you are. And I love Jimmy Iovine for having worked with John Lennon and Phil Spector on the Rock and Roll sessions. I mean, that was thirty years ago, and the Rock and Roll sessions sound pretty bad over all, and John Lennon is now dead and Phil Spector has murdered people since then, but hey, that was really cool that Jimmy did that, thirty years ago, back then, and dated Stevie Nicks. He’s had a great dating record, he just won’t have the next TOD record.

And Conrad went on with some non-Interscope related rambles (Iraq, writing songs, and a lame interview he did for Yahoo) — although the whole thing seems to have been removed from the original source (the band’s site). No worries for those that missed it; you can just check it at a cached version of the since-removed, Interscope-hating post by Conrad on the band’s Interscope-hosted blog. And that’s perfectly poetic. And hilarious.

Hold off on buying that Bon Jovi doll! This will be a better fit to keep your Beach Toy company. Turns out Jeff Tweedy’s a big UNKL toy collector, and when the urban vinyl toy company found out they contacted Jeff about creating a limited run of 2″ UNKLs in Wilco’s likeness. The band acquiesced, and behold.

Cute! We like the one with the funny head. The mini-Wilcos will be sold in a set of six, released at San Diego Comic-Con. Anyway, Sky Blue Sky is such a grower; sure it’s no Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but O’Rourke’s not working with them anymore, they’re older, Tweedy’s not addicted to hillbilly heroin, they have dolls out in their likeness. Of course they’re gonna sound different! But it works. We were gonna back that up with some great live vid of the band doing “Hate It Here,” which you may have seen earlier today on Pitchfork. But now it’s gone! Probably a Warner thing (you know how they like their intellectual property).

The clip for the slow-and-dry blues chug of Trail Of Dead’s “Naked Sun” employs some stop-motion special FX that’d make “Sneaky” Pete chuckle — but with children-aiming assassins and cheap-costumed creatures, the Texans are going for yucks. (And just maybe they’ve put their dark days behind ‘em!) Watch it at Yahoo! Music.