Back on Course


For the past year or so, Dallas' tribal/industrial metal band Course
of Empire has kept a low profile, popping up for the occasional gig 
and that's about it.  

CoE guitarist Mike Graff says they've been killing time building a 
new recording studio in Deep Ellum and pounding out a new album.  
The studio's done, Graff says, and is the primary recording spot for 
the group's new record, Telepathic Last Words, which is pretty much 
in the can.  It's due out in mid-June.  

Graff says the new record - which includes a cover of T. Rex's Cosmic 
Dancer - marks yet another change in CoE's direction.

"It's like old school glam rock mixed in with what you'd expect from 
us," he says.  "We were trying to capture the frame of mind before 
punk happened, when people were still tyring to do glam rock."
Telepathic - named after magician Harry Houdini's supposed final 
trick (to contact his wife from the grave) - was produced my John 
Fryer, whose credits include Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing westward, 
Love and Rockets and numerous like-minded others.  Fryer was visiting 
friends in Dallas when the guys hit up to produce the record.

"It was a stroke of luck to have someone like him pop up in your back 
yard," Graff says.

COE, whose early incarnation included soon-to-be-hired/later-to-be-fired 
Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzese, is known for its grinding percussive 
noise as much as it is for its holocaust/doomsday lyrics.  This time 
out, Graff says, they've lightened up a bit.

"They're [the lyrics] definitely less me-against-the-world," he says. 
"I guess they're dealing more with things that matter to us, 
personally."

Course of Empire performs with Comet and Rubberbullet at 10pm Friday 
at Trees.  Cover is $7.  Info (214) 748-5009.