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Murder by Death
Origin	Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Genre(s)	Indie Alternative Rock
Years active	2000–present
Label(s)	Eyeball Tent Show Records
Website	Official website
Members
Adam Turla Matt Armstrong Sarah Balliet Dagan Thogerson
Former members
Alex Schrodt Brandon Cooper Vincent Edwards

Murder by Death (formerly known as Little Joe Gould) is a four-piece rock band from Bloomington, Indiana. Their name comes from Robert Moore's 1976 movie of the same name.

The band plays an eclectic range of music, from eight minute ethereal instrumentals, to driving punk rock, to alt-country. Their earlier releases create an eerie southern gothic sound accented by keyboard and electric cello while their later releases, which still incorporated the cello, but less keyboard, become more guitar driven with a combination of edgy punk sneering and fantastical western woes.

Many songs use themes such as zombies and the Devil that often tie into their concept albums. For example, their second full-length, Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?, is the story of the Devil coming to a village in Mexico and the war that ensues between him and the townspeople.

The band was discovered by Thursday vocalist, Geoff Rickly, who helped them get signed to Eyeball Records and produced their second album. The group has played with a variety of artists such as The Weakerthans, Rasputina, Lucero, Against Me!, Interpol, Cursive, William Elliott Whitmore, Mock Orange and The Get Up Kids. In the summer of 2004, the group was direct support, along with Minus the Bear during the Braid United States reunion tour.

On October 31, 2007, Murder By Death announced on their official MySpace page that Vagrant Records, home of such mainstay rock bands as Thrice and Dashboard Confessional, would release their fourth full-length album, titled Red Of Tooth And Claw, in Spring of 2008.

Contents 1 Releases 1.1 Like the Exorcist, but More Breakdancing 1.2 Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? 1.3 In Bocca al Lupo 1.4 Red of Tooth and Claw 2 Members 2.1 Current 2.2 Former 3 Discography 3.1 Studio albums 3.2 EPs 4 External links

"Those Who Left", from their first full-length album Like the Exorcist, but More Breakdancing, is an eight-minute instrumental, often played live in total darkness. This song is usually paired with "Those Who Stayed," a shorter instrumental song from the same album. This pairing, played during encores, is seen on setlists as "The Two Evils" or "Medley of Evil."

The 2003 release is a concept album depicting a brooding tale of survival in a small western town whose residents are plagued with demonic assaults. They begin to question their own mortality as the Devil wages war on their homeland. It's part horror movie climax and part western barroom brawl with a gloss of wintry distortion

• My Chemical Romance's frontman, Gerard Way, provides guest vocals on the track "The Devil in Mexico".
• Thursday's frontman, Geoff Rickly, provides guest vocals on the track "Killbot 2000".
• William Elliott Whitmore provides guest vocals on the track "Until Morale Improves, The Beatings Will Continue".

On the band's website, Adam Turla, the band's singer, songwriter, and guitarist, gives a short explanation of each song [1], giving the listener explanations of things he or she may not understand upon first listen [such as the mention of datura, an apparent ingredient in "zombie poison"].

Released on May 23, 2006, this album presents the listener with an album built on thematic connections. "In Bocca al Lupo," which translates roughly to "In the Mouth of the Wolf" (a phrase said before students take exams in Italian classrooms, and to which the students respond "Crepi!" which means "Die!", referred to the wolf), examines themes of sin, of transgression, of punishment and of redemption, touching on different lives and different stories in each individual song. Singer Adam Turla has stated in interviews that this album was inspired by The Divine Comedy, which he was reading at the time of writing; in fact, each song is said to relate to someone facing each level of hell. The resulting album resembles the 1976 murder mystery from which the band takes its name -- a pastiche of bad deeds and of good intentions, of last minute heroism and, in some cases, of nearly impossible forgiveness.

Turla, in a fashion similar to that employed in describing Who Will Survive..., has posted explanations of each song in the band's discography section [2]

The album was released on Tent Show, the band's own record label.

On October 8th, the band announced through a MySpace blog that they were currently in studio to record a new album tentatively titled Red of Tooth and Claw ^[1] The album will be released on Vagrant Records.

On October 22, former keyboardist Vincent Edwards returned to record one song with the band for their upcoming release.

• Adam Turla - vocals, guitars
• Matt Armstrong - bass
• Sarah Balliet - cello, keyboards
• Dagan Thogerson - drums, percussion (2007 - present)

• Vincent Edwards – keyboards (2000 - 2004)
• Brandon Cooper – keyboards (2004)
• Alex Schrodt – drums, percussion (2000 - 2007)

• 2002: Like the Exorcist, but More Breakdancing
• 2003: Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?
• 2006: In Bocca al Lupo
• 2008: Red of Tooth and Claw

• 2001: Little Joe Gould (EP as Little Joe Gould)
• 2003: Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmer (Split album with Volta Do Mar)
• 2003: Tribute for Matt Davis

• MurderByDeath.com, the band's official website
• [3] Vagrant Records Official Website, the band's record label
• Tent Show Records, the band's former imprint
• The Artist's Site on Eyeball Records where mp3s and videos are available for download
• Album Review of "In Bocca al Lupo" on Mammoth Press
• Beat Lawrence: Murder By Death Interview and Concert Footage
• "Brother" artist commentary
• A Bubbly Beginning: Murder By Death Modeling Threadless T-Shirts