The Decemberists

don't do it dude

i would read a scott seward liveblog of this record

Fucking appalling band. I'd donate my wages for the next three months towards a fund for stopping them.

i like their gay undertones.

― reo

as much as i know its not a very cool opinion but I don't hate the new album at all. really digging january hymm and the country vibes thrown in and out of this album.

will be hearing this a lot since my wife is a fan. glad it is suppposed to be more songwriter-y and less theatrical.

lol as predicted this new one was playing in the kitchen when i got home today. sounded like some deep REM worship.

i would read a scott seward liveblog of this record

― markers, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 6:03 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

^^^^
wld also

i remember liking this band

sounded like some deep REM worship.

well, Peter Buck does play guitar on "Calamity" (which sounds EXACTLY like an early R.E.M. tune when he isn't singing) and a couple other tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt5ghXdq6Z0

This sounds like it will be a lot less hateful than their previous records.

which one's the song about rape, then

I know the legions of haters here won't be swayed by anything I say about this, but stepping back from the ridiculously overblown concepts and literary aspirations has really done wonders for this band. This is a pretty rustic, laid-back album. All the time spent listening to R.E.M. and recording in a barn seems to help too. I think I really like this.

vocals seemed a lot less annoying as well. some of it (probably due to peter buck's presence) has a kinda robyn hitchcock/egyptians vibe.

I usually live and let live with music I don't like but I used to absolutely hate this band's guts - look at the track titles on Picaresque for pete's sake - and looking back it's because hidden beneath those "ridiculously overblown concepts and literary aspirations" was a group I kind of liked. I don't have a problem with Meloy's vocals and the backing tracks have always been interesting. Now that they are singing about things that aren't maddeningly stupid you can listen closely without wanting to throw the iPod across the room. Very very pleasantly surprised by the new album.

Meloy still throws in a couple of ten-dollar words here and there and his delivery is SO predictable (for example, when I saw "Dear Avery" as a title, I accurately predicted that the first bit would be "Dear Ave-A-ree" in Meloy's pained over-pronunciation), but this is a great turn for the band.

Yay? From their promo person:

The Decemberists have earned the first-ever #1 chart position of their career with the impressive first-week showing of their widely acclaimed new album The King Is Dead, which was released by EMI’s Capitol Records on January 18. The album scanned 93,567 units in the U.S. in its debut week, landing it at the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart, and has also given the band their highest career chart position in territories all over the world.

Etc. etc.

for example, when I saw "Dear Avery" as a title, I accurately predicted that the first bit would be "Dear Ave-A-ree" in Meloy's pained over-pronunciation

oh shit

This album is almost comically derivative but I quite like the couple of songs that sound like Reckoning-era REM. The one that sounds like Breakfast At Tiffany's less so.

Also some of the songs feel like academic excercises at making folk music - that one with the sea shanty bit at the end particularly - but their production choices betray how little feeling they actually have for the music, those ridiculous big drums and acoustic guitars turned up as loud as possible in the mix.

according to p4k it just topped the u.s. billboard at #1. fucking insane!

*cough* My post just an hour ago...?

did they sell more records than Cake, though

They didn't sell any cake at all iirc

I mean they're a band not a bake sale ¯\(°_o)/¯

really? meloy makes incredibly detailed cakes with miniature reenactments of the war 1812 on them. really delicious stuff.

#24 with a bullet here, kind of surprised their profile is even that big in the UK.

http://i.imgur.com/QIFQ4.png

*cough* My post just 3 hours ago...?

I'm kind of shocked that they sold so many copies right out the gate. Who knew?

xp that awful image had to be posted

There's a taking sides thread to be made here:

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/01/11/alg_decemberists_band.jpg

http://www.perrific.com/cds/covers/gordon.jpg

I guess I am a little surprised at this hitting #1. Part of me says, "well, Arcade Fire and Death Cab both debuted at #1 within the last couple of years" -- but the Decemberists feel just a bit more niche, and also Hazards of Love (also on Capitol) bowed at #14 just two years ago. It's not like their profile has dramatically increased since then, has it?

eh. early in the year, not many big releases, a smaller or indie album can sneak-in more easily at no. 1.

i like this band fine, btw. just sayin'.

I guess the parallel is Vampire Weekend's #1 from exactly a year ago.

This album kind of blows, btw.

I mean, OK, it's super-competent and everything, just sort of plain and dull. I've never been a huge fan of the band, but there were usually at least a couple of songs on each album that I could get excited about.

"Why We Fight" isn't bad. [/livebloggin']

hipster runoff breaks down why the decemberists hit #1
http://cdn.hipsterrunoff.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/800/20110128-tfcn6m9gymtcbrjbc5eb2aciwg_0.jpg

"Down By the Water" really reminds me of a Gin Blossoms song when it first starts up, then again with the harmonica. "Follow You Down" maybe?

Just want to say that The King Is Dead is awesome! There's no mystery as why it charted so high other than I suppose people thought The Decemberists were more under the radar than they really are? They fit a lot of grooves - indie, americana, folk rock, alt country, twee, victorian nostalgia... I imagine their fanbase is pretty wide and varied.

IMO its the first great album of 2011. I didn't like the Hazards of Love but have much <3 for Crane Wife and Picaresque. This is a step in a different direction, way more folk and country influence than the ragtimey victorian stuff, but I like it all. Fuck the haters.

I really feel nothing for this band in this slightest but I will say this, cool move:

http://yfrog.com/kjsuqvj

Context?

I think its to celebrate the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm

Bandmember Jenny was diagnosed with cancer and is going through chemo -- thus her being bald and thus them all shaving their heads in solidarity.

So the new EP is pretty much uniformly better than anything on the recent full-length. Gone are the country-tinged R.E.M. aping tracks, back to the more folksy and proggy stuff that I prefer. Their Dead cover isn't half bad.

just learned that this band has a song called 'the chimbley sweep'

and thus that i've wasted 17 years by failing to concentrate my hatred upon them

they're a great band with a great catalog (although after 10 top-class years, the decline seems to have set in on the last two albums)

man, the new single is bleak. they sound 100% out of ideas, going through motions, lifeless, etc.

maybe the album will be better, but i'm not hopeful.