The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Nice! They have yet to disappoint me.

Awesome. Thanks for the head's up. These guys have been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, and I love that they are so prolific. Definitely looking forward to this.

Oh goodie.

"Oh oiiiim just a humble cobbler/
and it's eighteen nointy foiiiiive/
but as oi roid moi penny farthing/
I feel so glad to be aloiiiiive"

Is that from their new single???????

But seriously, man, you wish you could work "Its contents watched by Sycorax / And paragon in parallax" into a song.

O, what a rush of ripe élan!

Really good song, and can't wait for the album.

Ha! I like the Decemberists for the most part, but this has huge green box written all over it. I know I'm in the minority on this forum, but I thought their last album was terrible.

Kinda in love with this new single. Can't wait for the full album.

Thing is I actually like a lot of these guys' songs, and the Tain was fucking awesome, it's just I can only take so much forced quaintness in one go.

You could easily put together a Random Decemberists Lyric Generator. Like: (archaic occupation) + (pre-20th Century year) + (long lost love/ghosts/treacherous first mate etc). And then out pops the acclaimed new Decemberists track "The Watery Grave of Two-Nosed Jim the Stowaway"!

They are quite possibly my favorite band these days, but it is really hard to argue with this.

Also, now I want to hear that song.

I kind of lean toward Paul's sense of the band (I love them in small doses, but tire quickly); that may be why my favorite moment of their show last year was the "Crazy On You" encore: so much less calculated, so much freer and wilder.

I like the new single after a couple of spins; we'll see if love eventuates.

Valentine's Day in Oakland, eh?

I've currently got the presale tickets bookmarked, just waiting for them to go on sale tomorrow. I've missed them three times now and they're one of the only bands I love who I haven't seen live. That new single is just amazing, made me dig out Picaresque and Hazards of Love again.

That new single is the R.E.M.-iest song they've ever written, which is saying something.

Love it, though!

Tickets purchased for Oakland-- my daughter and I are "giving" each other tickets as our Christmas gifts (in other words, we're each buying our own ticket-- somehow, I imagine I'll wind up giving her another gift as well!).

Reminder that they're on Conan tonight, by the way.

Gillian Welch was a nice surprise (to me, anyway), and that song is really growing on me.

I love Gillian Welch. But that song was pretty much "The One I Love" by REM, no?

With a touch of Oasis' "What's the Story Morning Glory" mixed in.

Well, it's streaming for free at NPR. One can listen in good conscience.

I got tickets to their show for Christmas. Yay me.

I feel like this is another theme album.

I wouldn't get your hopes up.  I've only listened once, but it all kind of mushed together in this half-baked semi-bluegrass BLAH for me.  Sucks, because they're one of my favorite bands and I never revisit The Hazards of Love.

Count me in the group who were underwhelmed.  "Well it makes good background music" should never be one's first reaction to an album.

I've liked it well enough so far, but I must admit I spend less time liking the songs, and more time playing "which album from my CD collection in 1996 is this next track going to sound like?"

 

Ah, there's one off Wilco's AM. And there's two in a row that sound like Hollywood Town Hall outtakes. Yeah, that was off Anodyne. Pretty sure that one was Faithless Street-era Whiskeytown . . .

Well, that was interesting...

At last night's show, because it was Valentine's Day, Meloy offered to have a couple married onstage by drummer John Moen (who's evidently ordained in some dodgy church or other). It was kinda cute, I guess, as the couple had to quickly improvise some vows. Unfortunately, afterwards, the band decided to simulate a really bad wedding reception by throwing out a bunch of half-assed attempts at songs like "The Joker" and "You Shook Me All Night Long," with Meloy on drums on Moen on vocals... and given that he didn't know the words to any of the songs, the whole thing came off as a sort of lame giggle-fest.

Apart from that, a sturdy, well-performed set. The new album was well represented, of course (and Hazards of Love was limited to Won't Want for Love), but those looking for faves like Chimbley Sweep, Crane Wife 1,2, and 3, or Mariner's Revenge Song weren't disappointed.

 

Opener Mountain Man were livelier onstage than on record, but came off as an even cutesier version of The Roches. Damn all of you getting Justin Townes Earle as the opener at your Decemberists shows!

I saw them for the first time live Sat night. Great show. The sound was impeccable and it was just a fun show. Colm is a very funny frontman. I am in the minority that loves the new album so I had a great time and the audience participation during Matiners Revenge was great.