Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: The Decemberists – The Rake’s Song from the forthcoming full-length Hazards of Love

I really am anxiously awaiting this album.

Photo credit: Greg Szeto

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: The Decemberists (Colin Meloy solo) – Night / Rake (Live)

Even the best of us falter.

While some, many in fact, shudder at the notion of enjoying the Decemberists, dismissing them as smarmy smarty-pants who try too hard to make delicately crafted musical arrangements or shallow apers of Neutral Milk Hotel, it is inescapable that they have provided me some of the most enjoyable and memorable live experiences in my not-too-short show-faring life.

I’ve seen them no less than 6 times, in some form or another, including once with the Baltimore Symphony (redefining the word transcendant in my inner dictionary and inspiring me to start writing about my experiences with music), once in a 2-day double-header and once with Colin Meloy going solo.

Each live show I saw was nothing short of beautiful, spectacular and hilarious; they managed to amplify the strongest charms of their music, delivering equal portions of careful almost-winkingly planned choreography and obscure lyrical wordplay, enrapturing and bard-like yarn-weaving, and genuine, good-humored spontaneity and joy of performance.  They consistently transported the audience into either epic tales of heroism and ne’er-do-well-erism, or deeply affecting emotions and moodscapes.

Unfortunately at Rams Head, I finally saw a performance that I can only characterize as mediocre.  Read the rest…

So this fall, the Decemberists triumphantly return to the road for the Bridesmaid Revisited tour, dragging along 3 new, limited-edition, 12″ singles.  Each contains a new song that has been played live for a bit now.  The first of these vinyls drops in just over 2 weeks, Oct 14th.  The lead track is “Valerie Plame,” referencing the recent scandal, has just popped up on Youtube.  If you look hard enough, you can also find some other tracks like this live version of one of Meloy’s latest epics, loosely titled “Night/Rake.”  And don’t forget to catch Meloy et al when they drop into Rams Head on Nov 08.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: The Decemberists (Colin Meloy solo) – Night / Rake (Live)