The Decemberists

[ghost of miles]

So I've read about the Decemberists on the Elliott Smith board... they've been around for three years or so, but I never heard any of their records until about a month ago, and I saw them live here in Bloomington Wednesday night. Man! The most joyous show I've been to in some time... Unfortunately Petra Haden (Charlie's daughter), who I love, and who joined them recently, was quite ill and had to miss the show. But the show itself was so damned good that her absence proved to be only a minor disappointment. You can definitely hear their indie influences (Belle and Sebastian, a little Smiths/R.E.M., some Kinks, etc.), but they mix it into something original... lotsa ocean/seafaring and Victorian imagery, kinda bookish, pretty, catchy, rockin'. The new album, PICARESQUE, is my favorite--there's a video for "16 Military Wives" on their website, and you can hear an entire concert from earlier this month (with Petra Haden) here on NPR's All Songs Considered.

Damn, it's just nice to be excited about a pop-rock band again. After seeing them I felt like proselytizing...