The Decemberists

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The Decemberists
The Decemberists in Redmond, Washington, 2015
The Decemberists in Redmond, Washington , 2015
General information
origin Portland , United States
Genre (s) Indie-folk , indie-rock , folk-rock , indie-pop
founding 2000
Website www.decemberists.com
Founding members
Colin Meloy
Nate Query
Jenny Conlee
Drums , vocals
 Ezra Holbrook
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar
 Colin Meloy
guitar
 Chris Funk
Accordion, melodica, keyboard
 Jenny Conlee-Drizos
Bass, double bass
 Nate Query
Drums, melodica
 John Moen
former members
bass
 Jesse Emerson
Drums, vocals
 Ezra Holbrook
Drums, vocals
 Rachel Blumberg
guitar
 David Langenes
Violin , vocals
 Petra Haden
Viola , guitar, keyboard, vocals
 Lisa Molinaro

The Decemberists is an American indie folk - band from Portland , Oregon , so named because of the Decembrists concerns and the mood in December prevails. They released their first EP 5 songs in 2001.

history

2000: foundation

The Decemberists formed in 2000 under the name The December Brides after Colin Meloy left the Missoula , Montana band Tarkio and moved to Portland, Oregon. In Portland he met Nate Query, who introduced him to Jenny Conlee (Conlee and Query previously played together in a band). Together they wrote the music for a silent film. Previously, Meloy met Chris Funk on one of his solo appearances. Funk was a fan of Tarkio and played the pedal steel guitar as a guest on the first two Decemberists records . Funk only became an official member with the third publication. The first drummer of the band Ezra Holbrook was replaced by Rachel Blumberg after Castaways and Cutouts . In 2001 the band released their first album 5 songs themselves. The day before the studio recordings, the band played for several hours in a McMenamins hotel to earn enough money for the production. These recordings served as the first demo tape and the five songs on it were recorded in under two hours.

2003-2005: Kill Rock Stars

After releasing their first full album Castaways and Cutouts on Hush Records, the band signed with the Kill Rock Stars label. After the re-release of Castaways and Cutouts , Her Majesty the Decemberists was released in 2003 . In 2004, The Tain was released, an 18.5 minute song based on the Irish myth Táin Bó Cuailnge . The last album on Kill Rock Stars, Picaresque , was recorded in a church and was released on March 25, 2005.

In March 2005, The Decemberists released the self-produced music video for Sixteen Military Wives via BitTorrent , which no band had done before. That same month, the band's vehicle, merchandise and equipment was stolen. A fundraiser has started on the band's website. There were also several eBay auctions selling CDs by Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey and drawings by Carson Ellis . Other artists such as Lea Krueger, The Shins or The Dandy Warhols supported the band as did the Martin Guitar Company, which offered instruments as a long-term loan. The stolen vehicle was found in early April, but the $ 40,000 worth of equipment was lost.

2005: Capitol Records

On December 12, 2005, Colin Meloy announced to Pitchfork Media that the band had signed with the major label Capitol Records and that a new album would be produced in April 2006 by Tucker Martine and Christopher Walla ( Death Cab for Cutie ). The Crane Wife was released on October 3rd, 2006. That day, The Decemberists performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien , playing O Valencia! , the first single from the album. The accompanying tour ( The Rout of the Patagons Tour ) started on October 17, 2006 in the hometown of the band Portland, Oregon in the Crystal Ballroom. The opening act was Lavender Diamond (towards the end of the tour Alasdair Roberts). The listeners of National Public Radio chose The Crane Wife album of the year of 2006.

2006: Greenscreen music video

At the end of November 2006, the band organized a competition (Green Screen Challenge) in which their fans produced a music video for the song O Valencia! using green screen recordings of the band members. The American comedian Stephen Colbert criticized this as it was a plagiarism of his idea and called on his audience to also include him in the video.

2007: A Bit of Grass-Stain Does Not a Ruined Pair of Jeans Make Tour

In July 2007 The Decemberist went on tour with a full orchestra, but only for five dates. On July 7th, the band played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the historic Hollywood Bowl . There was also a free concert in Millennium Park ( Chicago ) with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra.

On October 6, 2007, The Decemberists canceled the remaining dates of their European tour due to the illness of a band member. On November 1st, the remaining 28 concerts of the Long and Short of It Tour were also canceled.

2008: Always the Bridesmaid

The Decemberists and Barack Obama

The band played on May 18, 2008 at a Barack Obama campaign event at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. Between October 14th and December 2nd, 2008 a three-part 12 "single series with two new songs was released under the name Always the Bridesmaid . They also went on a short tour during the period and played the day before the US elections on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien Show.

2009: The Hazards of Love

The album The Hazards of Love was released on March 24, 2009 on Capitol Records. A week earlier, on March 17th, the album was available for download on iTunes . Before that it was possible to download The Rake's Song for free. During Meloy's solo tour in 2008, he played some new songs from the album. Produced The Hazards of Love by Tucker Martine.

In a post on the Rolling Stone blog "Rock 'n' Roll Daily" the band gave more information about the new album. Work on the album began when Meloy, who was always fascinated by the British folk revival of the 1960s , heard a copy of Anne Briggs EP The Hazards of Love (1966). Since there is no song with the album title on the EP, Meloy set about writing one. However, he quickly realized that it was becoming something much bigger. The Hazards of Love is about Margaret, her lover, the shape-shifter William, a magical queen and a cold-blooded, lustful libertine who, in The Rake's Song , remembers with eerie relief how he came to live "so easily and freely" . Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) and Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond) sing the two female lead roles, while Jim James ( My Morning Jacket ), Robyn Hitchcock and Rebecca Gates (The Spinanes) can be heard in a few supporting roles. The songs on the album vary from character to character. B. the quiet accordion ballad Isn't It a Lovely Night? but also the heavily rock-heavy song The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing .

On April 27th, The Decemberists played an abridged version of The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid on The Colbert Report . On May 19, 2009 the A Short Fazed Hovel Tour started at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles . In the first part of a concert the band The Hazards of Love plays completely in one piece. In the second part they play different songs from their previous albums.

Under the title Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized , an animated video of the entire album was released on December 1st, exclusively on iTunes .

2011: The King Is Dead

The Decemberists worked on their new album for much of 2010. On September 4th, 2010 they played with Neko Case and Bob Dylan at the Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival in Seattle . There they presented three new songs for the first time. The album The King Is Dead was released on January 17th, 2011. Gillian Welch played seven songs and Peter Buck from REM with three . For the first time, a Decemberists album made it to the top of the US charts.

The band intends to write a musical. Directed to Michael Mayer lead, already with Green Day , the Broadway -Musical American Idiot has implemented. According to Colin Meloy, the piece could be about miners in Butte , Montana .

2014–15: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

After a lengthy creative break, the band began working on a new album in 2014. This is called What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World and was published on January 20, 2015. Make You Better , the album's first single, was released on November 7, 2014.

On October 9, 2015 the EP florasongs was released, which contains five unreleased songs from the recording of What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World .

2017: Offa Rex

Olivia Chaney, 2013

A joint album entitled The Queen of Hearts with British folk singer Olivia Chaney was released on July 14, 2017 under the name Offa Rex on Nonesuch Records . The album consists mainly of covers of traditional and British folk revival songs from the 1970s.

2018: I'll Be Your Girl

In January 2018, the band announced that their eighth studio album, called I'll Be Your Girl, would be released on March 16, 2018 on Capitol Records and Rough Trade (Europe). The album was recorded in Portland in Fall 2017 with John Congleton. The album cover is again from Carson Ellis. The first synth-heavy single, Severed , which includes elements of " electro-pop and rousing, stirring rock," was released on the same day as the announcement, along with an animated music video.

style

Jenny Conlee on the accordion

The band's songs range from pop to instrumental ballads to powerful rock . The Decemberists often use instruments such as the accordion , Hammond organ , Wurlitzer electric piano , and electric double bass . The lyrics usually tell a story rather than give an insight into the emotional world of the band and especially of lead guitarist and songwriter Colin Meloy . Good examples are My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist from the first EP 5 Songs and The Mariner's Revenge Song from the Picaresque album . The stories of the songs are partly bizarre ( The Sporting Life ), epic ( The Tain ) and dark ( Odalisque ). In addition, historical events from around the world are often told. At the beginning of their careers, critics compared them to Neutral Milk Hotel .

Artwork

Almost all album covers and artwork were drawn by Colin Meloy's wife Carson Ellis .

Members

Current

  • Chris Funk

  • Jenny Conlee-Drizos

  • Nate Query

  • John Moen

The side project Black Prairie of the band members without Colin Meloy started in 2007. Together with the singer and violinist Annalisa Tornfelt (formerly Bearfoot) and the guitarist Jon Neufeld (Dolorean), the ensemble has released five albums; Fortune was last published in 2014.

Former

  • Jesse Emerson (bass guitar) - Her Majesty the Decemberists
  • Ezra Holbrook - 5 Songs and Castaways and Cutouts (drums, backing vocals), The Crane Wife (backing vocals)
  • Rachel Blumberg (drums, vocals) - Her Majesty the Decemberists , Billy Liar , The Tain and Picaresque
  • David Langenes (guitar)
  • Petra Haden ( violin , vocals) - Picaresque , daughter of jazz double bass player Charlie Haden , also on the Picaresque Tour .
  • Lisa Molinaro ( viola , guitar, keyboards, vocals) - on The Crane Wife tours

  • Rachel Blumberg

  • Petra Haden

Guests

  • Laura Veirs - Duet with Yankee Bayonet ( The Crane Wife and The Long and Short of It Tour )
  • Shara Nova - Duet at Yankee Bayonet live performances in 2007. She also sings the forest queen on the album The Hazards of Love , as well as during the A Short Fazed Hovel Tour
  • Becky Stark - she sings Margaret on The Hazards of Love and also on the A Short Fazed Hovel Tour
  • Gillian Welch - Duet on Down by the Water and other songs on The King Is Dead
  • Sara Watkins - During the Popes of Pendarvia World Tour between January and March 2011

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Picaresque
  US 128 04/09/2005 (2 weeks)
The Crane Wife
  US 35 10/21/2006 (17 weeks)
The Hazards of Love
  UK 50 04/04/2009 (1 week)
  US 14th 04/04/2009 (14 weeks)
The King Is Dead
  DE 41 28/01/2011 (3 weeks)
  AT 52 28/01/2011 (2 weeks)
  CH 58 01/30/2011 (2 weeks)
  UK 24 01/29/2011 (3 weeks)
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 
gold
gold
02/05/2011 (26 weeks)
iTunes Session (EP)
  US 117 08/20/2011 (1 week)
Long Live the King (EP)
  US 44 11/19/2011 (2 weeks)
We All Raise Our Voices to the Air
  US 78 March 31, 2012 (1 week)
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
  DE 37 01/30/2015 (2 weeks)
  AT 23 01/30/2015 (2 weeks)
  CH 27 01/25/2015 (1 week)
  UK 13 31/01/2015 (4 weeks)
  US 7th 02/07/2015 (8 weeks)
Flora songs
  US 64 October 31, 2015 (1 week)
I'll be your girl
  DE 55 03/23/2018 (1 week)
  AT 24 03/30/2018 (1 week)
  UK 8th March 29, 2018 (1 week)
  US 9 March 31, 2018 (2 weeks)

Albums

Live albums

  • 2012: We All Raise Our Voices to the Air (Live Songs 04.11-08.11)

EPs

  • 2001: 5 songs
  • 2005: The Tain
  • 2006: Picaresqueties
  • 2006: Connect Sets (exclusively for Sony Connect)
  • 2006: Live from SoHo ( iTunes only )
  • 2011: iTunes Session
  • 2011: Long Live the King
  • 2015: Florasongs

Singles

  • 2004: Billy Liar
  • 2005: Sixteen Military Wives
  • 2007: O Valencia!
  • 2007: The Perfect Crime # 2
  • 2008: Always the Bridesmaid: Volume I.
  • 2008: Always the Bridesmaid: Volume II
  • 2008: Always the Bridesmaid: Volume III
  • 2009: The Rake's Song
  • 2010: Down by the Water
  • 2010: January Hymn / Row Jimmy
  • 2011: This Is Why We Fight
  • 2012: Calamity Song
  • 2012: One Engine (from the soundtrack of The Hunger Games - The Hunger Games )
  • 2014: Make You Better
  • 2018: Severed

Video albums

  • 2007: The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook
  • 2009: Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gene Armstrong, On Behalf of Orangina: The Decemberists perform their dramatic, literary alt-rock, with orange soda in tow. Tucson Weekly, June 17, 2004, accessed December 5, 2013 : "But the name also" ... is an allusion to the month of December and imagining the drama and melancholy of winter. ""
  2. ↑ Twenty Years Before the Mast. In: decemberists.com. February 11, 2020, accessed on February 12, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Katie Dean: Rockers Flex Bit Torrent's Muscle. In: Wired . Condé Nast, February 23, 2005, accessed February 12, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Decemberists Shipwrecked By Pirates. CMJ, March 22, 2005, archived from the original on February 5, 2009 ; accessed on December 5, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Pete Hunt: Rogue of the Week: Thieves Who Took the Decemberists' Gear. Willamette Week, March 23, 2005, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  6. ^ The Decemberists sign to Capitol Records. Punknews, December 13, 2005, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  7. ^ NPR Listeners Pick the Best CDs of 2006. NPR, December 11, 2006, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Dave Mahe: Video: Stephen Colbert Vs. The Decemberists. Pitchfork, November 30, 2006, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  9. ^ Decemberists Get Orchestra Treatment On Tour. Billboard, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  10. ^ Illness Ends Decemberists Tour. The New York Times, November 5, 2007, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  11. ^ Rachael Maddux: Decemberists' Colin Meloy talks Hazards of Love. Paste, November 16, 2008, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  12. ↑ In the Studio: The Decemberists Return With Fairy-Tale Album. Rolling Stone, November 18, 2008, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Tom Breihan: Decemberists Turn The Hazards of Love Into Animated Film. Pitchfork, November 19, 2009, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Review in Musikexpress , January 6, 2011, accessed on October 2, 2012.
  15. ^ Jillian Mapes: The Decemberists in Talks to Write Stage Musical. Billboard , December 8, 2010, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  16. ↑ Alex Stills: The Decemberists join Boston Calling lineup. In: The Boston Globe . John W. Henry, March 20, 2014, accessed March 20, 2014 .
  17. ^ Zoe Camp: The Decemberists Share "Make You Better" From New Album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World. In: Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media , November 3, 2014, accessed November 13, 2014 .
  18. ^ Esther Zuckerman: The Decemberists unveil a new folk side project, Offa Rex. In: The AV Club. Onion, Inc., May 5, 2017, accessed January 18, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Amanda Wicks: The Decemberists Announce New Album, Share New Song: Listen. In: Pitchfork . Condé Nast, January 17, 2018, accessed January 17, 2018 .
  20. ↑ a b Stephen Thompson: The Decemberists Announce A New Album - And Share The Synth-Driven 'Severed'. In: All Songs Considered . National Public Radio , January 17, 2018, accessed January 18, 2018 .
  21. ^ New Album Coming in March, World * Tour Announced. In: decemberists.com. The Decemberists, January 17, 2018, accessed January 17, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Jesse Jarnow: Out of the airplane into the sea. In: Salon.com . Salon.com, LLC, September 17, 2003, accessed February 12, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Black Prairie on allmusic.com
  24. ↑ The Decemberists - News 1.4.10. The Decemberists, January 4, 2011, accessed December 5, 2013 .
  25. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  26. ↑ Music Sales Awards: US

Web links

Commons : The Decemberists  - Collection of Images