November News: New Decemberists in January!

It must be November as Decemberists news has arrived today.  Just in time to warm our winter weary hearts, The King Is Dead, the Decemberists' new album, arrives January 18th in North America via Capitol and a day earlier in Europe via Rough Trade.   But this is where it gets even better. The new album will be available in all the usual formats, a special edition as well as a deluxe limited-edition box set, which will feature the album on CD and 180-gram white vinyl, as well as a DVD, a unique Polaroid photo, a hardcover book, and an art print-- all in a linen-wrapped clamshell box with a foil-stamped cover. You might just have the coolest coffee table in town if this piece were to make its home there.

Here's the details.  Only 2,500 of these boxes will be available. For the box, the band teamed up with the Polaroid film manufacturers the Impossible Project and the photographer Autumn de Wilde. De Wilde took photos of the band's recording sessions in rural Oregon and L.A., and each box will come with a unique photo. The DVD contains Pendarvia, a 30-minute documentary about the making of the album by filmmaker Aaron Rose. The 72-page hardcover book features photos from de Wilde and illustrations from Carson Ellis, and the Giclée print is of an Ellis illustration and signed by Ellis herself.

Here Come the Waves

One of my favourite releases of 2009 was The Decemberists richly textured fifth album, The Hazards of Love. News today that the band have commissioned a full-length animated version of that album; Entitled Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized the piece will be available for download from iTunes as of December 1st.

Interested in seeing what this project will look like. Have a look at the trailer below.

Cautionary Tales from the Decemberists

As we wind down the year with countless best of lists and recollections of the year in song it’s encouraging to see a steady stream of artists announcing plans to release new music for 2009. One of my personal favourites, The Decemberists just announced that they will return with another epic, story-driven album next spring in the form of Hazards of Love, due March 24th from the folks at Capitol.

The narrative this time around concerns the trials and tribulations of Margaret, her lover William, the queen of a spooky forest and a rake who interferes in it all. The 17-track piece was tied together with instrumental interludes under the direction of producer Tucker Martine.
What makes this release particularly appealing are the guest musicians featured on several songs. Among the guests on the album are My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Robyn Hitchcock, the Spinanes' Rebecca Gates, Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden. Very, very exciting stuff.

Hazards of Love is the follow-up to the band's major-label debut, 2006's The Crane Wife, which has sold a career-best 284,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

As I had written earlier, The Decemberists last week completed a three-volume singles series, Always the Bridesmaid, featuring songs the band "really loved but presciently felt they would not fit" on Hazards of Love.

Start saving your shekels now

The track list for Hazards of Love:
Prelude
Hazards Of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
A Bower Scene
Won't Want For Love (Margaret In The Taiga)
Hazards Of Love 2 (Wager All)
The Queen's Approach
Isn't It A Lovely Night?
The Wanting Comes In Waves / Repaid
An Interlude
The Rake's Song
The Abduction Of Margaret
The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing
Annan Water
Margaret In Captivity
Hazards Of Love 3 (Revenge!)
The Wanting Comes In Waves" (Reprise)
The Hazards Of Love 4 (The Drowned)

Decemberists in October

UPDATE: Have a little preview of some these songs here. Thank you Barbara (Allen). ;-)

Valerie Plame Wilson Finally Gets the Amorous Tribute in Song

I was listening to Colin Meloy’s excellent live cd last night Colin Meloy Sings Live and it got me thinking about the whereabouts of that band of his. You know the one. The band whose name references an 1825 revolt over the Imperial Russian succession... Yes that band. The Decemberists (the extra ‘e’ added for clarity) have been a busy bunch of pop music rebels in their own right and a new release is forthcoming. Always great news when new Decemberists music is due and early indications are, this one should be very intriguing.

Although not an official follow up to their last full length, The Crane Wife, the project has been dubbed Always The Bridesmaid: A Singles Series, and will unfold in three glorious volumes, beginning this October. Curiously it includes a song about outed C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame Wilson, entitled "Valerie Plame," described as being from "the point-of-view of one of Plame's inside contacts upon discovering her true identity. The song in true Meloy tradition is an amorous tribute to the onetime CIA operative." You can buy it on October 14 in Volume I, or you can watch it performed live on Late Night with Conan O’Brien the night of 11/3. (That's Election Eve for my friends living in Canada's basement.)

The other details: Three volumes, all out on vinyl and digitally. The first volume will be out October 14 and will feature "Valerie Plame" and "O New England." Volume II contains "Days Of Elaine / Days Of Elaine (Long)" and "I'm Sticking With You," out November 4. The last installment, which has been titled Volume III (that's three for the non-Anicient Roman readers), comprises "Record Year" and "Raincoat Song." This last one comes out December 2. All three volumes come digitally via Capitol Records, and on 12" vinyl via the band's Y.A.B.B./Jealous Butcher Records.

Pre-order all three here and receive it on limited edition colored vinyl.