Tuesday, May 31, 2011 4:50PM - By Carl Pocket
The four days that were The Sasquatch 2011 Music Festival was a magical one for us here at Beatcrave and Memorial Day Monday was the most packed day of music we had all weekend. It seemed that every band that played was worthy of taking up every minute we had.
We also got to see Beatcrave Fav, Foster the People, play the most jammed packed set of the weekend over at The Yeti stage as well as catching Guided By Voices playing to what might have been the smallest crowd at the main stage. We also avoided the sporadic showers that turned the blue sky grey and caught some more acoustic sets, this time by three of the four members of The Decemberists.
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Monday, April 11, 2011 6:35PM - By Lindsey Darden
Another year – another season, mind – another music festival. When it gets old, you’ll be the first to know.
It’s hard to believe that the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is only three years young, but maybe that’s why it’s looking so good. The official lineup was announced today and things are ready and rearing to go this August 12-14. Stadium heavyweights Muse and Phish leading the pack with two sets, and such movers-and-shakers from Arcade Fire, MGMT, The Black Keys, The Decemberists and Erykah Badu, to our favorites Foster the People and oft-on-our-radar Grouplove and The Vaccines, will take on the various stages at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA.
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Friday, February 11, 2011 1:52PM - By Joseph Oliveto
In an age where most FM radio is driven by the same kind of lowest-common-denominator corporate programming that determines what Lady Gaga song get played at the mall, it’s nice to know that stations like L.A.’s KCRW still exist to champion the work of skilled artists and help listeners find some new groups they may not be familiar with.
On top of that, the station has a knack for getting bands to stop by and record tunes for them, and while most of the time, this results in an enjoyable but run-of-the-mill live session, every now and then, a gem is produced.
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011 1:59PM - By Angel Baker
The King Is Dead, beard rock folksters,’ The Decemberists,’ newest record plays like a tribute to American and Irish classics like R.E.M., The Pogues, and Vic Chesnutt, too new to be vintage but seasoned enough to warrant a full length homage. Assists from R.E.M. guitarist and the supernatural singer-songwriter Gillian Welch add a welcomed depth to the comparatively lighter version of The Decemberists’ oft lingering and dark-toned folk. The über intelligent chatter behind the harp and the pedal steel put this band at the top of a short list of readers’ writers but, at times, the lyrical complexity feels weighty and dense.
While front man, Colin Meloy’s extensively articulated crooning is distinctly his own on this record, there are moments when we want him to ease up on the historical lore and usher in some fun. Is that so wrong?
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Monday, January 17, 2011 8:51AM - By Joseph Oliveto
The Decemberists have carved their own considerable niche in the indie-rock world in recent years thanks not only to good-old-fashioned talented, but also to the fact that they have a sound like no other. They tend to play the kind of music we assume Wes Anderson would make if he decided to take up guitar instead of filmmaking. However, according to Billboard, the band has taken a step back from their pop tendencies on their next album, opting instead to explore the folk rock roots that gave birth to the band.
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Wednesday, December 8, 2010 11:14AM - By Travis Woods
Well, if worked for Green Day, and then U2 (Kidding! Kidding!), maybe it will work for The Decemberists too. NME reports that the Portland indie-proggers may be the next rock band to take on Broadway by writing a musical—which kind of makes sense, in that the band’s theatrical music seems far more suited for the stage than, say, the band who wrote “American Idiot” or a U2 musical about a teenager bitten by a radioactive spider and who fights a goblin.
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Thursday, April 29, 2010 11:39AM - By Travis Woods
Today in “What—really? Ok, then” news, Pitchfork reported that Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and his wife, illustrator Carson Ellis, will be releasing three children’s novels in a new publishing deal with HarperCollins. Having already completed one children’s novel—the limited edition, small press The Unfortunate Demise of Whitney Rackham—Meloy and Ellis will be working together to create the Portland, Oregon-set Wildwood series, which HarperCollins’s press release describes as “nothing less than an American Narnia.” But hopefully without the talking lions.
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Thursday, April 1, 2010 3:41PM - By Seraphina L.
We haven’t heard from The Decemberists much since they got a ticket for busking the streets of Royal Oak, Michigan. However, that’s all right with us because according to Pitchfork, they’re hard at work on a new and sixth studio album. With the new album, we don’t know how many guests they’ll have but they have one for now.
The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy has gotten R.E.M.‘s Peter Buck to play on the new album. Apparently, Meloy has written some great “fake R.E.M guitar riffs” and who better to play these riffs than Buck?
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Monday, October 12, 2009 9:37PM - By Seraphina L.
The Decemberists released their album, The Hazards of Love, way back in March but they have just released a video for “The Rake’s Song.”
Contrary to their epic motif of a rock opera, the album’s leading single boasts a video filled with clay, marionettes, and stop-motion. Directed by Alex Dashino and Varvara Volodina, a couple of students at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, the video has a very, well - college vibe. Although lacking the lavish touch to match the album itself, it’s still an entertaining watch.
Watch it below!
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