The Decemberists

In keeping with the guidelines for band recommendations, here is the relevent information:

the Decemberists

The Decemberists are a five-person band hailing from Portland, Oregon and currently signed to the Capitol Records label. While often referred to as an indie band, they have evolved over their seven years of existence to a group that delivers passionate, ambitious, and sophisticated rock music that both incorporates and transcends a number of styles and apparent influences. The band has established a reputation for eclectic and wildly unconventional arrangements, lively and interactive live shows, and unusual lyrical themes that sometimes border on the bizarre.

Why they belong on ProgArchives:

We define prog rock here at the Archives as an “ambitious, eclectic, and often grandiose style of rock music”. If that description doesn’t fit this band, then none does. The Decemberists embrace the continuum of our collective history in their character vignettes; intricate narratives whose range seems to know no bounds; and musical sensibilities sophisticated enough to meld the classical tone of violin with the raucous raunch of accordion into cohesive and adventurous musical adventures, all while keeping at the front of their focus the need to entertain in a thought-provoking manner.

Biography

The band’s first released was an EP on a vanity label in 2001 entitled ‘5 Songs’, which included tracks about a Chinese trapeze artist; and ode to a nature park; and a tribute to a grocery store. This was followed by their first full length album ‘Castaways and Cutouts’, which included the song “Odalisque” about a virgin women serving as a slave in ancient times; a hymn to a famous San Francisco Protestant cathedral; and a story-song about the Leslie Anne Levine, the name of a once-famous dirigible but also a haunting tale of a doomed young girl that is reminiscent of the Violent Femmes “Country Death Song”, as well as a daydreaming tale about a young man dreaming about a career as an architect.

Their next album (‘Her Majesty the Decemberists’) began a gravitation toward nautical themes that continues to this day, and that probably was influenced by the band’s settling in the coastal town of Portland, Oregon. In addition to what were by now becoming almost obligatory odd character sketches such as the story of a chimney sweep; a wedding couple; gymnast; and a soldier; were a number of historical tales centered around the American poet Myla Goldberg and the British frigate HMS Arethusa. This album also included band leader Colin Meloy’s passionate life-affirmation “I Was Meant for the Stage”, an eclectic and haphazard anthem in the spirit of Freddie Mercury’s “Who Wants to Live Forever”.

The band progressed the character sketch, historical references, and nautical themes with a more expansive instrument lineup and several longer, more musically developed works on their 2005 album ‘Picaresque, which also included a bonus EP featuring the Joanna Newsom cover “Bridges and Balloons” and a disjointed and delightful ditty entitled “Constantinople”. The band showed novel enterprise and a wry sense of independent defiance with this release by issuing a track video which was distributed solely via the file-sharing service bitTorrent.

Amid a number of other single and EP releases over the past couple of years, the band scored their most ambitious and commercially successful release to-date with the thematic ‘the Crane Wife’ in 2006, an album that earned them not only significant critical acclaim, but also the award for fan-favorite of the year for 2006 on American National Public Radio. 2007 saw the release of the band’s first full-length DVD, “The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook”, which includes an entire home-town concert, several video and animation tracks, and a lengthy interview with the band’s members.

The band’s music belies at times the more discordant and ambitious jazzy side of King Crimson (albeit in a more modern setting); the irreverent cheekiness of the Violent Femmes; instrumentation that encompasses a range of folk greats from Woody Guthrie to Third Ear Band; the vocal and lyrical sensibilities of R.E.M. and Canadian folk storytellers like Gordon Lightfoot and Neal Young; and a stage presence that would have made Queen proud.

Prog genre: Art Rock or Prog Folk or RIO/Avant

Band Photo:



Official web site: Official web site

Discography

2001 5 Songs EP
2003 Castaways and Cutouts
2003 Her Majesty the Decemberists
2005 The Tain EP
2005 Picaresque
2006 Picaresqueties EP
2006 The Crane Wife
2007 Live from SoHo EP
2007 The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook (DVD)

What do you say?

YES YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!!!

ClemofNazareth wrote: moreitsythanyou wrote: YES YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!!! I fail to see why they aren't here already. The Crane Wife is a full blown prog album. They are extremely progressive in their approach to music, their storybook grandoise lyrics, and the style they play in. This band has run the scope of progressive music from the phenomonal symphonic song "The Island" to the Crimson-esque freak-out of "I Was Meant for the Stage." This band constantly pushes the boundaries of their original genre and makes it something much more special and progressive. And this has been growing with time. I can't wait to hear what they put out next! Obviously I agree. I just bought their DVD this week and that convinced me. I was on the fence before. One of my sons told me I was being too much of a purist and that if we failed to embrace the newer progressive bands here, then we run the risk of becoming an irrelevent source as a progressive archive. BTW, "I Was Meant for the Stage" on the DVD is the one that convinced me .

The Crane Wife has pushed them squarely into prog territory as far as I'm concerned... yes from me.

I remember seeing the Colbert Report and listening to one critic calling them an art rock band. I was pretty confused at first, but then I felt intrigued. I'm looking forward to listening to The Crane Wife.

A definite yes.  I was previously familiar with Picaresque and The Tain, two solid and creative folk-pop records, and prepared to make some sort of scathing remark in this thread for them even being suggested.  But after reading all the praise for The Crane Wife, I decided to give it a listen, and this album is amazing and proggy!  It also gives me another context to listen to the older stuff in. 

Downloaded 'The Crane Wife' the other day. Worthy of admission into PAs IMHO

Agreed.  The Crane Wife was the album that got me hooked on them... Definately a yes from me 

Gets a deserved thumbs up from moi. 

chamberry wrote: I remember seeing the Colbert Report and listening to one critic calling them an art rock band. I was pretty confused at first, but then I felt intrigued. I'm looking forward to listening to The Crane Wife.

I seem to recall the critic on Colbert calling them something like "hyper-literate prog-rockers".

Decembrists get a yes from me.