I was underwhelmed with their critically-acclaimed album Her Majesty and extremely bored by their live set at the Croc last year, but now after reading the Stranger and Weekly interviews with their singer/songwriter Colin Something-or-Other (heretofore referred to as "Old Fuckstick) and hearing a few tracks from the new album, I despise them.

They draw comparisons to two of my all-ime favorites, The Shins and Neutral Milk Hotel, but most reviewers fail to recognize that it's only a stylistic similarity - while those bands put out unique, timeless, almost-regal classic indie-rock, the Decemberists are pretenders with no substance.

I mean, who the fuck writes about chimney-sweeps these days? Has Old Fuck-stick ever even seen a chimney sweep or lived somewhere with a functioning chimney? Whereas NMH and the Shins use classic themes and fanciful langauge to tell really good, timeless stories, the Decemberists just use the old-timey vibe as a schtick, and their songs are well-written but hugely and entirely uncompelling. Take this snippet from the meta-tag to their website - its a perfect example of the type of well-written but meaningless language that permeates their songs: "A few hours later, in a Turkish bath, they revealed their stories to one another between sips of a strange, tangerine liqueur."

Further, I was annoyed by many of Old Fucksticks comments in the local coverage (you can't swing a dead cat in Seattle w/o hitting some hipster dumbfuck talking about the Decemberists right now). He told some dumb story about some guy not being able to be in his band because he didn't "get it" when he had a sailboat painted his guitar, slagged Bright Eyes for being overtly pained/tortured as a false pretense to sell records, and just basically made an ass of himself by repeatedly complaining about things that his band embodies more than anyone he was criticizing.

The only thing positive about the Decemberists is that they've finally answered the age-old question long-pondered by music dorks, ""What if Charles Dickens were an indie rock band?"  

Fuck I hate the Decemberitsts.

That band sounds el terrible'.  

  Rock is not very fun right now.

That band sounds el terrible'.  

  Rock is not very fun right now.

Just checking.

matt...

stop being so wishy-washy flip-floppy.

tell us what you REALLY think....

 

I'm a bit mixed on the whole Decemberists angle.  I feel like I should in hate them, but I don't.  I haven't dug into the new album yet, but the previous works have entertained me.  But I kind of dig the action/adventure epic song type (see "Cold Cold Water" by Mirah, "Singapore" by Tom Waits, "Way Out West" by Andrew Bird)

But I can also see why they would rub at people's nerves like cheese graters on chalk boards.  I think Ash has some deep feelings about the Decemberists that he's not sharing though...  that crazy editor is all bottled up like a soda pop.

the sad truth is that at any time anywhere the majority of any popular media will suck.

that's a lot of animosity ashmatty.

I bought the latest decemberist album, can't say I am overly impressed by it. I only bought it because of that "engine driver" song, I heard it on KEXP and I liked the song. I also like the "mariner revenge song", besides that, I am with you... the album is crap.