Breaking TSotD's seal on 2011, here is my first selection from the new year, though the new year is already 1/12th done. Oh how the time flies! Fear not, I will catch up as I did with 2010!
Song Recommendations
If you like this song, I also suggest:
I also suggest the music genre:
Click here for more info on The Decemberists – The King Is Dead – "Down By The Water".
The MP3 may be purchased here… The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
Track 4: O Valencia!:
I know I recently included "Shankill Butchers" in my Halloween song list, but November (and December, of course) are the time of year I like to listen to The Decemberists. I saw them in concert in November last year and it was a most excellent show. I love the dark fairytale like quality to their songs. I love how the lyrics are timeless… or at least not necessarily of this day and age. I love that they tell stories or bits of stories in each song, capturing the emotion of the situation.
I know many of the die hard fans argued that The Crane Wife is not as good as previous albums, but I've listened over and over, and I'd have to say if you get only one, The Crane Wife is the one to get. It has a nice blend of all The Decemberists have to offer too. "Accessible" and radio friendly songs like "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" (featuring Laura Veirs), and "O Valencia!", the dark storytelling of "Shankill Butchers", and then lighter, quirkier, tales wrought with emotions of a time without electronics and computers in "The Crane Wife 1 & 2 & 3" and "Sons & Daughters". If after one listen you do not fall in love with at least one of the songs, then The Decemberists are not for you. If they do tickle your fancy then I implore that you explore!
Here are my 5 favorites from the album, with "O Valencia!" being my favorite.
Track 1: The Crane Wife 3
http://www.imeem.com/jukeboxmusic18/music/SSXGp1r2/the-decemberists-the-crane-wife-3/
Track 3: Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)"
http://www.imeem.com/artists/the_decemberists/music/B9B_DG2X/the-decemberists-yankee-bayonet-i-will-be-home-then/
Track 4: O Valencia!
http://www.imeem.com/thedecemberists/music/eW-aOPih/the-decemberists-o-valencia/
Track 7: Shankill Butchers
http://www.imeem.com/artists/the_decemberists/music/Vo5zn9HI/the-decemberists-shankill-butchers/
Track 10: Sons & Daughters
http://www.imeem.com/artists/the_decemberists/music/yxf99WsW/the-decemberists-sons-daughters/
Click here for other album suggestions!
Click here for more info on The Decemberists – "The Crane Wife".
The MP3 album may be purchased here… The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Audio Stream: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Decemberists/_/Shankill+Butchers?autostart
Oh, they're real! And the Shankill Butchers were "most notorious for (their) late-night abduction, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians". The Decemberists lead singer, Colin Meloy, had much to say about it in his 2007 interview with Terry Gross on NPR (read the full script here):
…in the 1970s, there was a group of Protestants in Belfast who targeted the Catholics in the city, actually chose to use, as weapons, butcher knives and cleavers. Really, they weren't necessarily, you know, obviously, political or religious activists. They were really, you know, cold-blooded murders, really. And they would go out at night killing Catholics essentially and, you know, gruesomely filet them alive and things like that.
…
The parents at the time would actually use it as a cautionary tale and would tell children, you know, if they didn't do what they were told, the Shankill butchers would come and get them. And it just seemed so bizarre and so horrific to me that it almost – it's one of those moments in history when, you know, human events actually take on the scope of fairytale, and I thought it would – so the song is essentially me imagining what sort of dialogue that would be, the mother telling the child to go to sleep or the Shankill butchers would come and get them.
A gruesome tale indeed, wrought with horror and perhaps one to many "you know"s (Oh I kid Colin… I only noticed it when I saw it in writing. Also, for the record, I love The Decemberists or else I would not have driven hours to see them in concert last year!). Seriously though, an excellent song for the Halloween song list. I wonder if my Catholic Irish mother knows the tale and if perhaps she might have had more control over my siblings and me if she had told the tale.
Song Recommendations
If you like this song, I also suggest:
I also suggest the music genre:
Click here for more info on The Decemberists – The Crane Wife – "Shankill Butchers".
The MP3 may be purchased here… The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
I was thinking of posting this song, but then I thought no wait, I must have already posted a song by The Decemberists!
But OMG! No! I just realized I've been posting songs all this time, but not a single one by The Decemberists! They are one of the few I have actually seen in concert (with G and G's sister), and recently too! I saw them around the end of 2008 and they were fantastic! Very entertaining. They played so many of songs, it must've been like half their material. They played all my favorites. Colin Meloy is passionate when performing too. We was like climbing out onto flimsy spotlight ladders and speakers to be closer to the crowd. It was just great.
Song Recommendations
If you like this song, I also suggest:
I also suggest the music genre:
The MP3 may be purchased here… The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Audio Stream: http://www.rhapsody.com/loch-lomond/paper-the-walls
Today's bonus song was my song of the day on 3/11. I first saw this group when they opened for The Decemberists last fall, 2008. I had never heard of them before then but I was VERY impressed. I bought their album "Paper The Walls" from them that night after the show and I think (and hope) we have only just seen the beginning of what they have to offer the world. They provide a folk rock sound not unlike chamber music, and absolutely riveting. Creative lyrics, songs, progressions, instruments, singing …the whole works. They offer a refreshing escape from the electronic pop and the world in general. I look forward to seeing them perform again should I ever have the chance.
Click here for more info on Loch Lomond – Paper The Walls – "Carl Sagan".
The MP3 may be purchased here… Loch Lomond - Paper The Walls
