Dan Muller

• Live recordings of shows performed at Seattle’s landmark venue, The Crocodile, from 2002 to present, are now available at the University of Washington’s library thanks to soundman Jim Anderson. The archives contain hundreds of shows including some from Apples in Stereo, Andrew Bird, Ben Lee, Bishop Allen, Brandi Carlile, Crooked Fingers, Damien Jurado, Death Cab For Cutie, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, Harvey Danger, Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter, The Long Winters, Matisyahu, Mountain Goats, Mudhoney, Nada Surf, Okkervil River, Pedro the Lion, Presidents of the United States of America, Regina Spektor, Rilo Kiley, Tegan and Sara, and Unicorns.

• This Tuesday, Pearl Jam performed an unusual mix of rarities and brand new songs in London. Eddie Vedder and company were joined on stage by The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood. Their mini European tour will hit Rotterdam, Berlin, Manchester and London’s O2 Arena. The band recently announced more U.S. dates this fall and will also play a half-dozen outdoor gigs in Australia and New Zealand. Their new record, Backspacer, is due out on September 20th.

• Before their show at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Michigan on Tuesday, The Decemberists decided to perform in impromptu set on the street outside and were cited for busking, but not before apparently making $2. Lead singer Colin Meloy tweeted the ticketing.

• A trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus hit the web Tuesday. Among other (equally notable) details, the film features Tom Waits playing Satan and Heath Ledger’s final filmed performance.

• It is with great sadness that we must report that The Verve are breaking up. Again. After reuniting for the third time in 2007, it seems the BritPop megastars are going their separate ways. Guitarist Nick McCabe and bassist Simon Jones are focusing on a new band called Black Ships.

• Vibe Magazine, after folding a month and a half ago, will be returning as a web-focused publication, printing 300,000 copies quarterly. This influential urban music and culture magazine and its website are being acquired by Uptown Media.

• Ghostface Killah plans to record his next album with Wu Tang’s Raekwon and Method Man. The trio’s LP is expected sometime this year.

• Who else but Elton John has a guest appearance on the new Alice in Chains record. The track, Black Gives Way to Blue, off the forthcoming record of the same name, pays due tribute to fallen singer Layne Staley.

• Before Bon Iver was The Volcano Choir, a collaboration between Justin Vernon and Milwaukee’s Collections of Colonies of Bees. The debut release of The Volcano Choir, called Unmap, some three years after its inception, arrives on September 22nd on Jagjaguwar. You can listen to the first single here:

• A large-scale and star-powered tribute to Michael Jackson is planned for September 26th in Vienna. Jermaine Jackson will be announcing the concert lineup soon, but is expected to feature at least 10 top artists performing 15 to 20 Jackson hits. Austrian media have reported that Madonna, U2, Lionel Richie and Whitney Houston might be among the performers. (Tribute site)

• According to The Sun, UK rock band Kasabian’s frontman, Tom Meighan, has come down with Swine Flu while on tour! Yikes, is that still happening?!?

• Although Thom Yorke has told The Believer that Radiohead won’t be working on a new album any time soon, the band’s output remains unchecked. Last week, they released the one-off “Harry Patch (In Memory Of).” Another new song leaked this week, supposedly called “These Are My Twisted Words.” The Stranger’s Line Out adds a bit of Yorkeian text, which may or may not be legit. Either way, this is a truly productive hiatus.

review and photos by Chona Kasinger

This past weekend, Redmond’s Marymoor Park hosted a weekend of great shows, including Friday’s gathering of folking indie rock favorites The Decemberists, Andrew Bird and Portland’s Blind Pilot, who got the party started promptly at 6PM, as people steadily streamed into the park, newly relieved of the miserable traffic plaguing the 520.

With the gentle Redmond wind gently lifting his trademark tousled hair and face frozen in a seemingly permanent whistle purse, Andrew Bird is a character I would strongly liken to the kind of guy that could have been your favorite music teacher in high school. Bird is just about as talented a multi-instrumentalist as they come, and his live set totally touts this.

His live performance is confident, effortless and unforgettable. Bird’s music is you, the protagonist, in your heartland, playing tag in the fields and wading in warm rivers in the summertime. Its magical and nostalgic quality is difficult to describe without experiencing it firsthand.

“Moderation is a kind of extreme,” Bird coos before biting his lips and shutting his eyes, ostensibly in lost in inner peace as he sways his thin frame during the song “Lull.”

“That was fun!” Bird exclaimed midway through his set before pausing momentarily and quipping, “I like music.” It appeared to me that Marymoor also really liked music at that very moment. Bird performed several songs off his latest release “Fitz and the Dizzy Spells” and also reached into his back catalogue and performed a handful of old favorites, like “Scythian Empire” before wrapping up with “Fake Palindromes,” one of my all time Bird favorites with its tongue in cheek lyricism and grandiose violin trills.

“A Short Fazed Hovel” is the name The Decemberists chose to give their latest endeavor across the United States, and as we saw back in May at Sasquatch, included Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond, along with My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden among Decemberists personnel.

The Decemberists opened up with The Hazards of Love (this time, the landscape free of people in the heat of lovemaking) and continued on with many tracks of their latest release, The Hazards of Love. With Jenny Conlee complacently bobbing her head at sidestage over her various keyboards, Funk stoically chewing gum over the audience on the right hand side, and Stark and Worden occasionally taking turns on lead vocal efforts, Meloy indulged the audience in his iconic and highly stylized delivery. Anyone who is anyone can do some sort of ludicrous Colin Meloy impersonation, which just goes to show how idyllic he has become in the world of indie rock music.

Stark’s stage presence was unworldly, as she waltzed across the stage in some sort of wonderful trance. Meloy took things to a personal level as he chided the audience to give Gibbard the message “I want my shoes back.” Meloy also explained that Death Cab for Cutie’s show the next day at the very same location would inevitably involve a set list chockfull of the greatest songs Gibbard had ever written, but would not contain the worst. With about as much discretion as Britney Spears in an upskirt paparazzi shot, Meloy confided “I’m going to play you the worst song I’ve ever written. Okay guys, this song is pretty bad.” before jumping into “Dracula’s Daughter,” in which he sings the following over a self described “douchy chord progression (Cm to Gm, if you must know)

Dracula’s daughter
Dracula’s daughter’s got it bad
You think you got it bad?
Try having Dracula for your dad

The Decemberists encore included an assortment of older tracks, such as “The Bicycle Song” and “July July,” along with a jawdropping rendition of Heart’s “Crazy On You.” Stark shocked the masses by hitting the high notes on the chorus, I couldn’t help but burst into incredulous laughter at how surprisingly incredible the cover, as a whole, was. Though relatively unfamiliar with the music of My Brightest Diamond, I never would have guessed that such a voice could have come out of such a pixy-ish little figure. The temporary dimension these two ladies has added to The Decemberists live show has been mind boggling (in the best possible way).

Per usual, the band wrapped up with arguably one of the best tracks off The Crane Wife: “Sons and Daughters.” The timing of this song couldn’t have been any more perfect, as the fog and lights mingled to reveal the magical insects flying high over the stage in an ethereal fashion. The audience was clearly ready to join in with the band in their chants of “Here now the bombs fade away.” This epic call to a distant end never fails to inspire, the sheer beauty and simplicity of the song clearly superseded by an ulterior message of peaceful engagement and love.

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host Cheryl Waters, is “The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid” by The Decemberists from their recently released album The Hazards of Love available on Capitol Records.

Let’s face it. You’re either a fan of The Decemberists or you’re not. If you belong in the first category, you are generally willing to go along with whatever unusual concept comes out of Colin Meloy’s brain and into your speakers because it sounds good for some reason. I personally never thought I would be driving down the freeway singing sea chanteys at the top of my lungs, but there you go. It happened(s). What I’m curious about is if their latest effort, The Hazards of Love, will be the album that pulls non fans into the other category. Today’s song rocks. Literally (pun intended). I know their last album, The Crane Wife, had a tinge more rock elements than previous efforts, but Meloy, et al, have gone full on rock as today’s song is over 6 minutes of wailing guitar riffs and features My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden rocking out a la Grace Slick opposite Meloy for more of a Jefferson Airplane sound than their usual nerdy lit rock. Other guests smattered throughout the album include Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Robyn Hitchcock, and Rebecca Gates (The Spinanes).

Some of the more nerdy details of the album’s concept and background story may as well be lost on the masses (but several folks recommend reading the lyrics when you listen to the album) but are well documented. One thing you might find curious is how Meloy got from British folk artist Anne Briggs-whose album The Hazards of Love originally inspired Meloy to write songs based on old folk songs, to classic metal sound heard throughout the album. A quick look at her wiki page shows that Ms. Briggs was also inspirational to one Mr. Jimmy Page… and voila!

The Decemberists begin their full on tour in support of the album with a little performance at Marymoor Park on July 17th with Andrew Bird and Blind Pilot. This show just might make me forget I hate festival/outdoor concerts/the Eastside. What an amazing line up. More dates and clever travelogues can be found on their website. Get your tickets early! They also recently donated a song to Causes 2, where 100% of the proceeds benefit several charities doing work in Africa. Other artists on this comp include LCD Soundsystem, My Morning Jacket, Diplo, Gnarls Barkley, Devendra Banhart and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. Digital downloads are available here.

Here’s a video of The Decemberists performing today’s song on The Colbert Report:

The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love

For the last four or so years, Portland’s The Decemberists have been one of my very favorite bands. I loved Her Majesty and The Crane Wife, and Picaresque will always be in my top albums of all time. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to hear that The Decemberists were releasing another album. I got my hands on the promo copy of The Hazards of Love (Capitol) last week, and couldn’t wait to listen. It wasn’t quite what I expected.

When “The Rake’s Song” was released as a single in January, I was in love. I thought it meant that The Hazards of Love would be moving back to the darker Picaresque side of things. Sadly, it turned out to be like one of those movie previews that puts all of its best parts in the trailer, causing the full length to be a bit disappointing. This is not to say that Hazards is a bad album, it still carries the same fantasy sea-shantyesque storylines that we all know and love. Something just seems to fall short, leaving the album in a sad state of mediocrity.

The album is one continuous story (originally intended as a musical). The story is about a villager, Margaret, who is “ravaged” by a shape-shifting animal (in the form of a deer), and falls in love with William, who lives in a nearby magical forest. There is also the forest queen, and a vicious, cold-blooded rake.

There are some songs on the album that I do really like. As previously mentioned, “The Rake’s Song” is very strong, and “Isn’t It a Lovely Night,” a sweet little sixties-esque duet, shines a ray of light on an otherwise very dark album.

The Decemberists will be playing at Sasquatch on Saturday, May 23rd.

Wavves - Wavvves

San Diego garage-pop band Wavves has gotten a lot of local hype lately. Upon first listen, I gather that their biggest Northwest fanbase will be those looking to chase away the blues of our long (long long long) winters with a little sunny California fun. Since the rain makes it difficult to hit the beach very often, the lo-fi, upbeat sound of Wavves’ almost-self-titled release, Wavvves (Fat Possum) definitely does the job.

The album is a really fun mix of garage rock and poppy electronica sounds, all with a distinctive Southern California feel. “Sun Opens My Eyes” has a bit more of a tribal flair. Most, like “Beach Demon,” have a tinge of stoner rock thrown into their overall sound.

The second half of the album was definitely my overall favorite. The “Goths” series of songs definitely stand out from the rest, and “Killr Punx, Scary Demons” is a trippy dive into a sea of beautiful noise. This band has a lot of potential, and I would imagine that they put on a killer show. I would definitely recommend Wavvves, especially if you’re looking for a little taste of summer.

Wavves will be performing live at KEXP on Thursday, April 9, at 12PM, and then playing at The Funhouse that night with Vampire Hands, The Cold Cold Ground, and Broken Knives.

photo by Ron Henry

• Ryan Adams, characteristically resistant to capital letters, has announced on his blog three things he’s cutting back: (1) smoking; (2) blogging; and (3) making music. In a long testimonial, he explains his decisions and discusses some of the recent difficulties he’s faced. On a more positive note, he describes himself as happy “for the first time in [his] life.” Adams concludes: “maybe we will play again sometime and maybe i will work my way back into some kind of music situation but this is the time for me to step back now, to reel it in and i wish everyone peace and happiness and if music is your dream, or if just dreaming is your dream, may you find your way through the rough patch with ease and i hope you let go and it takes you all the way there — loving kindness to all.” Apparently, some of this has been taken out of context by other news outlets, causing Adams to reiterate today, “i did not say i was quitting i said i was taking a step back…” Don’t worry, Ryan — the thought you not putting out at least one album a year seems unbelievable.

• The Decemberists, though, are still going strong. After releasing a series of EPs, they’re set to release their fifth full-length, The Hazards of Love, on March 24. Right now you can download for free “The Rake’s Song” from the album, beginning today, at the band’s website.

• Just a few months after good ol’ Times Square saw Kathy Griffin mortify poor Anderson Cooper, it will be witnessing the exit of an icon (and no, we’re not talking about TRL): The Times Square Virgin Megastore, which has proudly served as the highest volume music store in the United States, will shut down in April. It seems the store is still profitable — it’s just not paying the rent it could be. (Apparently Virgin pays only $54 per square-foot while the market rent in the area is over 10 times that figure.) Rents, shments; it still seems appropriate to blame the Stupid Recession. Oh, and it’s being replaced with a Forever 21. Here’s to capitalism.

• Support a good cause, hear some good tracks, what’s not to like: War Child International (a network of organizations helping children affected by — you guessed it — war) has released another tribute album, and there are some ringers in there: Beck covering Dylan, The Hold Steady covering Springsteen, TV On The Radio covering Bowie, Hot Chip covering Joy Division, you name it. Check out the full list.

• Could 2009 be the year of The Wrens? Celebrating 20 years together, the hardest working band in New Jersey is offering up a brand new single, “Pulled Fences,” recorded live at Abbey Road Studios. Does this mean the band is ready to record a follow up to their sensational Meadowlands? Seems so. They report on their newly updated website, where you can also find out how to get the new single, that on this coming Monday they will “reconvene in the basement and start recording music.”

• MySpace now sports an 18-minute documentary that follows Oasis and “a group of street musicians” as they debut songs off Oasis’s new album (Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets) in New York. The documentary, free and available for your viewing pleasure, purports to be the first “to debut in high definition in the history of MySpace.” Further kudos to them Internets.

• Speaking of videos, Weezer just released a new one for “Pork and Beans,” featuring an array of YouTube personalities and other characters (like Kathy Lee Gifford):