Things That Don't Matter

So far I’ve only done posts that fall into the things that annoy me category. It’s time to write about something that’s awesome. It being December, I thought writing about one of my favorite bands, The Decemberists, would be appropriate. The Decemerists’ music falls into category often referred to as “indie”, but that doesn’t make much sense, because their latest album was released on Capitol Records, a subdivision of EMI, but I really don’t care. Yeah, EMI is a part of the big four and is in on all that RIAA stuff, but that doesn’t stop me liking the music. One of the things I love about The Decemberists is that while being modern, they don’t act like it at all. Their music is heavily influenced by bands like Pink Floyd and R.E.M.. The lyrics to their songs are inventive and most of the time actually form a narrative rather than some phrase repeated over and over again. Most of their music tends to have a very strong message. Take for instance, the music video to their song 16 Military Wives, which I find quite hilarious as well as very true:

Funny story about The Decemberists, they got into a fight with Stephen Colbert after he accused them of riding on his coat tails when they produced a music video in front of a green screen and asked people to fill it in. (Stephen had recently performed a similar act on his show). The feud culminated in a “shred off” in which Stephen “injured” himself and had Peter Frampton fill in for him. The winner was decided by audience applause which of course went to Frampton, but the closing statement came from Henry Kissinger who declared “Tonight, I think the American people won.” There’s alot that’s funny about the Decemberists, their bio says they met in a Turkish bath and a footnote claims that “The Decemberists travel exclusively by Dr. Herring’s Brand Dirigible Balloons.” The Decemberists clearly have a lot of fun with their music, and thus is it fun to listen to.

Up until recently I was of the opinion that most music released post 2000 is crap (Rap, hip hop, all that stuff). However, The Decemberists stand out from the rest, thus I am adding them as the first entry on my things that are awesome list.