The Decemberists - Long Live the King

The Decemberists - New six-song EP serves as both an interesting coda to the band's #1-charting January full-length The King Is Dead and reflection of the influences of band members Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, and Nate Query who delved even further into the dark Americana string-band underpinnings in their 2010 side project Black Prairie...The mostly acoustic set includes stripped outtakes from The King Is Dead sessions along with a version of The Grateful Dead's "Row Jimmy" // Release: Long Live the King (November 1, Capitol) // Sound like: Portland's Tucker Martine is again in the producer's chair, keeping the sound clean and uncluttered and bringing in his longtime partner Laura Veirs for some harmonies... fans may argue how much of Long Live is made up of cutting-floor remnants but from a band as accomplished as The Decemberists we'll take the EP in the casual spirit it was made...

Quote: “Over the last eleven years or so, since I moved to Portland, I feel like I've been mining mostly English traditions for influence. I guess I've kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place – R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds...Sometimes I kind of miss the epic-ness of the other albums, but it’s nice to get all of the information across in three minutes. It’s like going from reading a novel to reading a bunch of short stories.” - Colin Meloy // What we like: the wonderful "Foregone" rings clearly with a Band-like rural punch, a swagger of a beat and pedal steel moan backing up Meloy's dusty vocals...the jaunty home demo "I 4 U & U 4 Me" sounds like an old R.E.M song, stripped naked with just flashes of acoustic strumming and a jaunty back beat for cover...

The Decemberists - "Foregone" (from Long Live the King)

The Decemberists - "E. Watson" (from Long Live the King)