The Decemberists

Special Guest: Blind Pilot
There's an odd bond between the music of the British folk revival and classic metal," says Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy. "A natural connection between, like, Fairport Convention and Black Sabbath-of course, Sandy Denny from Fairport even sang with Led Zeppelin on 'The Battle of Evermore.' I think there's a shared sense of narrative and ambience, of moving beyond the first person in your writing. And I thought it would be interesting to mess around with that."
The band's fifth album, The Hazards of Love, represents the most glorious kind of messing around. It's the most ambitious and most accomplished project to date from the Portland-based quintet of Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen-a full-length song cycle rooted in ancient language and imagery, yet entirely modern and accessible. The follow-up to the group's 2006 breakthrough, The Crane Wife (which NPR listeners voted their favorite album of the year), The Hazards of Love solidifies the Decemberists' standing as one of the most innovative and important creative forces in music today.
"It grew into the idea of creating a suite of songs based on old folk songs," says Meloy. "Building a narrative, piecing together disparate motifs, developing actual protagonists." Of course, working with elaborate song forms isn't new territory for the Decemberists. As far back as 2004, the band released "The Tain," an eighteen-and-a-half minute single based on an Irish myth. The Crane Wife took as its starting point an ancient Japanese folk tale, which was interpreted across three separate songs. The album climaxed with "The Island," a 13-minute, three-section murder ballad.
In its final, 17-song form, The Hazards of Love (produced by Tucker Martine) tells the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake. The range of sounds reflects the character's arcs, from the accordion's sing-song lilt in "Isn't It a Lovely Night?" to the heavy metal thunder of "The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing." Melodies echo across different songs-"The Abduction of Margaret" mirrors "A Bower Scene."
www.decemberists.com
Location:Brown Theatre