Scenester Pick of the Day: The Decemberists in KC

It surprised us all (no doubt the band as well), when The Decemberists' new album, The King is Dead, topped the Billboard charts recently. Surely a lot of you scenesters sold your tickets for tonight's show at that crushing blow of mainstream respect. But we suspect plenty of you will show up tonight anyway, expounding on the times you saw them on Larryville's smaller stages, those glory days when their songs were longer and their references more obtuse. Personally, we can dig the new album's brevity and its brand of non-threatening country-rock, but Chip is annoyed that Meloy insists on sneaking in various allusions that make him think, such as "The lash-flashing Leda of Pier 19."

Chip: "Isn't Leda the woman who got boned by that giant goose?"

Pitchfork offers a perfectly acceptable 7.2 for the new record, along with this assessment of the band:

"The quirks that make them such a target for snickering, disaffected aesthetes (namely, stuffing their songs with arcane historical allusions and library language) are also what make them a boon for drama kids in three-button vests."

Richard: "I'm totally wearing my three-button vest to tonight's show."

Of the album itself, Pitchfork offers this:

"In places, it almost feels like a disrobing."

Chip: "Should I disrobe while listening? I already have a boner from that bit about the goose."

The Pitchfork review should help encourage older fans of Meloy's obscurity not to abandon ship just yet:

"...there's still plenty of fussy wordplay ("Hetty Green/ Queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab," Meloy bleats in "Calamity Song") and at least one Infinite Jest joke."

Richard: "I'm putting the fucking thing on repeat this afternoon until I find that Jest joke."

See you in KC.