MetaChat - I still don't get The Decemberists. Never have gotten them.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

30 April 2007

I still don't get The Decemberists. Never have gotten them. I'm afraid I never will. Why?

post by: matteo at: 16:46 | 25 comments

Too twee, contrived and precious? I liked their first LP as a sort of novelty album, but they've not done anything for me since.

posted by sciurus 30 April | 16:50

I just listen to The Shins instead.

posted by Specklet 30 April | 16:53

exactly sciurus, they're really "meh" for me. not bad, but I just don't understand the hype.

Specklet: good idea, The Shins are always good!

posted by matteo 30 April | 16:55

In terms of the weirdo-retro-anachron stuff, I really like drezdn's band The Scarring Party.

posted by sciurus 30 April | 16:59

Their records are definitely a little boring.

They do put on a phenomenal live show, however.

posted by dersins 30 April | 17:09

Decemberists.. love or hate them. I can't explain why I love them, but the stories they sing are the nearest thing to Fabrizio De André I have ever found in english-speaking songwriters.

posted by darkripper 30 April | 17:12

Welp I just shelled out $75 for me and my wife to see them up at Edgefield in July. It could be 100 degrees there by then, but they are playing Eugene this Thursday but I can't go.

I fully understand the meh reaction, I just don't have it.

The Shins, however, put me to sleep.

posted by danf 30 April | 17:18

You know what I don't get? Lost.

posted by box 30 April | 17:21

Lost rocks, amirite?

posted by grouse 30 April | 17:24

I don't really "get" the Decemberists, either.

(Long slag on Decemberists deleted)

Not to slag on Decemberist fans. Music is highly personal - I get annoyed when people assume I like the Decemberists or Wilco or Modest Mouse because I like the Shins - I listen to bands, not genres.

posted by muddgirl 30 April | 17:28

Your Favorite Meh Mehs.

posted by sciurus 30 April | 17:50

My father always said my music sounded like grinding icebergs.

posted by mischief 30 April | 18:18

I was just complaining about them to a friend!

I showed her this song, and she complained that the singer's voice was "too high pitched, nasally, and whiny."
I was floored.
"But wait, don't you like The Decemberists?" I asked.
"I do."
"Their singer's voice is the epitome of nasally! He actually sings WITH his nose, completely bypassing his vocal chords!"
"No he doesn't."
"You're seriously trying to tell me that The Decemberists' lead singer isn't the least bit nasally, high pitched, or whiny?"
"Yeah."

I stopped there. Can't reason with fanatics.
To see if I was crazy, I asked Steve, my roomie, whose voice was more whiny, high pitched, and nasally. I played tiny clips of "Summer's Ending," and "Mariner's Revenge."

"Oh, The Decemberist's," he said, "no question."

You be the judge.

posted by CitrusFreak12 30 April | 18:19

Sometimes it just doesn't hit the spot. Me, I never got The Arcade Fire.

posted by Lentrohamsanin 30 April | 19:36

I love the Decemberists! Holy Cow man, you can't get behind Picaresque? Great effing album - Eli the Barrow Boy? Great song.

I champion Portland's finest!

posted by Lipstick Thespian 30 April | 19:52

Another non-Decemberists-getter here.

Too twee, contrived and precious?

Spot on. (No reflection on your taste if you like 'em, of course.)

And my vote for Portland's finest would have to go to the Thermals.

posted by bmarkey 30 April | 20:07

I like Crane Wife 3, but not Crane Wife 1 and 2, nor the rest of the Crane Wife album. And 'twas not inspired to try out their other stuff. But I really like #3.

posted by moonshine 30 April | 21:54

Feh. One of my best friends was in a band called the Decembrists (note proper spelling) back in the mid-'80s when we were in high school. So I've always consider these guys to be pretenders (though clearly not the Pretenders) anyway.

posted by scody 30 April | 23:18

thanks guys, I feel less lonely now

posted by matteo 01 May | 04:24

I love the Decemberists. I adore them; I must have listened to The Crane Wife like a million times this winter and it may even have saved my life in a small way.

Also, I love Modest Mouse and more or less Wilco but the Shins are just okay.

posted by mygothlaundry 01 May | 08:50

Huh. I like, not love the Decemberists. The Shins don't really grab me that much.

I went to see Modest Mouse last night with a friend and we agreed that they were surprisingly good live. (another band I like fine, but not love).

posted by gaspode 01 May | 08:55

I love the Shins (the first two albums, the latest didn't really cover any new ground and it was very overproduced), I like the Decemberists (though they are not particularly memorable, I could not hum any of their tunes now, for example), but I really, really don't get the passionate devotion folks have to the Arcade Fire (who are also pleasant, but not remarkable).

I felt similarly about Neutral Milk Hotel 5 years ago, and Radiohead 10 years ago. It On the flipside, I LOVE Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, and Rid, but a lot of my friends, who otherwise have similar tastes to my own are mostly indifferent to them. There's just no figuring any of this. It's all just personal taste. De gustibus non disputandum.

posted by psmealey 01 May | 09:24

My admiration for the Decemberists started when Daughter brought home a DVD called Burn to Shine. I had heard of the band's name, and they had even played some small places in Eugene, but I never gave it a second thought.

They did the Mariner song on that and I was just blown away and became a fan, based on that. Truth be told, I love about a third of their songs, like some others, and about half of their body of work, I have no opinion about but the songs I love, I really love.

Plus, Jenny Conlee is just IT, in my mind.

posted by danf 01 May | 09:32

They did that 16 military wives song, right? I watched the video when it was posted to Mefi/Mecha/wherever awhile ago, and they struck me as a bargain basement Harvey Danger ripoff. Their video reminded me of a Wes Anderson movie; no real plot, just character development for the sake of weirdness. I never got Wes Anderson movies either (loved Bottle Rocket and that was it).

posted by Eideteker 04 May | 19:36

i went from wondering about the Decemberists to liking the Decemberists for that certain Wes Anderson quality and a kinship to the twisty cousin of the child of Belle & Sebastian and Neutral Milk Hotel, but loving them for a certain sincerity. i haven't seen them at all nor listened to the last album since the crash.

posted by ethylene 04 May | 20:00

← Male underwear question for the girls || Old and Busted: LOLCATS. New and Hot: →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN