Alright, alright, alright! New Decemberists album for to come in the new year, t'would seem...there's already a download on their site ( http://www.decemberists.com/ - http://www.decemberists.com/ ) ala "The Rake Song" that sounds a bit like "We Both Go Down Together." You know, that "we can almost do pop" sound they're so fond of...

Comparisons have already been made to various sources, meaning that the single is clearly a Smiths-meets-REM-meets-Dylan affair. I myself am somewhat fond of it already; John Moen really swings on it. 

So, anyway, I suppose this is my attempt at letting my own namesake (that would be Mr. Meloy) piggy back off of my own internet sway (pitiful as it may be). Go, download the single, let it mingle, and let's all hold our respective breaths for the new album. 

Huh. Interesting. I actually prefer it to "Rake's Song," if ever so slightly. 

Walter...ya know...I used to assume that all music past 1979 was sh*t. The band that convinced me otherwise? The Decemberists. JUST sayin'...

If I might recall my email from the band, as they like me so much because I put myself on their mailing list, they said: 

I suppose you'd like to know the title of the record and when it comes out, this new offering of Decemberist songs. Well, wait no longer: the record will be called The King Is Dead and will be available on January 18th, 2011. That's 1/18/11. If you take away the slashes, that reads 11811. What does that mean? Must you ask? Clearly it is a snowman surrounded by a colonnade of waving banners. But this is obviously a snowman of no small importance. Perhaps he is the king of the snowmen, returned from far afield to reclaim his rightful mantle, which had been usurped by some lesser snowmen and women. Or maybe he's been laid in state, which would give this oblique album title the slightest tinge of a greater meaning, rather than being just something artful someone thought up, which is the fashion nowdays.

So that's pretty much everything you need to know!