The Decemberists//Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect

I’m going to see The Decemberists tonight with some of my favorite people from work. It’s going to be awesome, especially because I’ve been wanting to see them and never getting to for years.

I first got into The Decemberists after spending hours tooling around on the free downloads section of Kill Rock Stars site. This section, sadly, seems to have disappeared. Sad, because it’s where I found countless golden free/rare mp3s from bands like Deerhoof, Numbers, Gossip, Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney and Erase Errata.

There were two free Decemberists songs up. One was this song and one was The Soldiering Life, off of their first two albums, which are probably their most stellar, in my opinion. Here’s a great case for a freebie driving a purchase, because after I downloaded and got addicted to these two songs, I immediately bought everything I could buy directly from KRS. It got to my house a few months before I moved to London (2003) and I’ve been a fan ever since. They were one of those bands I got excited about, putting them on mix tapes and trying to force my friends to buy their albums (this is a either an annoying or endearing trend for me). I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see them live.

One reason I like the Decemberists is because Colin Meloy is a great songwriter; another is because they’ve got a great sound and ear for arrangement; and a final reason is because they have a lot of literary references. Excuse me, they’re called The Decemberists! And they have a song about Myla Goldberg!



Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect.mp3

The Decemberists play the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ tonight.

And just to lay with you
There's nothing that I wouldn't do,
Save lay my rifle down.