'The Crane Wife,' the new album by indie-rock band The Decemberists, was released earlier this month. Visit the Photo Place

Decemberists stay cool

Indie-rockers The Decemberists approach music like an open book

By BEN SELLERS

Date published: 10/26/2006

If Death Cab for Cutie's spaced-out keyboards make them the Trekkies of the indie-rock world, The Decemberists are its farbs.

A farb, for those unfamiliar with the term, is what hard-core Civil War re-enactors call their more casual counterparts.

In a way, the label perfectly fits the Portland, Ore.-based quintet, whose latest album Rolling Stone magazine recently described as "[t]he catchiest Civil War-era folk-rock tunes of the year."

"The Crane Wife" is brimming with storytelling songs such as "Yankee Bayonet," a duet between a soldier and his sweetheart that includes lines like, "But O did you see all the dead of Manassas/ All the bellies and the bones and the bile?"

But don't expect to find organist and accordion player Jenny Conlee touring the battlefields at Manassas or Fredericksburg in between the band's two sold-out gigs this Sunday and Monday at Washington's 9:30 Club.

"My plan was to go to the Smithsonian," she said. "I've never been, and I hear that they have a great Native American exhibit there, which I will be checking out for sure."

The Decemberists (whose name is derived, at least in part, from a group of 19th-century Russian revolutionaries) have earned a reputation among fans as an intellectual band, drawing on obscure themes, outlandish fashion and a grandiose lexicon--all of which befit the orchestral quality of their playing.

With the buzz surrounding "The Crane Wife," their major-label debut on Capitol Records, and the monthlong tour promoting the album, the band is also sure to pick up some new fans.

Listeners who don't immediately get frontman Colin Meloy's lofty lyrics shouldn't be disconcerted, said Conlee.

"Sometimes I have to go ask Colin exactly what his intentions are for songs I don't understand, what his ideas are. You don't necessarily always know someone's intentions."

After releasing three full-length CDs and an EP on the Kill Rock Stars label, signing with Capitol was an important step for the five-year-old band's growth, said Conlee.

"We felt like we wanted to play for a larger audience, and the contract was so wide open in terms of, like, we could be free to do whatever we wanted to do, basically."

The Decemberists will play the 9:30 Club in Washington Oct. 29 and 30. The shows are sold out.

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Date published: 10/26/2006