The Chicago Sun-Times has an interview with Todd. Has a lot of the same stuff as a lot of other interviews but has an interesting comment on the tour production: ""We're trying to demonstrate live that you can put together a decent production and have it be affordable and up the the ante in terms of your show," he says. "I want musicians to start thinking more in terms that they're performers. In that sense I think we have a lot to recover. For so long now, it's been all the lip syncing and dancing stuff."
Whilst the Decemberists have been around for a number of years, and a friend of mine is a big fan, I have to confess - a few tunes aside - they have never really made much of a splash with me. With their fifth album - 'The Hazards of Love' - a 17-track concept album that sort of tells a story about a fair maiden ravished by a shape-shifting demon (no, really) - however, I am suddenly find myself surprisingly won over. On some levels - like most concept albums - it is utter tosh, but with its repeating musical motifs and reprises, making you quickly think that actually there are only about five actual songs on the album - a clever trick. Like with all good concept albums this makes listening on shuffle not the ideal way to digest this album - especially as their are short 'interlude' pieces joining all the songs too. Added to all this the fact that the band seem to have a love for early 70's British folk/prog/heavy metal and this walks right up my street - and will ...
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