The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review also has a Todd interview The importance of being a muscician is stressed in this one: "One of the things I try to preach to other musicians ... is that your job has always been to perform," he says. "It wasn't to go into the studio to make records and go home and collect royalty checks, it was always to go out and prove what you can do night after night. B.B. King still goes out 300 days a year. Tony Bennett is still knocking people out night after night after night. And that's what being a musician is all about. People get too fixated on records, that records will either make your life easier or it's your only reasonable musical outlet. I think it's time for players to get back to the playing."
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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