If you’re not signed up for The Decemberists‘ mailing list, you’re truly missing out on a gem of a mass email. Each lovingly crafted newsletter is saturated with the wit and intelligence you’ve come to expect from these left coasters. The band has announced the preorder of their forthcoming record, The Hazards of Love, due March 24th.
In the meantime, we have an offer for you, our loyal inner circle of the Mailing List Recipiency (that is a word, by the way, though my spell check is apparently too plebe to let if fly): you can AT THIS VERY MOMENT put your dibs on a copy of The Hazards of Love and it will be delivered to you in a timely fashion on the date of its release. You may choose either Compact Disc or Double 180 Gram Gatefold Vinyl. But move fast: if you are one of the first 750 CD orderers or 250 vinyl orderers, your copy will arrive at your doorstep tidily signed by each member of the band. Jenny may even grace your copy with her much-imitated “smiley-face” rendering.
But get this: one lucky CD or vinyl orderer will win (by dint of a random drawing, I suppose) a Baglama Saz signed by the band. This strange Turkish 3-string banjo-like instrument will not only create an aura of “indie-worldliness” about you to impress your friends, but it, too, will come festooned with signatures from the Decemberists. And if you’re the cynical sort for whom such a gift is not enough, we’d like to give you and a friend free access to the Decemberists concert of your choice from the upcoming “A Short Fazed Hovel” Tour 2009.
In addition to the new album, the band also has two new shirt designs: 1) a gorgeous portrait of the Rake from The Hazards of Love and 2) The Ilamat, both designed by Carson Ellis, The Decemberists’ personal Illustratrix/Art Slave.
If you can’t access the band’s webshop, attribute it to the masses scrambling to get their copies of the record. It’ll be worth it.
The Decemberists – “The Rake’s Song”
Tracklisting:
01. Prelude
02. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
03. A Bower Scene
04. Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
05. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
06. The Queen’s Approach
07. Isn’t it a Lovely Night?
08. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid
09. An Interlude
10. The Rake’s Song
11. The Abduction of Margaret
12. The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing
13. Annan Water
14. Margaret in Captivity
15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)
16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)
The Decemberists: website | myspace | Always The Bridesmaid series review | @ electric factory | interview with John Moen
