The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook | |
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Directed by | Jeff Feller |
Produced by | Aaron Stewart-Ahn |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook is a 2007 film featuring indie rock band The Decemberists. The film includes music videos, a live concert, and documentary footage.
The documentary section, titled Paris Before the War, concerns the creation and subsequent recording of the band's album Picaresque . [1] It includes both interviews and footage of the band recording, in a church in northeast Portland with Chris Walla producing. [2] According to the documentary, the band has always been particularly enthusiastic about "The Mariner's Revenge Song," which appears on Picaresque and which they often perform at concerts, because it was the only song they were able to record live. [2] Colin Meloy also discusses his previous band Tarkio and his motivation for moving to Portland. Of the song "My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist," first recorded with Tarkio and re-recorded by the Decemberists for their EP 5 Songs, Meloy says that he wrote it to amuse his girlfriend Carson Ellis. [3]
Another section of the DVD documents an 80-minute live concert at the Roseland Theater in Portland, on November 4, 2005, one of the final concerts of its Picaresque tour. [4] The band played songs from all their albums to date, including "The Mariner's Revenge Song," "The Chimbley Sweep," "The Sporting Life," and "I Was Meant for the Stage." Scott McCaughey guested; Petra Haden, who by that point had left the band, also appeared.
Music videos are included for "The Tain," "Sixteen Military Wives," "The Bachelor and the Bride," "The Soldiering Life," and "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect."
Critical reviews were mixed. The documentary section was described as "dry" [3] and unengaging, [1] and as chronicling "perhaps the least interesting chapter in the band's history"; [3] but also as "cute", [5] "nothing short of endearing" and "rewarding.". [2] Some viewed the concert segment favorably, [3] [5] though others noted that the first half dragged [1] or that the "awkward" and "disappointing" performance was "not, by far, the Decemberists’ best." [2] The music videos, however, were mostly praised. CMJ New Music Monthly criticized the poor-quality editing of the DVD. [1]
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query (bass), and John Moen (drums).
Montana is the 41st state to enter the United States, and has a culturally-diverse population representing a broad spectrum of music genre, style, and instrumentation.c
Frederick John Elgersma, known by the stage name Fred Eaglesmith, is a Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter. He is known for writing songs about vehicles, rural life, down-and-out characters, lost love and quirky rural folk. His songwriting uses techniques of short story writing, including unreliable narrators, surprise endings, and plot twists. In 2016, Eaglesmith toured extensively with his band.
Picaresque is the third studio album from The Decemberists. It was released in 2005 on the Kill Rock Stars record label. The word "picaresque" refers to a form of satirical prose originating in Spain, depicting realistically and often humorously the adventures of a low-born, roguish hero living by their wits in a corrupt society.
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band the Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica and percussion instruments.
5 Songs is a six-track EP by the Decemberists initially self-released in 2001. It is the first record the band released. The misleading title owes to the fact that the final track, "Apology Song", was written after the original self-produced CD was released. Meloy liked it so much that it was added to the album when it was re-released by Hush Records in 2003.
The Tain is an EP by The Decemberists released in 2004 by Acuarela Discos and in 2005 by Kill Rock Stars. The single 18-plus minute track, in five parts, is named after the Irish mythological epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, often simply called The Táin. With production help from Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie, the Decemberists recorded the EP over the course of four days in Walla's studio in Seattle, Washington. The album cover was designed by the Portland artist Carson Ellis, who is Colin Meloy's wife and has created artwork for each of the group's albums.
Jennifer Lynn Conlee-Drizos is an American musician, best known as the accordionist, pianist, organist, keyboardist, melodica player, and occasional backup singer and harmonicist for the indie rock quintet The Decemberists.
Christopher Funk is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist best known as a member of the Portland, Oregon, indie rock band The Decemberists. He plays guitar, pedal steel, piano, violin, dobro, hurdy-gurdy, mandolin, saxophone, the theremin and many other instruments. According to Colin Meloy, as stated at the Pilgrimage Festival in Franklin, TN on September 27, 2015, Funk was originally given the middle name "Ryman" but a clerical error on his birth certificate resulted in his middle name being recorded as "Lyman."
Carson Friedman Ellis is a Canadian-born American children's book illustrator and artist. She received a Caldecott Honor for her children's book Du Iz Tak? (2016). Her work is inspired by folk art, art history, and mysticism.
Tarkio was an indie rock band from Missoula, Montana which included Colin Meloy prior to his forming The Decemberists. Tarkio broke up in 1999, but found new popularity in a retrospective released by Kill Rock Stars in 2006.
The Crane Wife is the fourth album by the Decemberists, released in 2006. It was produced by Tucker Martine and Chris Walla, and is the band's first album on the Capitol Records label. The album was inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and centers on two song cycles, The Crane Wife and The Island, the latter inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest. National Public Radio listeners voted The Crane Wife the best album of 2006.
Picaresqueties is a five-track EP released by the band The Decemberists as a companion disc to the double-vinyl edition of their LP Picaresque. It contains previously unreleased material from the Picaresque recording sessions.
"Sixteen Military Wives", sometimes referred to as "16 by 32", is a single released by The Decemberists from their third album, Picaresque.
"O Valencia!" is the fifth single by the indie rock band The Decemberists, and the first released from their fourth studio album, The Crane Wife.
Colin Meloy Sings Live! is the first live album released by Portland musician Colin Meloy, frontman for the Decemberists. The album was released in April 2008, and is a collection of live recordings from various nights on the artist's solo tour in early 2006. It includes stripped down versions of songs by the Decemberists, a song that dates back to Meloy's college band Tarkio, live banter and covers of The Smiths, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, and Shirley Collins. It includes two previously unreleased songs, "Dracula's Daughter" and "Wonder", the latter of which makes reference to Meloy's first—and recently at the time—born son.
Her Majesty the Decemberists is the second full-length album by The Decemberists, released on September 9, 2003, by Kill Rock Stars. The song "Song for Myla Goldberg" was written years earlier, after Colin Meloy had been a media escort for the novelist Myla Goldberg during a tour following the publication of her first book, Bee Season.
U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky is a concert film by Irish rock band U2. It was recorded on 5 June 1983 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, United States, on the group's War Tour. Originally released in 1984 on videocassette, U2 Live at Red Rocks was the band's first video release. It accompanied a 1983 live album entitled Under a Blood Red Sky, on which two tracks from the film appear. The video was directed by Gavin Taylor and produced by Rick Wurpel and Doug Stewart.
We All Raise Our Voices to the Air is a 2012 live album by the folk rock band The Decemberists. The album was recorded during the 2011 Popes of Pendarvia World Tour to promote the album The King Is Dead at venues across the United States. The album was released as a double Compact Disc and a triple vinyl LP set. The title comes from a line in the track "The Infanta", from the album Picaresque.
"Southern Girls" is a song written by Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson that was first released by Cheap Trick on their 1977 album In Color, produced by Tom Werman. It was also released as a single. It has been covered by a number of artists, including Bangs, Everclear and Gilby Clarke.