[SLOWLY APPROACHING] Black Prairie

|:| 3/5 of the Decemberists Prepping 4/9 Release  |:| 

Black Prairie - Red Rocking Chair

Here is an iPhone photo of a show they did this past weekend. If you are a Decemberists fan you might have to watch this curve ball go through the strike zone. The sound is like a true Appalachian bluegrass band and  not the nerdy alternative sound of their counterpart. Check out the song, see what you think. Like what you hear? Head over to their Myspace. The album is coming out on April 9th and will be titled, Feast Of The Hunter's Moon. Find out more about it on Sugar Hill Records Website.

Tracklist:

Across The Black Prairie

Red Rocking Chair
Back Alley
Ostinato Del Caminito
A Prairie Musette
Crooked Little Heart
Annie McGuire
Atrocity at Celilo Falls
Tango Oscuro
Single Mistake
Full Moon in June
Home Made Lemonade
The Blackest Crow

New Material from The Decemberists &/or Colin Meloy

Here is a YouTube video that looks pretty interesting. If you have even been to a Decemberists concert you will know that Colin Meloy likes to rant and ramble on, hear himself talk, for a better part of the show. I'm not complaining because he is pretty funny. Looks like he has really let himself go, no more flippy-odd-bang thing going on in the front and a full beard. This new tune sounds more like stuff off Picaresque or Her Majesty. It is a nice throwback tune, compared to the epic stories and more harder alternative sound than The Crane Wife or The Hazards of Love. (Not contradicting their latest releases) But this could easily be him prepping for a solo album, seeing as it is just him playing, while a better of the part is working on their side project Black Prairie. But it has that signature catchy sound that the Decemberists became famous for. We'll just have to see what this leads to!

[SCORE, finished the post before the premiere of Season 6 of LOST]

3/5 x (the Decemberists) = Black Prairie

I'm sure many of you know The Decemberists. The alternative rockers with albums that tell stories likened to Homeric epics. The brilliant mind of front man Colin Meloy really gives the Decemberists a rare sound that sets them apart and above other music out there. Ever wondered what they might sound like without Meloy? Here's your chance.

BLACK PRAIRIE

3 of the Decemberists 5 members (Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, and Nate Query) have teamed up with fellow Portland musicians John Neufeld and Anaalisa Tornfelt on this side project. According to their Myspace they sound like:

A bone slid across a fiddle bridge on accident, but you thought about how you were going to drag it across for a hot second and it still sounded the same.

I can't really say I know what this means they sound like, but they have an explicit bluegrass twang. They sound straight out of the rural Tennessee Appalachians. The only thing lacking on the two tracks on their Myspace are vocals. Besides a 1,2,3 count down on "John's Song" there are no words. Might it be that these songs are demos or that the group is more instrumental is yet to be reasoned. But an early 2010 release date is scheduled for Black Prairie's Feast of the Hunter's Moon through Sugar Hill Records.