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Check out this review in the Village Voice on the recent NYC Decemberists show. I have rarely seen such a critical review. Ouch.

 

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0646,ott,75004,22.html

 

Next, scroll down and read the comments to the article where Colin Meloy's girlfriend posts a response and the author of the article comes back at her. Yikes!!

 

If I could figure out how to post all of this in here I would...

 

I was at this show and I have to say (sorry to say it) this was the worst Decemberists show I have seen -- I have seen 4 total. The Decemberists act is getting a little stale for me. And the act didnt work nearly as well in the larger venue. Oh well.

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Outside the Hammerstein Ballroom on a perfectly crisp November night, a towering black man dressed Wu-Tang circa 1995 is bellowing, "DECEMBERISTS TICKETS. DECEMBERISTS IS SOLD OUT." I have stared at him in a thousand different states of disbelief for so long he takes note and asks, "Hey big guy, you need tickets?" Must be the wool sweater.

 

Inside, dozens of trend-spotting writers, bloggers, and shills are buzzing about the best CMJ performances of 2006, particularly the Knife, a Depeche Mode throwback whose sadly asexual black-lit glow-stick pantomime at Webster Hall was so impenetrable it just had to be art. Tonight demarcates the other side of the hipster spectrum: the familiar world of self-pitying white people looking for reasons to be unhappy, or at least suspicious, despite incalculable birthright advantages. The Decemberists look down from the top of this mountain, trying to make a living off of blas

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I understand the knee jerk reaction, and frankly, this is why most people hate critics. But its pretty lame for Colin to email this guy and then Carson to post a message on a public website. Assuming that those posts are really by Carson and the author of the article of course. IMO they shouldnt care what this two-bit critic from the Village Voice says. Far be it from me to tell them how to act, but I just think they aren't going to solve anything by getting into the fray. They come out looking worse than the critic who everyone can tell from reading the article is a jerk with an axe to grind.

 

And for what its worth, I was at the show and I almost barfed when Colin said that they were going to pretend they were playing a much smaller venue (i.e., Mercury Lounge). It was totally transparent. But whatever, good for them.

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I agree with Carson, though, that the review seemed really weirdly personal. Rather than reviewing the actual concert, the writer seems set just on attacking Meloy, like he's been waiting to do it for years.

 

As the very public leader of the group and one who writes the music, where do you think his focus would go?

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Guest Speed Racer
But more confounding than any contradictory professionalism is Chris Ott's core conceit: He believes he is a gifted and entitled writer, fit to tackle and retranslate whatever mythologies interest him.

 

Fixed it for him.

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The concert they performed the previous evening...?

 

I was at the concert and I can say two things -- and I honestly consider myself a Decemberists fan:

 

1. It felt like The Colin Meloy Band. I know that Colin is the leader of the band, but I have never felt like the other members were so invisible as I did at this show.

 

2. The band certainly did not play a show that demanded that an article be written about show.

 

I agree with you that this article comes off as a petty attack that could have been written two weeks before the show. And frankly, it probably was. But that being said, given how I felt after the show, I didnt think that the article was that misplaced. Chris Ott is a schmuck, but the Decemberists did not knock everyone's socks off. Or at least, not mine.

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That NYC reviewer sounded to me like he was challenging a wordsmith to a verbal sparring. And I agree, who knows if the poster is really Carson Ellis.

 

This Chicago Tribune reviewer at least discussed the music and the performance.

 

Style but no substance on a chilly Decemberists' night

 

 

By Joshua Klein

 

 

Colin Meloy is a gifted songwriter, but he and his band the Decemberists have always had a distracting air of artifice about them. It typically manifests itself as self-satisfied whimsy, like kids putting on a play, or at least playing dress-up. Often Meloy's winning, winsome melodies make up for this trait; at worst, the band

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I can't remember where it was (maybe here), but i recall reading a dialogue about PFork (when Ott used to write for them) a couple of years ago, and someone posted along the lines of "Chris Ott is always at shows around town standing in the back with his arms crossed, not paying attention and looking pissed off"

 

which seems to fit perfectly with this review.

 

i can't say i've been that enamored with the Decemberists live as of late, but that was a touch over the top.

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I wish I could hate someone I'd never met and didn't know personally. Must be nice to be able to judge someone's character like that.

 

 

This set me to grinning...read anything POLITICAL on the internets?

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I wish I could hate someone I'd never met and didn't know personally. Must be nice to be able to judge someone's character like that.

 

no kidding... :rolleyes i had my first ever decemberists live show the other night, which was cut short because colin was sick. but he still sang himself hoarse and apologized profusely for not being able to do a whole show. what an asshole.

 

and as to mr. ott... it's not the bad review that bothers me, it's the fact that he didn't review the show AT ALL. if you go to a show and genuinely feel that it was sub-par, fine. but it seems like the only thing he said about the actual SHOW was colin's comment about playing in a smaller venue, and the time length between songs.

 

i guess i could never review concerts for a living... i like nearly every show i go to... :)

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Meh. The guy was certainly trying a bit too hard to diss Meloy (which shouldn't take that much effort) and he didn't spend nearly enough of his concert review reviewing the actual concert. But, he's a music critic, and this kind of hatchet job is what these people live for. I'm not a fan of the Decemberists, so I thought it was hilarious, even if it was unnecessarily mean-spirited.

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For anyone who cares, the plot thickens -- famous former Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau has weighed in with his thoughts in the comments section. Again, assuming its really him:

 

I don't read the Voice music section much these days, and often don't like it much when I do, but thought I'd note for the record that I loved Ott's piece. Went to see the same Decemberists' show with fond hopes and found Meloy's "showmanship" so ordinary and his band's "musicianship" so static that I walked out fearing that I'd given their perfectly tuneful major-league debut--an impurity I've never believed reflected in the least on a record's quality--a half star too many. Someday I may find time to play the thing and make sure. Liked Harvilla's (second) Dylan column too--that's CYA with class, Rob.

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