Colin Meloy tested out a couple of in-progress Decemberists songs at a PDX Pop Now! Benefit last night. The first is under the working title “January Hymn,” the other called “July Hymn.” The latter references “the summer’s early sway,” while the first talks about clearing away snow. So the working titles do work.
“January Hymn”
“July Hymn”
[Via opbmusic]
Meloy’s been busy writing novels as well as songs. HarperCollins announced that they had signed Meloy and his wife Carson Ellis to a three-book deal. The first of their books is Wildwood, “a classic tale of adventure, magic, and danger, set in an alternate version of modern-day Portland, Oregon,” written for a middle school audience. It’s also not Meloy’s first book. He wrote a 33 1/3 series book on The Replacements’s Let It Be.
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New songs are great, but I’m just glad that the unspoken sideburn battle between Colin and Ben Gibbard appears to be over. (It’s probably been over for a long time, I just hadn’t seen much photographic evidence of either musician until recently.)
Love the sound of the new songs. Nice videos.