Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

What Colin Meloy and Morrissey have in common

The A.V. Club have an interview up this morning with Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy, and naturally it plunges straight into his inspiration for the recently released concept album The Hazards of Love. The record is a kind of rock-opera—something Meloy acknowledges indie rock bands don’t really do anymore, but that he wanted to try to as a way of breaking out of the mold. Most indie rock today has its roots in punk and post-punk, which was sort of the answer to the classically trained prog-rock bands of the ’70s, who often did experiment with epics and concept albums. In a sense, Hazards is the concept album punk birthed.

He has a lot to say on this subject, but more interesting are his comparisons between his own songwriting and that of Morrissey (whom he is a big fan of). He notes that Morrissey always had to deal with critics who thought he was taking himself too seriously, though when you listen to the music, you realize there’s an immense amount of humor in it as well—he’s taking the piss out of himself, as the Brits say. The Decemberists often find a similar criticism leveled at them: That they’re too precious and dramatic. But similarly, they aspire to blend enough down-to-earth meaning and humor into their music that fans can appreciate it.

If you agree, you’d might as well get concert tickets. Decemberists tickets are sure to sell out quickly on this tour, but they’re available now at StubHub.com.