The King Is Dead

Once upon a time, and it still may be true, there was a certain type of music called "college rock." Basically, it was alternative rock, whatever that meant, that appealed to undergraduates, and played on college radio stations. College rock bands have a habit of sprinkling obscure references in their lyrics, give their songs oblique titles, and even naming themselves after something only a college graduate might recognize.

A few college rock bands I can think of are R.E.M--who could be considered the granddaddies of college rock, The Hold Steady and The Decemberists. The latter, from Portland, Oregon, no less, are named after a faction of the Russian Revolution, and play indie folk-rock that is influenced by many things, most predominantly the strains of Appalachia.

Their latest album, and the first chance I've had to hear them, is The King Is Dead, from 2011. It is a gloriously listenable album, whatever your education level. All songs are written by the frontman, Colin Meloy, and the tracks are arranged with maximum hoe-down instrumentation: fiddles, mandolins, accordions, pump organs,Wurlitzer pianos and bouzoukis. On the back cover, the band is arranged to look like a bunch of rednecks just up from the holler.

Still, there is a certain smartypants factor to the lyrics. It's not often you'll hear references to Hetty Green (I had to look her up on Wikipedia--she was a 20th century financier), or the word "panoply." But that's alright by me, especially when the hooks are as great as they are, and the sound is joyous and toe-tapping.

In many ways, The Decemberists remind me of The Band, if they had gone to college (I've been thinking a lot of The Band since Levon Helm died last week). Now, The Decemberists stuff isn't nearly as loamy as The Band, and I sincerely doubt any of The Decemberists ever worked on an oil rig, like Helm did, but there's still a quality of genuine Americana and ancient melancholy in their sound.

My favorite songs are "Calamity Song," which is the one that tips the hat to Green, and also contains the chorus: "And the Andalusian tribes/Setting the lay of Nebraska alight/'Til all that remains is the arms of the angels." Okay. And I also love "This Is Why We Fight," probably a reference to the series of films made by the War Department during World War II, but with a haunting sense of loss. There are also two very pretty songs as odes to different months: "January Hymn" and "June Hymn." But the best song is "Rox in the Box," which I think is about mining, and if I was told it was a cover from a century-old song (except for the spelling or Rox) I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

To give this album even more street cred, Peter Buck of R.E.M. plays on a few tracks, as does Gillian Welch, a big name in bluegrass music.