Last week, The Decemberists announced “Live Home Library,” a new series of live releases via the band’s label YABB Records (Youth and Beauty Brigade). The series begins with the December 4 vinyl release of Vol. 1, which presents an August 11, 2009 performance of their acclaimed full-length concept album The Hazards of Love recorded live at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Michigan. Vol. 1 was mixed by the album’s original co-producer and mixer Tucker Martine.
The limited edition 2-LP 140g vinyl pressing comes in two color variants—bone and black—and features an etched vinyl D-side plus a 24” fold-out with an oral history and photos from the tour taken by the band.
Vol. 1 is available for pre-order now on the band’s webstore: decemberistsshop.com
Listening link for “Won’t Want For Love”: youtu.be/czbVGdkgvpA
For their 2009 tour following the release of The Hazards of Love, the band—singer, songwriter, and guitarist Colin Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee,bassist Nate Query, and drummer John Moen—was joined by featured vocalists Becky Stark and Shara Nova (formerly Shara Worden) singing their respective roles from the album. “The Decemberists came armed to the teeth for their album’s live premiere,” Rolling Stone wrote in their review of the band’s debut performance of the album in Austin that year. “The Hazards of Love is unashamedly over the top in its dreams and execution. And at SXSW, The Decemberists nailed it that way. Their opera is ready for the road.”
“Since who-knows-when, we Decemberists have been sitting on a treasure trove of live recordings, shows over the course of our career that we have recorded for reasons long lost to time,” says Meloy. “We figured now, with a constitutional crisis looming, a viral pandemic spreading, and a global climate rapidly becoming uninhabitable, this would be a *perfect* time to wade through those recordings and pick the very best ones to release upon an unsuspecting world. More volumes will follow, hopefully touching on every era of the band’s 20 (nearly 21)-year long career.”
THE DECEMBERISTS
August 11, 2009
Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak MI
TRACK LISTING:
1. “Prelude”
2. “The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)”
3. “A Bower Scene”
4. “Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)”
5. “The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)”
6. “The Queen’s Approach”
7. “Isn’t It a Lovely Night?”
8. “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid”
9. “An Interlude”
10. “The Rake’s Song”
11. “The Abduction of Margaret”
12. “The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing”
13. “Annan Water”
14. “Margaret in Captivity”
15. “The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)”
16. “The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)”
17. “The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)” |