Down by the water

Morning! Imagine a world where you don't start work until 1pm and it gives you a chance to uphold your promise to attempt to post more on a middling blog you write. That's the world I live in!

Anyway straight in.

There's a new Decemberist's song available to download for free (well in exchange for an email) on their website, they've been playing it live for a while but this is the studio version and, oh yes, it's called 'Down By The Water'. I like the Decemberists, I like the folky pentanglesque sound of some their stuff, and the more ambitious side, and the chamber pop side too. And now I like the R.E.M sound they make, because that's what this new song sounds like. A little Cuyahoga maybe? Or something else circa 'Life's Rich Pageant'? Maybe just that fact that Peter Buck's guesting guitar jangly on this is unmistakable. Whatever, Meloy has made no bones about this being the direction that The Decemberists are going to take and I like it. See what you think. You can have a listen here

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart also have a new single out, you can hear it on Pitchfork, it doesn't sound a hell of a lot different then anything else they've done, but I doubt any fans will complain.

Elsewhere to delight your ears, noisepop slackers Matt and Kim have released a new record, I've not heard to much of it yet, but 'Red Paint' off of it is undoubtedly excellent. You can listen to it on the pop sucker blog, which is here

That should be enough for a media heavy Thursday morning.