Decemberists' Meloy Tours Solo, Preps EP

Perhaps with an eye toward dealing the final blow to any comparisons that reviewers might have made between himself and the reclusive Jeff Mangum, Colin Meloy of The Decemberists is coming off a November European tour with his band only to head back out for a solo tour of the U.S. in January.

Speaking to Pitchfork via email, Meloy promised "the odd cover, a pile of Decemberists faves, as well as some of the songs off the new record." Said record is Picaresque, due to arrive March 22nd on Kill Rock Stars with a heaping portion of the narrative cohesion the band experimented with for The Tain. Several of the dates on Meloy's solo tour are with Hush Records murmurer Corrina Repp, and all dates will feature Carson Ellis, "she who is responsible for the illustrations on all of our records, ...selling limited edition prints of her artwork, as well as original sketches. For cheap, no less." How did he know we like cheap? Dates:

01-13 Seattle, WA - Triple Door *
01-14 Portland, OR - Doug Fir (w/ Joe Haege of 31 Knots)
01-16 San Francisco, CA - Cafè du Nord *
01-17 Los Angeles, CA - Hotel Cafè *
01-18 Los Angeles, CA - Hotel Cafè *
01-19 Chicago, IL - Schuba's (w/ Shelley Short)
01-21 Arlington, VA - Iota
01-22 New York City, NY - Fez (w/ Amy Annelle)
01-23 Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's

* with Corrina Rep

  But with the European tour ending around Thanksgiving and Picaresque long since in the can, doesn't that leave Meloy with a whole month of leisure time? Yeah, right. "I'm in the process on working on a tour-only EP to sell at the shows," says Meloy, "which will be a short collection of five select Morrissey B-side covers, done acoustically." Which is cool with us-- as eager as we may be to hear new Decemberists songs, we're fully prepared to shout requests for "I Know Very Well How I Got My Name".

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