Pitchfork

It's gonna take a lot of garment bags to transport all the tweed blazers Colin Meloy and his merry band of Decemberists will need to get them through the month-and-a-half long tour they'll begin tonight in Jersey City, New Jersey. Thesaurus-thumbing grad students hither and yon will get their chance to gaze longingly at the much-beloved geeks as they worm their way through these United States of ours.

As previously reported, the band will bewilder the bearded masses at Bonnaroo, fit in rather nicely amongst their ilk at Coachella, and make a stop at the world-famous Hollywood Bowl in early July.

Curious nerds-- and heaven knows there's plenty of you amongst the Decemberists-loyal-- should be aware that Colin Meloy's turn at novel-ranking in The Morning News' 2007 Tournament of Books has come and gone, with the mighty juggernaut that is Richard Ford's The Lay of the Land toppling the linguistic pap of Upamanyu Chatterjee's English, August. Cram it up your word-hole, Chatterjee.

Decemberists a-go-go:

03-21 Jersey City, NJ - Loews Theatre #
03-22 Jersey City, NJ - Loews Theatre #
03-23 Boston, MA - Avalon #
03-24 Boston, MA - Avalon #
03-26 North Bethesda, MD - Strathmore Music Center #
03-27 Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre #
03-29 Wellesley, MA - Wellesley College (students only) #
03-30 Buffalo, NY - Center for the Arts #
03-31 Grantham, PA - Messiah College #
04-01 Norfolk, VA - The Norva #
04-03 Raleigh, NC - Meymendi Concert Hall #
04-04 Knoxville, TN - Tennessee Theatre
04-05 Nashville, TN - City Hall
04-06 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
04-08 Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live #
04-09 Tallahassee, FL - The Moon #
04-10 Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theater #
04-11 Memphis, TN - New Daisy Theater #
04-13 Louisville, KY - Brown Theater #
04-14 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant #
04-15 Urbana, IL - Foellinger Auditorium (University of Illinois) #
04-16 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater #
04-18 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre #
04-19 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre #
04-20 Madison, WI - Orpheum Theater #
04-21 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater #
04-22 Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium #
04-25 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theater #
04-26 San Francisco, CA - Warfield heater #
04-27 Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues
04-28 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
05-03 Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater #
05-04 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater #
05-05 Bellingham, WA - Western Washington University #
06-17 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
07-07 Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
07-22 Portland, OR - Edgefield Winery

# with My Brightest Diamond
* with Band of Horses