The Decemberists will be back on UK soil early next year for a string of shows in support of their new album.
"The Crane Wife" is released Jan. 27, 2007, and will launch the band into a frenzy of live action across Europe following a big U.S. tour.
The album is inspired by an ancient children's story Decemberists songwriter and frontman Colin Meloy stumbled across years ago in the children's section of a local bookstore. A venerable Japanese folk tale that's been handed down in countless variations and translations through the centuries, the deceptively simple story has stayed with Meloy ever since, according to the band's PR.
"Sometimes the visions are of bleak urban murderers on the prowl in "Shankill Butchers"; sometimes the waterlogged mingling of love and death in "Summersong," sometimes the bloodied pop confection of "O Valencia!"
"As the lyrics chronicle a tale of murder and rape, the instruments chart a far-flung course through multiple musical genres into a full-blown masterpiece."
That UK tour in full:
February 2007
2 - Sheffield, Leadmill
3 - Dublin, Village
4 - Glasgow, ABC
5 - Manchester, Academy 2
7 - Nottingham Trent Uni.
8 - London, Shepherds Bush Empire
9 - Southampton, Uni
