Decemberists jump ship.

(Hah! Pun intended...You know, since they write pirate music? Ok, it's a stretch but I sure got a kick out of it. )

The Decemberists announced yesterday that they are leaving their current label, Kill Rock Stars, and joining the big leagues-- and bands like Coldplay & Radiohead-- at Capitol Records. That's right, another indie gem jumps ship and heads for a major label. Maybe their producer and Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla told them what major-label life was like and they just wanted to see what would happen.

These announcements can usually be a big deal in the indie scene ("sellouts!!"), with hipsters liking their bands to stay with their bedroom studios and 5-person staff labels. I, for one, am indifferent to such things as long as the music stays good. And knowing the Decemberists and especially Colin Meloy, it'll probably get better. Reading his personal letter to fans on his messageboard reaffirmed that fact. It's a pretty great read so I'm posting it here in full:

Hi All

I wanted to write all the boardies a more personal note regarding this whole Capitol thing. Having read a lot of your guys' responses, I had to heave a sigh of relief. I felt like I was introducing a new girlfriend to a parent when we announced the signing. And I'm glad that most of you have been congratulatory. First off, thanks for everyone weighing in. We do appreciate that. We're really not the sort of band that blithely ignores the opinions of its fans -- rather, we tend to think of you guys as shareholders (there I go with the corporate analogies -- it's downhill from here!) to whom we must answer. I'm very thankful to those of you that have written and said that you trust us and believe that we will not compromise our aesthetic (whatever that may be) with this change. Believe me, we don't have a single bone in our collective bodies that intends to somehow recast our music in order to appeal to a larger, Santana-duet-record-buying public. And I think the nice folks at Capitol would be the first to agree that, for example, pairing us with that Rob guy from Matchbox Twenty or something in similarly poor record company taste would spell nothing short of disaster. No offense to the Rob guy.

For those of you who have, in the parlance of the day, 'flamed' us for this decision, that's cool. You have a right to your opinion. I've reacted similarly when I've found out that favorite bands have made decision that I think are tragic. But remember: we've released 3 and two halves (which I guess would make a whole, but for the purposes of this. . .) records with indie labels both small and large. Our first EP I would burn myself, one by one, on my out-dated PC, hand-stamp (much thanks to Chad Crouch for the lease of the stamp pad) and send to whomever had happened to hear our band and had sent in 5 dollars. We've worked hard to be where we are and have been lucky enough to fall into an incredibly sweet group of people who buy our records and come to our shows across the world. We're now in a position that the help of a major label is incredibly beneficial. It wouldn't have made any sense any earlier. We needed a change and we needed a challenge.

We will do our part to keep the community we've all developed intact and unchanged. This website and message board is not going anywhere, though the design might get a little more fancy (thank god! I'm a songwriter, not a web designer!). And here I would say that we intend to keep making the same music we always have, but that would be a lie; we intend to keep shifting and changing and making music that is important to us and we think is challenging to its audience.

And thanks for those of you who have posted congratulatory messages about Carson's with-babiness. All this label stuff sort of pales in the coolness of that.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice etc.

Colin

p.s. immediately read Julian Barnes' "Arthur and George." Beautiful.


As far as Kill Rock Stars goes, at least we still have Colin's Tarkio release to look forward to in January! That and the pending Decemberists DVD... Oh, how I heart this band.