Decemberists: Announce dates & talk to DiS

Portland's Decemberists have produced one of 2005's finest records in 'Picaresque' a swirling, danceable and above-all interesting work that has won fans across the board. When the LP was originally released in the US in 2004, the band popped over to the UK for a few select dates (including one utterly memorable show at London's LSE with their fellow countryfolk The Unicorns).

Drowned in Sound caught up with Colin Meloy, Decemberists' spiritual leader, vocalist and lyricist:

"Things have been fantastic. We're at the beginning of what promises to be a great tour 'til the end of October, after which we'll be visiting your merry shores for a tour of the UK/Europe in November. We're now four dates into the tour, which has been lovely. The whole thing started with a band with two sold out shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the tour."

...and on their forthcoming UK shows: "A happier, less sleep-deprived, and marginally better-fed band than leapt the pond a year ago. We're excited to get back to the UK for sure. After these dates we're going to take a little breather. Mr. Moen (drummer) is heading off to Australia with Steven Malkmus to do a short tour and I'm going to hole up at home and work on songs for the next record. There are rumblings of a solo tour in January (which may or may not produce another cover EP) after which we'll start working on a new record."

Here's those UK dates in full:

November
14 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
15 Manchester Academy 3
16 Glasgow ABC2
17 London ULU
Tickets are on-sale now from usual outlets