The Decemberists' Colin Meloy Announces New Album from a Brooklyn Street Corner
Colin Meloy of the Decemberists busking in Brooklyn in front of the cover art to his band's forthcoming album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. Photo: @diffusermusic
It looks like a little piece of Portland took over a Brooklyn street corner this morning. Colin Meloy, the lead singer of local indie rock group the Decemberists, began busking on Bedford Avenue to announce the band's seventh studio album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.
Meloy announced the impromptu concert on Twitter this morning: "I’ll be the bearded and bespectacled guy at Bedford & 7th, busking new Decemberists songs. 11:30. Like, in 40 min. Come on by!" Equipped with only an acoustic guitar, the singer performed before a mural of the new album cover by his wife and Wildwood co-conspirator, Carson Ellis.
He debuted a new song called "Make You Better," as well as played old classics like 2005's "The Engine Driver."
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World will be the bands follow-up to 2011's widely lauded The King Is Dead, which featured the Grammy-nominated song "Down by the Water," a collaboration with R.E.M. lead guitarist Peter Buck.
Back in April, at a live taping by the radio show Q at the Aladdin Theatre, Meloy performed a different new song that might find its way onto the forthcoming record called "Carolina Low."
We will update as more information on the Decemberists seventh record breaks the surface, such as a release date, but for now enjoy these pictures and videos of Portland's own Meloy performing to those sordid, wretched, Ebola-infested, Portland-romanticizing Brooklyn hipsters (we're not jealous or anything).
