The Decemberists' Colin Meloy on the trouble with being a Morrissey fan - NME

The Decemberists on life in Trump’s America, and the trouble with being a Morrissey fan - NME

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, we also asked Meloy about his current feelings on Morrissey. For his debut solo outing in 2005, he recorded six covers for the EP ‘Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey’. However, the frontman admitted that his fandom didn’t stretch as far as the former Smiths‘ singer’s recent work – or his string of controversial comments.

“I’m still absolutely invested, in a certain era of his work,” Meloy told NME. “I thought there was a lot of great stuff on the 2004 record ‘You Are The Quarry’. To me that was a return to form because I had ‘Maladjusted’ and ‘South Paw Grammar’. I had kind of fallen away. My thing with Morrissey is I that I just wish he had different songwriting partners. I feel like his guitar wall, arena rock thing it just doesn’t work. During the era of ‘Bona Drag’ and ‘Kill Uncle’, there was a lot of really weird, interesting decisions being made. And also he’s a terrible person!”

Asked if he was able to celebrate an individual’s art from their views, Meloy replied: “I think with Morrissey you’re primed for that. It was no secret that he was a terrible person, I think going way back. Even as a teenager. He’s nobody that you want to spend that much time with. He’s the one hero of mine who I haven’t met who I think I’m OK with not ever having met. But I think that’s sort of something that we have to grapple with.

“Like with Woody Allen, ‘Crimes And Misdemeanours’ is one of my favourite movies of all time. But how do you divorce that from the guy who made it who is sort of a sociopath? We’re kind of figuring it out as it goes along. It’s awful.”
 
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The Decemberists have pretty much taken over as my favourite band. At least, favourite active band. I usually find Meloy to be pretty level headed and I think he is here ... he's voicing what I think a lot of people grapple with. There are so many people who shit all over Morrissey on this website over and over and who just will not go away. They won't admit it, but they have this grapple too where they get agitated by him, but they love him too. I'm the same, although I'm probably not agitated as much as a lot here .. I can mostly tune it out as white noise and enjoy the bits I do like. Meloy would be the same, he only recently got a 'Moz' tattoo so he holds a fair bit of love.

Well, if he has a Morrissey tatoo maybe I should listen the music, just a bit. Just to see what is going on there.
 
total assface:
yf8i68hxxs2sa7mfmdmi.jpg
show us your face, that we laugh too
 
Huge fan of The Decemberists here. The Radio City show in 2015 was a top 10 concert for me. Colin's a fan of Moz, the artist. That's good enough for me.

The new album is interesting. I'm starting to like it. Here's a good new one done in their more conventional style - the double song:

 
Huge fan of The Decemberists here. The Radio City show in 2015 was a top 10 concert for me. Colin's a fan of Moz, the artist. That's good enough for me.

The new album is interesting. I'm starting to like it. Here's a good new one done in their more conventional style - the double song:



That is one of the better ones along with once in my life. I’m honestly not really upset about them going with a more electronic sound, I’m a big of Montreal fan for instance, but rather just that the album feels underwritten and kinda generic and the more minimal lyrics and music just make me more indifferent to it. A lot of the time the keyboards feel a little to right on the nose reference wise and at heart I feel like he seems very hesitant and unsure on this one. So far my least fav decemberists album next to the hazards of love
 
That is one of the better ones along with once in my life. I’m honestly not really upset about them going with a more electronic sound, I’m a big of Montreal fan for instance, but rather just that the album feels underwritten and kinda generic and the more minimal lyrics and music just make me more indifferent to it. A lot of the time the keyboards feel a little to right on the nose reference wise and at heart I feel like he seems very hesitant and unsure on this one. So far my least fav decemberists album next to the hazards of love

This is a good article/interview with Colin about the new album and how it fits into the band's history:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/artic...rce=PMNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=180313
 
Perhaps it has something to do with him sexually grooming his adopted daughter and marrying her. That does make a person taste vomit at the back of the throat just a teensy bit.

I thought that was Ted Nugent? Did Woody Allen do it too? I thought he was just nonced his step daughter. Both weirdos either way.

Is Morrissey a bad person? I don't think so, just someone who hasn't been near anyone who's questioned his views for ten years. Anyone surrounded by arse kissers for so long is going to come out with the odd twattish remark.
 
This is a good article/interview with Colin about the new album and how it fits into the band's history:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/artic...rce=PMNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=180313

Thanks but I’ve read it along with the Atlantic piece and npr did a nice story if not an interview. I’m a big fan from about the her majesty days so I’ve been reading all the recent promo for the new one. Thing is even if it didn’t have the shifts in sound the songs just still sound a bit ho hum and lacking in detail and emotion and personally I don’t listen to hear Colin give me less of what I love which are the lyrics and the details. He said he intentionally tried to not write as many and maybe people like that, I do really enjoy once In my life despite its similarity to his mall in the open chords, but that’s what I loved about the band. I don’t want that in the same way I wouldn’t want morrissey to have been a minimalist lyrical writer while in the smiths. That said he’s been seeking a little bored and pulling away from the classic sound for a while. The king is dead was a direct attempt to write more direct songs like he ones that inspired him to pick up a guitar hence the reckoning rem style album. I love that album though as the songs all drip with moving aching lyrics even if the weren’t in the storytelling vein. With horrible world we started to see a grab bag of classics with captain and Philomena along with surf rock inspired songs. Still a great album even if it wasn’t cohesive but the new one is not sitting well with me. I feel like he’s not stretching his sound so much as trying to do the opposite of what makes him great and while that’s fine I don’t know that I’m gonna feel or react in the same way
 
I like Colin Meloy and think he's spot on about Morrissey's arena rock style of music. I've maintained for a long time that he needs some new songwriting partners or to branch out in a new direction. Will have to read his review of autobiography. Not sure terrible person is entirely fair but I've never felt the need to meet the man.
 
“Like with Woody Allen, ‘Crimes And Misdemeanours’ is one of my favourite movies of all time. But how do you divorce that from the guy who made it who is sort of a sociopath? We’re kind of figuring it out as it goes along. It’s awful.”

Comparing Morrissey with Woody Allen is utter nonsense, an attack against reason. You seriously can't put in the same level a person who merely speaks his mind, who opens the debate about the way our society and media is dealing with the problem of sexual abuse -as Morrissey did for good or for bad- because he always try to find the other side of the truth; with a criminal like Allen, or at least someone who is accused of serious crimes against a child, and who presumably married the victim of another of his abuses. You seriously can't compare both situations. I know Woody Allen was not convicted, but the entity of the crimes he is accused of has nothing to do with giving an opinion to a chatty journalist. Comparisons like this are a sign of how crazy is our contemporary society, that's why I must agree with Meloy words: "That’s the reason Donald Trump is president, because there’s a little of him in all of us, in America itself.” Of course there is, dear, just as you said it.
 
I'm sorry but that's not an argument. I don't know why there are still people who believe that a personal attack with nothing to back it up is an opinion worth typing out, though that did presumably take minimal effort.

You believe he is an idiot because you disagree. What do you disagree with? "Morrissey is not a terrible person" is not an answer, by the way. He makes his case and you should make yours if you care enough to discuss it.
I'm personally ignorant in many ways and always ready to learn something new, but this guy sums up how I feel about Morrissey pretty well and I think it's how many people who might have once called themselves fans feel. So educate us. Make your case.

It's really important, I think, for the fans, the ex-fans, the audience, the haters, and everyone else except the Mozbots to try to distinguish between the work and the person. Some of the work is really unique which alone makes it remarkable and valid, and beyond the uniqueness he is able to get inside and express certain feelings and situations that almost no one else in pop music is able to do. Morrissey is an artist who has done some really great work but I also think it's not that outrageous or surprising that someone can enjoy his work and also feel that he's a terrible person and I'm pretty sure you can make a case for that using his own words.

This is in contrast to The Decembrists who might be the best people in the world but whose work when I've been exposed to it, has held zero interest for me.
I've expressed my opinion on the matter umpteen times on this site in the past, so it seems a little boring to go back into it now. But I will if you insist. I don't mind people being offended by Morrissey's comments. That doesn't bother me. What does is ex-fans. People who are suddenly dismayed at the 'shocking tone' of his comments in recent years - as if he has suddenly changed. Suddenly become a bad person. Morrissey has always expressed so-called controversial opinions, but in recent times there's been a full Stalinist crackdown on saying anything even remotely interesting or off-kilter - a kind of mass brainwashing by the media and its sheep that even a moron should realise is not in our best interests. It's about power and control - and this Decembrist guy and many of his sanctimonious ilk are wholeheartedly trapped in its net. Take Martin Rossiter from Gene as another fine example. Moz's own one-time karaoke double. He also has had a full on hate conversion to the grand Mozmaster... and because of what? Moz saying mass immigration can be damaging? Bullshit. How come Moz's 'racist' or 'hateful' comments in the 80s didn't bother him - and as we all know, there were plenty of them to choose from. Some people blindly follow fashion, some don't. I consider myself in the latter category.
 
The Decemberists on life in Trump’s America, and the trouble with being a Morrissey fan - NME

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, we also asked Meloy about his current feelings on Morrissey. For his debut solo outing in 2005, he recorded six covers for the EP ‘Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey’. However, the frontman admitted that his fandom didn’t stretch as far as the former Smiths‘ singer’s recent work – or his string of controversial comments.

“I’m still absolutely invested, in a certain era of his work,” Meloy told NME. “I thought there was a lot of great stuff on the 2004 record ‘You Are The Quarry’. To me that was a return to form because I had ‘Maladjusted’ and ‘South Paw Grammar’. I had kind of fallen away. My thing with Morrissey is I that I just wish he had different songwriting partners. I feel like his guitar wall, arena rock thing it just doesn’t work. During the era of ‘Bona Drag’ and ‘Kill Uncle’, there was a lot of really weird, interesting decisions being made. And also he’s a terrible person!”

Asked if he was able to celebrate an individual’s art from their views, Meloy replied: “I think with Morrissey you’re primed for that. It was no secret that he was a terrible person, I think going way back. Even as a teenager. He’s nobody that you want to spend that much time with. He’s the one hero of mine who I haven’t met who I think I’m OK with not ever having met. But I think that’s sort of something that we have to grapple with.

“Like with Woody Allen, ‘Crimes And Misdemeanours’ is one of my favourite movies of all time. But how do you divorce that from the guy who made it who is sort of a sociopath? We’re kind of figuring it out as it goes along. It’s awful.”
A 'terrible' person who he equates to Woody Allen. FFS. Luckily Moz won't give a flying figroll for his generic character assassination.
 
Well, calling him a terrible person for being ignorant, and flippant is absurd, but the rest made sense.

If Morrissey is a terrible person, then most of us are terrible people. I know what you're thinking: Of course we are, but let's be adults about this.

Much of this moral righteousness about allegiance comes form younger people who have yet to experience major life failures, and tend to idealize the minds, and attitudes of adults they admire. Even the smallest betrayals can lead to claims of Satanism. So, let's keep Morrissey's ignorance in perspective.

Yes, Morrissey is as guilty of that same juvenile militancy as anyone, and it's likely why why he tends to absorb much of the criticism he levels at others. Still, we should never expect an artist to mirror our own minds. I understand the impulse, but this is a battle meant for adolescent minds, not the "mature" fan-base.

Morrissey has always projected a degree of unlikeablity since the beginning. He's a bit of bully at heart, but you shouldn't desire, or expect some kind of imaginary relationship with him.

Morrissey is a coward with a micro platform who doesn't have much influence, or even projects a sense of seriousness about his ideas. Stop expecting him to be the Book of Revelations.
On a lighter (or possibly darker!) note, the Book of Revelations is fictional gibberish that is such scutter that it can't be proved or disproved. Moz is real, probably more real than the 'ex fans' who get upset by everything but their own longwinded boring posts to a fansite of someone they used to like.
 
Never mind the points he makes, HE MAKES SHIT MUSIC.

LOOK OVER THERE

Tremendous.
Constant sarcasm is very tiring. You are better than that, uncle.
I, for one, continue to enjoy LIHS, although The Breeders new album has occupied my driving music lately. I enjoyed the recent Moz concert I was at and was glad Moz is still touring. I get it that some people hate Moz's music these days, but they wouldn't hate him if they didn't still care in some way. That's just my hapenny opinion.
 
He is an utter twat. "a bell is a cup" Jesus, what a momentous DH.
He has tosser written all over that round moon mug of his.
His band sucks. Fiddle/banjo music.
 
"My thing with Morrissey is I that I just wish he had different songwriting partners. I feel like his guitar wall, arena rock thing it just doesn’t work".

This Is EVERYTHING.

The advent of the Jesse Tobias era (error) has been an enormous musical mistake by Morrissey. A shockingly bad person to have as a collaborator and guitarist. Things won't improve at all as long as Jesse Tobias is hanging around.
 

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