Pitchfork

Welcome to Pitchfork's newest feature, "The Guest List". Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they've been up to lately: Which tracks they can't stop spinning, what books they can't put down, and what new bands they've caught on tour. This week it's Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy...

>> Favorite Songs of the Past Year

Lily Allen: "LDN"
This was the first song by Lily Allen that grabbed me, and I think it's kind of a bummer that they re-did the video and everything, because I loved the original video, too. The thing that worries me about Lily Allen, even though I love that record, is that she’s just going to get too big. There was a certain kind of scrappiness to the early videos and the early mixtapes that made them so nice.

Neko Case: "Star Witness"
The second song off her new record. I love the whole record, but in keeping with the conspiracy that the album is dead and singles have taken over the world, I'll go for songs on this list.

DeVotchKa: "The Last Beat of My Heart"
It's one of my favorite Siouxsie and the Banshees songs, and they've covered it very well. It kind of bums me out that they got to that cover before I did. Very smart choice.

The Long Winters: "Teaspoon"
Again, their whole new record [Putting the Days to Bed] is great, but this song has a phenomenal melody.

My Brightest Diamond: "Workhorse"
It's so creepy and cool, and so Kate Bush. I've actually corresponded with her, Shara, and I was surprised that she said she never really listened to Kate Bush much. As soon as I heard that record, I thought this woman is channeling Kate Bush, and she's like, "No, I haven't really ever listened to her that much. People tell me I should, but..."

>> Favorite Old Records at the Moment

Sam Cooke: "Bring It on Home to Me"
I went through a major Sam Cooke phase during the winter, and I instantly needed to have everything that he'd ever done. It was really weird; it came over me really fast and quick. And that's the way it works these days, with every record being instantly at your fingertips. The collector’s appetite is hard to sate when you have everything. And that happened to me with Sam Cooke, and it’s all really rewarding. I went through a similar phase with Buck Owens. I don’t know why. I just freaked out about a Buck Owens song, and immediately went out and got the box set. And I have to tell you-- and this may be blasphemy to Buck Owens fans, but-- you don’t really need a whole box set. It’s a little bit overkill. You know, one, maybe two CDs is fine. But something about Sam Cooke, just everything, there’s so much amazing stuff throughout his career.

Fotheringay: "The Sea"
This was Sandy Denny’s first band after Fairport Convention. While we were recording The Crane Wife, there was a computer with an internet connection in the studio, and we all just sat around eBaying, and collecting vinyls. There's a stack of vinyls that I managed to get off of eBay while we were recording the record, and that happens to be one of them.

Blur: "End of a Century"
The kind of secret sneaker-pop gem on Parklife. I've been into that a lot lately.

Anne Briggs: "Willie O'Winsbury"
Everything Anne Briggs does is amazing, but this song in particular, I listened to it non-stop like every day for two months during the spring. And finally...

John Martyn: "Over the Hill"
On the Solid Air record.

>> Favorite New Artist

My Brightest Diamond
That’s really hard to say, but I’ll pick My Brightest Diamond because they're a very new band, and some of the other ones are probably off limits, not being that new. But as far as a debut record, Bring Me the Workhorse is really knocking my socks off.

 

 

>> The Best Song Ever

Robyn Hitchcock: "The Ghost Ship"
It's a B-side to "Balloon Man".

>> Last Great Film I Saw

The Squid and the Whale
This is so ancient...well, not ancient, but I won’t sound very ahead-of-the-times with it: The Squid and the Whale. I've seen a lot of movies since then, and it really sticks with me. Particularly if you grew up in a divorced family in the 70s, it will hit really close to home. It’s amazing, and the dialogue and everything is fantastic.

>> Last Great Book I Read

Elise Blackwell: Hunger
The last great book I read was Hunger by Elise Blackwell. It’s about the siege of Leningrad in World War II, and there was a botanical institute. During the siege, which lasted a long time, the entire population were starving, but all of the botanists in the institute swore themselves to protect the catalog of seeds and plants and things, from not only a starving population, but also from themselves. It’s pretty amazing. I actually ended up writing "When the War Came", a song on the new record, about that.

>> Best Record Store

Jackpot Records, Portland, Ore.
I have to say my favorite record store in town is Jackpot Records. And I picked up Barbara Dane, who is a 60s American folk singer, mostly known for her blues singing, but she released a record called Anthology of American Folk Songs that’s incredibly haunting, really beautiful. And I had never heard of Barbara Dane before-- and I said this before I think on a blog or something like that-- but the folk CD collection at Jackpot Records is really amazing. It’s super-small, but all the people who run that record store are just insatiable folk fans and are always uncovering new and weird old reissues and things like that.

>> Favorite Piece of Equipment

Bouzouki
My new bouzouki. It’s like an octave mandolin, but a little bit bigger. It's a guitar-like mandolin, but it has eight strings like a mandolin, and it's corded the same way as a mandolin. It was actually an instrument of choice for some of the British folk revival people, like Sweeny’s Men and Anne Briggs-- they actually recorded a lot of stuff on bouzouki. I ordered one randomly during the winter, and ended up writing a couple of songs on it for the new record. The first and the last songs were the second and first songs I ever wrote on a bouzouki, respectively.

>> Best Thing I Bought This Year

I got a pair of Robeez. They’re these little booties for babies, and I got a pair that have dragons on them. Super, super awesome. And if you talk to any new parent, these Robeez booties are seriously some of the most addictive things to buy new ones of. They have really cool things on them... they’re for my son, not for me.

 

 

>> Best Thing I Did This Year

Definitely, witnessed the birth of my baby son. It was pretty amazing.

>> Best Show This Year

The Long Winters
Now I am with baby, so I have to be selective about which shows I go to. There’s not a huge pool to choose from [in Portland], but I have to say, I went and saw the Long Winters at Doug Fir, and it reminded me what an amazing showman John Roderick is, you know, for good or ill. He really belongs on stage, and it’s always a pleasure to watch him perform.

>> Best Concert Venue

The Fillmore, San Francisco, Calif.
I went nationwide on this one, and I have to say the Fillmore in San Francisco. Not only the history of it-- even though it’s kind of a newer building-- it’s really sweet people and it sounds really amazing. It’s just a really nice looking hall. I’ve never actually seen a show there; I’ve only played a show there. But I can imagine it would be a nice place to see a show.

>> Best Video Game

I don’t really have a favorite. Maybe I would say Snood? It’s bad news. I haven’t actually played it in a while, but if I were to pick a favorite video game it would probably be Snood. Or if we could go back, Dark Castle. Did you ever play that, the old Mac game? Not Snood, I’m going to say Dark Castle, because I fucking love that game. I’ve actually looked online to see if you can still get it for Mac, but no.

>> Ringtone

My general ringtone is a thing called Cosmic, and it sounds like a floating pixie dust kind of thing. It was the most unobtrusive ringtone I could find. I went through a phase where I was buying ringtones and assigning them to people, and I eventually just changed everybody back to Cosmic, except my girlfriend Carson who still, for whatever reason, has "Just Can’t Get Enough" by Depeche Mode. And our guitar player, Chris Funk, I have no idea why he... well, I think because he calls me so much, I decided just to leave this ringtone with him so I knew it was him calling, because a lot of times he’ll call and I just won’t answer because he calls me so much. But I have "A Little Respect", the Erasure song, as his ringtone.