Decemberists Keeping New Tunes To Themselves: “By the time Picaresque came out, 75% of the record could be put together with the bootlegs.”

“Up to this point, our [modus operandi] has been to always be working new songs into the set but I think now that we have a much bigger audience recording and trading shows, what we want to try to do is keep those new songs a little bit more veiled this time so they are new and exciting for everyone when the record comes out.”

Also of note, they’re planning on “entering the studio in early 2006 to record the new album, which it hopes will be out by late summer.”

One more tidbit: Picaresque “has sold 64,000 copies in the United States since its late March release.” Good work. Congratulations!

Previous Decemberists coverage on GLONO.