Pitchfork

Those looking for an album cover suitable for framing (perhaps to go alongside those Louis XIV and Oxes platters hanging in the bathroom) need search no further than the vinyl version of the Decemberists' third and most excellent full-length, Picturesque, co-released today by Kill Rock Stars and Jealous Butcher.

According to the Jealous Butcher website, it's a fancy double LP in a gatefold sleeve with a 24-page full color booklet, featuring brand new pix from the Picaresque photo shoot. Although Pitchfork's Stephen M. Deusner begged the band to "Re-sleeve that album cover! Disregard those silly liner-note photographs!" in his Picaresque review, we'd like to politely disagree, and wholeheartedly endorse anything involving Chris Funk dressed up as a tree.

The vinyl also tacks on "Picaresqueties", five kinda new songs from Colin Meloy and co., including the Decemberists' cover of Joanna Newsom's "Bridges and Balloons", as featured on The Believer magazine's much-maligned Music Issue companion CD. The full 2XLP track list:

01 The Infanta
02 We Both Go Down Together
03 Eli, The Barrow Boy
04 The Sporting Life

05 The Bagman's Gambit
06 From My Own True Love (Lost At Sea)
07 16 Military Wives
08 The Engine Driver

09 On The Bus Mall
10 Mariner's Revenge Song
11 Of Angels and Angles

12 The Bandit Queen (With "Dialogue" and "Tap Dancing")
13 Bridges and Balloons
14 Constantinople
15 The Kingdom of Spain (Version Prescott)
16 The Bandit Queen (Version Prescott)

The Decemberists are also in the midst of a two-month tour, brightening the lives of chimbley sweeps and legionnaires from sea to shining sea. As reported here in August, Scottish scallywags Sons and Daughters will be opening for most of the first half of the trek, while gloomy troubadour Cass McCombs will be along for the ride in October.

The scrappy crew will be making stops at the Vegoose extravaganza in Las Vegas on October 29, and the Voodoo Festival, formerly scheduled to take place in New Orleans on October 30, but currently without a home. The tour, by the way, is called the "FLIGHT OF THE MISTLE THRUSHES Tour 2005." Because "MIGHT OF THE THISTLE FLUSHES" just sounded stupid.

Calling all bed wetters and ambulance chasers:

09-13 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater *#
09-14 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater *#
09-16 Pomona, CA - Glass House *
09-17 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater *
09-18 Phoenix, AZ - Marquee Theater *
09-20 Lawrence, KS - Granada Theater *
09-21 Oklahoma, OK - Diamond Ballroom *
09-22 Fort Worth, TX - Ridglea Theater *
09-23 Houston, TX - Engine Room *&
09-24 Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa *&
09-25 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
09-27 Tallahassee, FL - Beta Bar *
09-28 Lake Buena Vista, FL - House of Blues *
09-29 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle *
09-30 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel *
10-01 Baltimore, MD - Sonar *
10-02 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club*
10-04 New York, NY - Webster Hall *
10-05 New York, NY - Webster Hall $
10-06 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place $
10-07 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory $
10-08 Providence, RI - Lupo's $
10-09 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street $
10-10 Boston, MA - Avalon $
10-12 Montreal, Quebec - Club Soda $
10-13 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Theatre $
10-14 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall $
10-15 Cleveland, OH - Odeon Concert Club $
10-16 St Louis, MO - Mississippi Nights $
10-18 Chicago, IL - Metro $
10-19 Chicago, IL - Metro $
10-20 Madison, WI - Orpheum Theatre $
10-21 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue $
10-22 Omaha, NE - Sokol Hall $
10-23 Denver, CO - Paramount Theater $
10-25 Boise, ID - Big Easy Concert House $
10-25 Spokane, WA - Big Easy Concert House $
10-27 Seattle, WA - Showbox $
10-28 Seattle, WA - Showbox $
10-29 Las Vegas, NV - Vegoose Festival
10-30 TBA - Voodoo Festival $
11-04 Portland, OR - Roseland Theatre $

* with Sons and Daughters
# with Petra Haden's Sell Out Choir
& with Built to Spill
$ with Cass McCombs

* Pitchfork Review: The Decemberists: Picaresque
* Pitchfork News: Sons and Daughters to Tour with Decemberists
* The Decemberists:http://www.decemberists.com/