The Decemberists at the Vogue Theatre, July 22 2009. JaNicka Grayston photo
New Decemberists video based on Infinite Jest
Parks and Rec co-creator Michael Schur has taken a few pages out of David Foster Wallace’s 1996 magnum opus for the latest video from The Decemberists.
The Portland band’s “Calamity Song”, off the group’s 2011 album The King is Dead, depicts Eschaton, what singer Colin Meloy describes as “a global thermonuclear crisis re-created on a tennis court”, as created by Wallace for his epic novel Infinite Jest.
NPR reports that Meloy also says he wrote the song shortly after finishing Infinite Jest, and that Schur is even more of a Wallace enthusiast than himself, and readily agreed to use the Eschaton idea. You can watch the video on NPR.
Meanwhile, The Decemberists’ Popes of Pendarvia World Tour ends this week, with four final Pacific Northwest shows. In their e-mail newsletter, the band writes “These will be the last U.S. dates for quite some time.”
August 22, Marymoor Amphitheatre, Redmond, WA * TICKETS
August 23, Malkin Bowl, Vancouver, BC * TICKETS
August 25, McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale, OR # SOLD OUT
August 26, McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale, OR % TICKETS
* with Okkervil River and Fruit Bats
# with Okkervil River and Point Juncture, WA
% with Okkervil River and AgesandAges
