#lettering the decemberists

[penpanoply]

February: The Engine Driver

Challenge: alternative utensil

[gravedigg]

• The Wanting Comes In Waves •

[irisbleufic]

Of all the current Devil’s Minion writers your playlist is the one I want to see. Do you have one? If not, are there particular songs you’ve been listening into to while you write? The vibe of your prose with them is hypnotizing like the short story about them in the books, it’s impressive, and does your music also inform this choice if at all?

Intense question, anon. Fourteen-year-old me fucking hyperventilated after reading the DM chapter in Queen of the Damned (me, on the floor of my bedroom at 3am because I don’t want to get caught reading this book, staring dazed at the ceiling; me, now, three weeks ago, sitting shellshocked on the sofa after watching S1 and S2 over two days as a binge; me, over two of those weeks following the binge, rereading the first half of the Chronicles and starting to see double, tilt the prism, see what happens when the narratives are overlaid and blurred), and it still feels like that. Likely my prose turning out the way it is in these stories is about 90% my giddy teenage self having access to my adult self’s writing experience to finally write this beloved pairing without fear of litigious letters (IYKYK, my fellow elder Millennials in the fandom). I don’t often love film and TV adaptations of my favorite books, but I adore this show. It’s flawlessly transformative; its improvements only make the resonances and overlaps that much more meaningful. No notes.

However, I have been listening to the same small handful of songs on repeat for 6 days as I write these pieces. I imagine they are affecting my sense of scansion at points; my writing life didn’t begin with fiction, it began with years of poetry before I ever tried prose. These tracks are as meaningful to me as poems as they are songs. It’s as good a starting point for a playlist as any; I’ll keep adding and put it together on Spotify at some point.

1. Vesuvius - Sufjan Stevens

Vesuvius, I am here

You are all I have

Fire of fire, I'm insecure

for it is all been made to plan

Though I know I will fail

I cannot be made to laugh

for in life as in death

I'd rather be burned

than be living in debt

This song was my entire first 72 hours of writing. I’m that Autistic weirdo who will listen to a single song on repeat for a month and think nothing of it. Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii being the nexus point of their love story from beginning to end in QotD, this is everything to me; I was never going to be able to write about the show incarnation of them without integrating this location and this imagery in the most reverent love letter I know how. This is why my series title for these stories is Caldera. Volcanic crater blowout if ever I saw one; I ran with it.

2. I Forget Where We Were - Ben Howard

Hello love, my invincible friend; hello, love, the thistle and the burr. For you, I have so many words—and I, I forget where we were. I haven’t known this song for all that long in the grand scheme, but it found me via Spotify shuffle in 2022 right after something awful happened. The longing in this song hinges on one of the lovers in it waking up to something they’ve forgotten about their relationship, something precious, and I’m thrilled to finally have a fandom application for it.

3. Make You Better - The Decemberists

I sung you your twinges

I suffered you your tattle-tales

and when you broke sideways

I wanted you, I needed you, oh

to make me better

Oh, to make me better

But we're not so starry-eyed anymore

like the perfect paramour you were in your letters

And won't it all just come around to make you

let it all un-break you to the day that you met her

No excuse for this one; it does a great job of speaking for itself. Front-man Colin Meloy is one of my all-time favorite songwriters, and his work is frequently dark, creepy, and/or gothic enough in flavor that I could find a few more.

4. Song to the Siren - Elisabeth Fraser & This Mortal Coil

On the floating shipless oceans

I did all my best to smile

till your singing eyes and fingers

drew me loving to your isle

and you sang, “Sail to me,

sail to me, let me enfold you—

here I am, here I am,

waiting to hold you.”

This cover of Tim Buckley’s folk masterpiece completely transforms the vibe of the song, and in the kind of way you need for this pairing. This one is at responsible for the events and imagery in my “Still Life with Sunken Treasure.”

5. Hal - Yasmine Hamdan, Only Lovers Left Alive OST

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

يا عزيزة اطلعي

لأ ما أقدرشي

يا حبيبتي شرّفي

لأ ما أقدرشي

وطلعت يا ناس، مغلوبة يا ناس

يا عزيزة اتريحي

لأ ما أقدرشي

يا حبيبتي اتلحلحي

لأ ما أقدرشي

وسمعت يا ناس، مغلوبة يا ناس

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

يا عزيزة اتفرفشي

لأ ما أقدرشي

يا حبيبتي قربي

لأ ما أقدرشي

فرشنا يا ناس، مغلوبة يا ناس

يا عزيزة اقلعي

لأ ما أقدرشي

يا حبيبتي اتجرأي

لأ مش ممكن

شلحنا يا ناس، مغلوبة يا ناس

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

يا عزيزة اتغندريله

يا حبيبتي اتذوقيله

ا��همي يا سيدي مش قادرة

وطبعا تقنعني مش واخدة

ايه يا عزيزة؟

ايه اللي إنتي عملاه ده؟

يا يا يا راجل يا هوه!

مش عيب عليك اختشي ونو

لأ ما أقدرشي

لأ مش ممكن

يا عزيزة اخلعي

لأ ما أقدرشي

يا حبيبتي اتشخلعي

لأ مش ممكن

يا خيبتي يا ناس، مغلوبة يا ناس

يا عزيزة اتبغددي

لأ ما أقدرشي

يا حبيبتي جربي

لأ ما أقدرشي

وجينا يا ناس، غلبنا يا ناس

جينا يا ناس، غلبنا يا ناس

I don’t think the Arabic justified to the correct side when I copied this, but the translation is very easy to find. I don’t speak Arabic, but honestly the English translation is dull compared to the beauty of this language. If you haven’t watched Only Lovers Left Alive, what the hell are you even doing with your vampire-loving, monster-fucking life? All the tracks on it have the right vibe for DM, really.

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

The Mariner's Revenge Song (The Decemberists)

Don't know how I survived/The crew all was chewed alive/I must have slipped between his teeth/But, oh, what providence/What divine intelligence/That you should survive as well as me

"It's a super narrative song telling the story of an orphan getting revenge on a guy who slept with his mother and gambled away her money before abandoning her. The protagonist himself is the blorbo, or just au your own blorbo into the song! It's brutal and iconic and the most famous song they made for very good reason. Also when it's performed live they make the audience scream, have a giant whale prop of some kind (cut out, blow up, etc) and play the ending instrumental section at increasing speed until the band members can't keep up and they have the stop. Anyway song of all time tbh, fucks me up majorly."

Poll Runner: The Decemberists will never not be nostalgic for me. The first concert I ever went to they played this song, and passed a giant inflatable whale out over the crowd, it was awesome.

The Toy Soldier's Song (The Mechanisms)

Whoever’s uniform you wear/No loyalties to hold or share/No burning hate, no bitter fear/No heart to break, so shed no tear/Marching ever through the black/Orders fly, retreat, attack/Whoe’er commands a toy obeys/Out in the stars and far away

"The Toy Soldier in general fucks me up. It "obeys any order given to the letter" and it's only alive because it's pretending to be. This song has an amazing violin solo in the middle that just makes me. I don't have words actually it just gives me shrimp emotions. And The Toy Soldier is just obeying any commands it's given, it has "no heart to break" but it did, once, it was so lonely before, it did have its heart broken and it stole its voicebox about it, but its emotions just kind of Stopped ("his heart remembered nothing. All feeling was gone. It felt fantastic") (note the pronouns, it changed from he to it) and it makes me!!! So!!!! Sad!!!!!"

Toy Soldier submitted by @ceaseless-rambler

[sapphicbookclub]

Author Spotlight: Bam Stroker

Today, we're bringing you a special musical guest post from Bam Stroker, author of the current club read Rusalka. Read on to learn more about the music that inspired this erotic retelling of the slavic rusalka myth!

When you think of a lady in a lake, what comes to mind? For me, it’s the haunting trickster of the Rusalka! 

Rusalka/Rusalki folklore exists in a pretty far reach, and the folklore for them is fascinating. Most folks will call them the “slavic mermaid”, but that’s not quite right. These ladies do not have fish tails! They hold a history much closer to nixie and nymphs, tied to the land. Until later in time they became associated with women who met their untimely deaths. Usually, by their own doing after losing the love of a man. Where they would then become haunting spirits that would seduce, trick, and drag anyone who dared come by their dwellings to a watery grave. 

I first heard about them through the song Rusalka, Rusalka/ Wild Rushes by the Decemberists. When I listened to it, I was absolutely possessed to write a story where a woman runs to the lady of the lake, and instead of death finds love. It’s a setup we all know so well by now, of the historical lesbian gets hitched to a man and runs away to escape it all. And there have been plenty of historical lesbian stories where that escape is usually of the death variety. 

Rusalka is a love letter to the complex history of Rusalki, and the stories we have been told about lesbians in history. For once, they both get a fairytale happy ending.

Music is a huge inspiration to me as a writer, especially of the folk variety, and while writing Rusalka I had many different songs on loop throughout the process. The first one is that Decemberists song:

Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes

While reading the story, music is very present with Sasha singing to the lady of the lake, earning the loving nickname of “Handsome songbird” from her smitten monster. One of the songs hinted at is from the opera Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák. For any Hans Christian Anderson fans out there, you’ll notice the plot of it is very familiar. 

Song to the Moon - Rusalka Opera by Antonín Dvořák

Rusalka: “Song to the Moon”

When it comes to folk songs about Rusalki, Kitka’s The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between Worlds album truly is an amazing inspiration. I’m still on the hunt for Rusalka folk songs, so if you happen to know of any I would be so excited to hear them. In the meantime, here’s a song to set the mood of Sasha’s mad dash to the lake at the start of the story. 

To the Lake - Kitka

As far as other music, the songs I had on loop while writing were folk songs from different areas of the region. Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, volume III, from The Bulgarian State Television Female Choir has got to be the most on loop music of them all though. I can almost hear them in my sleep at this point! 

Here are some of those below:

Svatba (The Wedding) - Bulgarian State Television Female Choir

Solo Gousli - Stars of St. Petersburg

Kukułeczka - Mazowsze 

Two Guitars - Andreyev Balalaika Ensemble

Echo of the steppes - Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble

Whether you want to talk about monster folklore, monster fuckery, or have any monster folk songs recs, you can find Bam Stroker on their tumblr! Or if you’d like to peruse their erotic tomes, you can find them on itchio ✨💀✨

[dragonologist-phd]

tagged by @arendaes! thanks for the tag, and apologies in advance for the long username lol

Rules: Pick a song for each letter of your URL and tag that many people.

d: daffodil - florence + the machine r: red wine supernova - chappell roan a: another place - bastille, alessia cara g: gibson girl - ethel cain o: ocean city - charming disaster n: never love an anchor - the crane wives l: legend of chavo guerrero - the mountain goats o: o valencia! - the decemberists g: green light - lorde i: if we were vampires - jason isbell and the 400 unit s: short skirt / long jacket - cake t: tom ames' prayer - robert earl keen p: place that makes me happy - the moss h: honey - halsey d: dry heat - goodnight, texas

tagging (if you want to!):

@bugdotpng @dujour13 @camelliagwerm @mordred9971 @orime-stories

@themournwatcher @miseryscrowned @bladesmitten @big-cheesy-productions @bezelusbubulez

@starlightcleric @vigilskept @thesolemnhour @ampleappleamble @rollofleaf

@adozentothedawn @undyingembers @thefathersbride @milesmentis @serenbach86

@herearedragons @jean-dieu @kaleido-scope-lady

tag list here!

[firstelevens]

Very excited you’re doing this game again!! Let’s do Sebastian Stan, Rahul Kohli, James Roday-Rodriguez, Emily Axford, and Kristen Bell

song: Burial Ground by The Decemberists

Here among the fallen leaves Are we alone the ones that dare to breathe?

synopsis:

In the year 1902, renowned spiritualist and medium Sylvester Alcott-Worth dies peacefully at his family estate in the Peak District, Wendwych Park. In the following weeks, his greatest skeptics are sent letters and first class fares to come stay at Wendwych and discover where on the grounds he’s hidden his last will and testament. Alcott-Worth has left strict instructions with his solicitors that the first person to find his will become the primary beneficiary, receiving most of his family’s considerable wealth and property.

All five recipients accept the invitations, and assemble on the grounds of Wendwych Park a month hence. The first to arrive is Cambridge historian Bilal Mirza (Kohli), recently revealed to be the author of a series of anonymous articles disputing the claims of miracle-working that made Alcott-Worth so popular early in his career. Arriving on Mirza’s heels after a lecture series at Oxford is American mystery writer MH Alexander (Roday Rodriguez), whose popular, evidence-oriented private detective inspired a small but vocal rationalist movement in direct opposition to Alcott-Worth’s followers.  

Suffragist Annabelle Croft (Bell), a vocal critic of the transactional component of the spiritualist movement, takes the train from London along with Rose Halliday (Axford), a doctor known for being the black sheep of her old money family, who very publicly clashed with Alcott-Worth at salons in New York and Boston. Rounding out the party is Vicar Adrian Lazar (Stan) who began clashing with the Alcott-Worths after taking over the parsonage in the nearby village and fielding complaints from his congregation about seances and rituals in the middle of the woods.

It soon becomes clear that Alcott-Worth may have been more astute than any of them were anticipating, and every competitor finds themselves pulling out all the stops in order to best the others and beat them to the hidden will, but is there another secret hidden in the walls of Wendwych Park? One that none of them could have accounted for?

[pillowfriendly]

good golly gosh my music taste is just so cool and awesome

tagged by @anyboli - song for each of your url's letters!

P - Peev Shalpatine by Canadian Softball this lives in my head rent free i play it over the speaker at work and scream it. sorry about me

I - Immaterial by SOPHIE <3

L - Legend Has It by Run the Jewels

L - Lost by Amanda Palmer this song doesnt make me cry no u

O - Oh, Maker by Janelle Monáe song from a perfect album

W - The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid by The Decemberists perfect album #2

F - Freeze and Boil by Blackwater Railroad Company

R - Row Row by Zeal & Ardor

I - In Cauda Venenum by The Dear Hunter have you listened to the dear hunter. will you listen to the dear hunter. when will you listen to the dear hunter

E - Epona by Eluveitie one of my favoritest songs in da worlde

N - Northwest Passage by Unleash the Archers OH FOR JUUUST OOONE TIME. I WOULD TAAAKE THE NORTHWEST PASSAAAAGE

D - Distant Bells by Leprous

L - Long Long Silk Bridge by Susumu Yokota

Y - You Dont Own Me by Son Lux if a song has a marching band in it, its good

hee hee hoo hoo music gaem. baton pass @gallopinggallifreyans @crowbandit @iwishtobeafish @ferrocyan @asha-mage

[wheel-of-fish]

I was tagged by @brendadaaedestler (thank you!) to “Spell your url with song titles and then tag as many people as there are letters.”

W - "We Both Go Down Together" - the Decemberists

H - "Hey Lover!" - Wabie

E - "Eat Your Young" - Hozier

E - "Everything Is Simple" - Widowspeak

L - "La Fama" - Rosalía, The Weeknd

O - "On This Night of a Thousand Stars" - ALW (Evita)

F - "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" - Iron & Wine

F - "The Fruits" - Paris Paloma

I - "I Think I Need a New Heart" - the Magnetic Fields

S - "Should've Been Me" - Mitski

H - "He Doesn't Know Why" - Fleet Foxes

Tagging @consistantly-changing @devilswalkingstick @maddenedbythesstars @dying-suffering-french-stalkers @lestatslestits @bogglebabbles @shinyfire-0 @musicalyikes @when-it-rains-it-snows @aminta @tallestsilver

[astriiformes]

♫ - one song each for all the folks you've cosplayed at the con?

Ooh, this one's a fun challenge.

Laios - Taste - Sleeping at Last

Out of the woods, out of the dark I'm well aware of the shadows in my heart I want to feel tectonic shifts I want to be, I want to be astonished I want to be astonished So I propose a toast

Boimler - Such a Loser - Garfunkel and Oates

You are such a loser, good for you It’s something that a lot of people can’t do Trying is hard, that’s why people don’t do it Losing is hard, they can’t make it through it But not you

Palamedes - Make You Better - The Decemberists

But we're not so starry-eyed anymore Like the perfect paramour you were in your letters And won't it all just come around to make you Let it all unbreak you to the day you met her

Andreas - The Modern Leper -Frightened Rabbit

Well, I am ill but I'm not dead And I don't know which of those I prefer Because that limb which I have lost It was the only thing holding me up, holding me up

[tibialtybalt]

okay well the reblog chain kept crashing so ig i'll start a new one lmaoo

i was tagged by @new-hyperfixation-every-month to participate in a game where you find a song title that begins with each letter in your url, and then tag as many people as there are letters in your url!

T - Trusted Component (Rain World OST) I - Iphis (The Mechanisms) B - Blood in the Wine (AURORA) A - Aman Syndai (Wheel of Time OST) I - It Happened Quiet (AURORA) A - Ashes (The Longest Johns) L - La Jardinera (Olivia Chaney) T - Tell me Prophet (Skippocalyptic) Y - Yankee Bayonet (The Decemberists) B - Burial (24 Killers OST) A - Allies or Enemies (The Crane Wives) L - 莲花空行 （克莱琪） T - Tähden Lentäessä (Loituma)

that's a lot of people to tag..... i'll just throw a few people out there

@hydraposeidon @tessenda @spiderworries @oraclebell17 @brightnessrandom @mankillercalledbunny @abarelysapientpairofshoes @hoidingaroundthecosmere

[penpanoply]

March: On the Bus Mall

Challenge: 90s flashback

[druckers]

3 14 27 and 32 !!!!

3. a song that reminds you of summer

in a sweater poorly knit by mewithoutYou! I listened to it during hikes I went on over the summer a bit ago and it's been ingrained in my mind since :^) very much a favorite.

14. the last cd/album you bought

I haven't bought anything Yet but I have my eyes on the pentiment ost (of course.) and some mountain goats records. would like to pick up something by the twilight sad too... sighs wistfully

27. one song that starts with each letter of your name

going to marrakesh - the extra glenns age of kings - the mountain goats the receiving end of it all - streetlight manifesto rise to me - the decemberists the engine driver - the decemberists throw yourself into the water again - the twilight sad to leave it now - trembling blue stars

32. a song that you associate with the color yellow

bowl of oranges by bright eyes! just feels very warm to me. and such.

[roosterforme]

Thanks for the tags!!! @attapullman and @goldenseresinretriever

Rules: pick a song for every letter of your URL and tag someone

R: Rebel Rebel by David Bowie

O: O-o-h Child by The Five Stairsteps

O: Only Happy When It Rains by Garbage

S: So Fresh, So Clean by Outkast

T: Tired of Waiting for You by The Kinks

E: Every 1's a Winner by Hot Chocolate

R: Rio by Duran Duran

F: Feeling This by Blink-182

O: Odalisque by The Decemberists

R: Remote Control by Beastie Boys

M: Mixed Bizness by Beck

E: Euro-Trash Girl by Cracker

Tagging anyone who wants to play!

[argyleheir]

✨🤍write out your tumblr url with the first letters in song titles, then pass it on to your favorite mutuals/followers/people you are slightly intimidated by🤍✨

Cool meme, thanks very much @asthehorsesgoround!

A - Arthur, the Kinks

R - Running Up That Hill, Kate Bush

G - Great Gig in the Sky, Pink Floyd

Y - Young Folks, Peter Bjorn & John

L - Life on Mars, David Bowie

E - Engine Driver, the Decemberists

H - Houses in Motion, Talking Heads

E - Emily, Joanna Newsom

I - I Melt With You, Modern English

R - Radio, Radio, Elvis Costello

[clockwrkcabaret]

What Are We Doing?

WARNING! This show is for adults. We drink cocktails, have potty mouths and, at least, one of us was raised by wolves.

The Clockwork Cabaret is a production of Agony Aunt Studios. Featuring that darling DJ Duo, Lady Attercop and Emmett Davenport. Our theme music is made especially for us by Kyle O’Door.

This episode aired on Mad Wasp Radio, 03.03.24.

New episodes air on Mad Wasp Radio on Sundays @ 12pm GMT! Listen at www.madwaspradio.com or via TuneIn radio app!

Playlist:

Cecily Strong & The Cast of Schmigadoon! – I Need to Eat

Sarah La Puerta – Chocolate Cake

Biscuithead & the Biscuit Badgers – The Tea’s Made

The Two Man Gentlemen Band – Fancy Beer

Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three – Drinkin’ Whiskey Tonight

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox – Drunk in Love

April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Movie Loves a Screen

Benjamin Clementine – Cornerstone

Scissor Sisters – Let’s Have a Kiki

Mystery Skulls – Amazing

Miike Snow – Genghis Khan

Electric Guest – This Head I Hold

Django Django – Default

The Drums – Money

Beirut – Santa Fe

Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)

TV On the Radio – Wolf Like Me

The Decemberists – The Chimbley Sweep

The Mountain Goats – No Children

Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins – You Are What You Love

The New Pornographers – Letter From An Occupant

The Linda Lindas – Oh!

Wet Leg – Chaise Longue

Pixies – Is She Weird

X Ray Spex – I Am a Poseur

The Damned – I Feel Alright

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers – All By Myself

Check out this episode!