The Decemberists Sing Ridiculous YouTube Comments on ‘Kimmel’
If you’ve ever spent time scrolling through a YouTube comments section, you know that even a seemingly innocuous viral video can inspire angry and idiotic rants. But now, thanks to the Decemberists, Internet stupidity sounds a lot sweeter. The band dropped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday to promote their new studio album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World – but they also teased a fictional (but hilarious) LP of songs set to YouTube comments.
“They write interesting, very intelligent songs about uncommon subjects,” Kimmel said of the band to open the clip. “It’s not the usual, ‘I wanna get busy with your bottom’ kinda thing.” The band then performed a handful of selections from the YouTube album, as the videos and grammatically incoherent comments flash behind them. They opened with a major-key sing-along inspired by responses from an adorable panda video. “Yeah cute now but they’ll eat your ass if they’re hungry enough,” sings frontman Colin Meloy.
Other highlights include “Noisy Kittens Waiting for Dinner” (anchored by that classic chorus “I CAN’T BELIEVE I MAKE $5000 A MONTH WORKING FROM HOME!!!! CLICK LINK BELOW TO FIND OUT HOW”), a catchy tirade against Justin Bieber (or “Beaver”) and a dramatic run-on sentence defense of Kim Kardashian’s plastic surgery, or lack thereof (“OMG she proved she didn’t have a butt implants [sic] with a butt X-ray and she admitted she gets Botox she does squats her nose still has a hump in it if you actually at [sic] a recent pic of her nose you will see it”).
In December, Meloy talked to Rolling Stone about the Decemberists‘ new album and the effortless chemistry he has with his bandmates. “We’ve been around long enough and we’re adults, so everybody comes back to it in a very – I hate to say professional way, because it sounds so austere and sterile, but everybody knows what they do well at this point,” he said. “Not to say that there wasn’t room for us to challenge one another, but for the most part, it was as if we were all climbing under the same comfortable duvet on a cold winter’s night and snuggling close.”