This is why I love me some Decemberists!Another unique tour, an EP, a free download and more!From the Decemberists, here it is:Fast on the heels of the upcoming European fall tour, newly dubbed "The Bride of Crane Wife" Tour, we here at Decemberists HQ are virtually falling over ourselves to announce to you, dear Mailing List Recipient, a very special US national tour. We've called it "The Long and Short of It" Tour. "Why the name?" you well may ask, considering that every Decemberist tour name has been a product of weeks and weeks of R & D (that's industry-speak for "Research and Dilly-dallying") and in-depth interviews with our prime demographic. And you may certainly ask, for we here at Decemberists HQ are primed and ready to explain to you what the deal is. We're embarking on a national US tour in which we'll be performing at least 2 nights in every city (we beg forgiveness in advance if your city-of-call is not listed below, but if we kept this up everywhere, the tour would stretch on to eternity. Eternity!). But here's the rub: both nights will feature two totally different setlists. The first night, "The Long of It", will find us performing every song from our humble repertoire that is longer than 8 minutes; the following night, "The Short of It", will find us playing a setlist entirely built of those more sprightly numbers whose adherence to brevity keeps them on the more radio-friendly side of that selfsame 8 minute mark. Why are we doing this? Easy: we're planning on slipping away from the glare of the public spotlight for a spell so as we can make more songs and more records and things by which you might be further entertained in the future, and we wanted to make this last-tour-for-a-bit kind of special. Plus, we've discovered that once you take a hankering to writing really long songs, which are certainly fun in their own right, it leaves precious little room on the setlist for those neglected songs being cat-called from the back of the theater. In short, we are making as grand attempt as we can muster to entertain you, gentle Mailing List Recipient and Decemberists Concert-Goer. A two night pass pre-sale for this tour begins at noon (EST) this Saturday, the 25th of August, at the following site: http://www.decemberists.tickets.musictoday.com. By buying tickets for both nights during the pre-sale, you'll get a $10 discount. Also with the two-night pass, you'll get a custom ticket and a poster designed by Decemberists illustratrix Carson Ellis. $1.00 of every ticket sold will go to the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (www.olcv.org). General ticket on-sale begins September 7th. Without further ado, here's the dates: 10/28 Chicago, IL Vic Theater ("Long of It")10/29 Chicago, IL Vic Theater ("Short of It")11/1 New York, NY Terminal 5 ("Long of It")11/2 New York, NY Terminal 5 ("Short of It")11/3 Boston, MA Orpheum ("Long of It")11/4 Boston, MA Orpheum ("Short of It")11/6 Winston-Salem, NC Millennium Center ("Long of It")11/7 Winston-Salem, NC Millennium Center ("Short of It")11/9 Washington, DC 9:30 Club ("Long of It")11/10 Washington, DC 9:30 Club ("Short of It")11/11 Washington, DC 9:30 Club ("Long of It")11/12 Washington, DC 9:30 Club ("Short of It")11/15 Columbus, OH Lifestyle Communities Pavilion ("Long of It")11/16 Columbus, OH Lifestyle Communities Pavilion ("Short of It")11/18 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater ("Long of It")11/19 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater ("Short of It")11/23 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore ("Long of It")11/24 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore ("Short of It")11/25 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore ("Long of It")11/26 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore ("Short of It")11/29 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern ("Long of It")11/30 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern ("Short of It")12/1 San Diego, CA Spreckels Theatre ("Long of It")12/2 San Diego, CA Spreckels Theatre ("Short of It")12/5 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom ("Long of It")12/6 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom ("Short of It")12/7 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom12/8 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre ("Long of It")12/9 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre ("Short of It")In other news, we Decemberists are pleased to announce the release of The Perfect Crime #2 EP, a collection of remixes of the song "The Perfect Crime #2". This special release will be available on September 25th in two formats: 12" vinyl and digital download and will feature remixes by the likes of Diplo, Junior Boys and Touch of Class -- as well as the truncated radio edit of the title track, "The Perfect Crime #2.5.1". We're also offering a free download of the Junior Boys remix to members of the mailing list (naturally, this means you!). Get it HERE: http://delivery.capitolmusic.com/artists/the_decemberists/perfect_crime_2_giveaway/ In television-related news, our performance on Austin City Limits will be airing on October 13th on PBS stations around the country. What's more, we've recently recorded a version of the song "Little Boxes" for an as-yet undisclosed episode of the Showtime series "Weeds." Look for that sometime in October as we