When the war came.

We saw two shows during the recent CMJ Festival, one of which was the Decemberists' sold out show at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Now, we are not as passionate as the most steadfast Decemberists defenders who treat Colin Meloy like he is some kind of pop messiah. Nor are we as simple-minded as to call him, as others have, a hack with a pocket thesaurus. We think the Decemberists are a perfectly fine pop band that has written and performed some perfectly lovely songs generally always with perfectly wonderful melodies. Heck, for their ability to actually come up with a melody alone, we applaud them.

However, a recent article written by the Village Voice's Chris Ott about the show we attended brings the pro-/anti- Decemberists debate to a whole new level, basically to that of "I hate you so much, you stupid, stupid, stupidface." We have rarely seen a review as angry as this one and seemingly on a personal level. Meaning, we LUVS it.

But wait—there's more!

Should you choose to read the review, and you should, be sure to stick around for the comments which should be read from the bottom of the page up. That's where you'll be able to find out what one of Colin Meloy's ex-girlfriends thinks of the article. And how Chris Ott feels about how one of Colin Meloy's ex-girlfriends feel about the article. And how one poster named "PSouthern" bitch slaps them both.

O, Valencia, indeed!