Playing this amazing song in their hometown, Portland.

Named both in reference to the Russian Decembrist Revolt (which may explain its use of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union as an introduction at many concerts) and to the atmosphere associated with the month of December, the band's songs range from upbeat pop to instrumentally lush ballads, and often employ instruments like the accordion, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer organ, and upright bass. In their lyrics, the band eschew the angst and introspection common to modern rock, instead favoring a storytelling approach, as evidenced in songs such as "My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist" from the 5 Songs EP and "The Mariner's Revenge Song" on Picaresque. The band's songs convey tales ranging from whimsical ("Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect") to epic ("The Tain") to truly dark ("Odalisque"), and often invoke historical events and themes from around the world. For example, one song, "When the War Came," uses a little-known story from the Siege of Leningrad to describe the heroism of civilian scientists during warfare.

The lyrics state: "We made our oath to Vavilov / We'd not betray the solanum / The acres of asteraceae / To our own pangs of starvation". Nikolai Vavilov was a Russian botanist whose laboratory, a seedbank containing 200,000 types of plant seeds, many of them edible, was preserved throughout the siege, during which millions of people died. Early in their career, The Decemberists' musical and lyrical aesthetics frequently prompted critics to compare them to Neutral Milk Hotel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decemberists