In this week’s edition, both weeklies fawn over the Decemberists in their own special way with long features. Not that we blame them — the Decemberists won our hearts on Valentine’s Day 2003 when they opened for Carissa’s Wierd at the Crocodile and we’ve loved them ever since.

The Seattle Weekly sits down with Colin Meloy and plays a free association jukebox-inspired interview game [#], in which we learn that the lead singer has grown very tired of being compared to Jeff Mangum. We understand his frustration (and disagree with the unfair comparsion), but there are certainly worse things than being discussed in the same breath as Neutral Milk Hotel.

The stronger entry in the Decemberist Love Fest 2005 is in The Stranger. Sean Nelson asks “How did the band get that way?” and tries to get to the root of what makes the band tick. This is the type of piece where Nelson really shines as a writer. He knows what it’s like to be on the inside of a great band or two and does a great job of communicating the details to those of us on the outside. A particular gem about the band’s progression:

But the difference between earlier Decemberists works and this new record is like the difference between bi-curious and all-the-way-gay; you get the sense of a band emboldened by success to fully commit to its more outlandish characteristics. [thestranger]

It’s passages like this that make the combination artist profile / album preview / philosophical investigation a delight to read. A longer version of the article [#] and an interview [#] is available online but it isn’t there yet.

other highlights, compare and contrast style: the Weekly continues its walk down long-format lane with a gigantic story about African-Americans who live in another city and another about women who had abortions. The Stranger fills its news section with stories about strippers, liquor laws, and credit card debt. Both papers “pick” the Regional Spelling Bee as the place to be on Sudnay afternoon.

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The Decemberists play at the Showbox on Friday, but according to TicketsWest the event is sold out. If you didn’t buy tickets in time, look to craigslist, the box office, or sidewalk scalpers to get inside.

Picaresque [$], the new album, drops 22 March.