A Decoded Thanksgiving

Enough about my Thanksgiving. Let’s check in on a real band Thanksgiving:

The Setup
When you are in a band that actually likes each other, the holidays can be a difficult time. Who do you spend the day with? Your family? Your significant other and his/her family? Your band? All three? I’m not sure how LA’s Decoded structured their family obligations but I do know they put aside time to celebrate Thanksgiving as a band. I tried to get them to pay for me to fly from Tampa to LA so I could join their party but they declined. No worries. I flew out on my own dime. I arrived
outside the kitchen window of their dinner just in time to creep. Here is what I saw (aka what lead singer Derek Jordan told me happened):

The Meal
The centerpiece of the meal was a 16-pound turkey. Surrounding it were savory side dishes like homemade corn bread, green beans with toasted almonds, mashed sweet potatoes layered with marshmallows, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade stuffing with baguettes and bacon and mashed potatoes. Even with all this fabulous food floating around the best part of Decoded’s Thanksgiving was, according to Derek, the laughs and smiles amongst friends.

Leftovers
From my perch outside the window, it was difficult to see just what kind of leftovers there were. I assume with a sixteen-pound turkey and all those sides something would’ve had to remain. My leftover gazing was made all the more difficult when I was interrupted by a famous actor who stumbled out of a bar down the street from where I was creeping. He came my way shouting, “You anti-Thanksgiving jihadist brute, get away from that window and go celebrate yourself.” He then proceeded to pee all over my pant leg. Needless to say, I had to forego the leftovers in favor of finding a new pair of pants.

Thankful
Decoded has a lot to be thankful for. They have recently done a number of interviews including one for Celebsdirt and Golden Mixtape. The band also has a brand new EP, Topanga, that came out a few
weeks ago. It is what Derek calls the “most honest, genuine songs I’ve ever written, not only lyrically but stylistically as well.” He goes on to say that Topanga is “completely organic” and full of music that is “real”. You can hear Topanga performed in person at the Viper Room on December 11th (I’m going to see if the band will fly me out for that one!).

From Topanga, here is Derek’s favorite song “Red Handed”: