Death Cab For Cutie

[METALMAN]

You know how you might have liked a band for a while and have some of their stuff, yet never quite loved them, until one day when it grabs you quite at random and they instantly become one of your favourite bands?

That happened to me today. I was walking while listening to my iPod on shuffle and The Sound of Settling came on and I enjoyed it far more than I ever had before. When I got home I dug out the two Death Cab albums I have - Translanticism and Plans - and listened to them all the way through. Magnificent stuff.

I have a handful of songs from The Photo Album too and I've heard a lot of good things about it. Problem is it's pretty difficult to find copies where I am and internet searches have yielded no results. I Was A Kaleidoscope and Blacking Out The Friction are two of my favourite DCFC songs and I would be interested to hear what people have to say about this album.

Anyway, I'd like to discuss Death Cab For Cutie with some folks and I suppose if you've had a similar experience to me you can feel free to write about that too.

[GoGo Yubari]

My thing with Death Cab is that I loved the first album of theirs I heard and everything since has just sort of sounded like that album, except it doesn't grab me as much. So I generally love The Photo Album, "A Movie Script Ending" and "I Was a Kaleidoscope" in particular, and everything else I can sort of do without. There's nothing wrong with them, they just can't maintain my interest.

[IAceI]

Marching Bands of Manhattan is the best song ever. Ever. It is.

[YI]

The first album is so fucking bad it's brilliant. Actually...it's got this charm to it, which I like. I'm really looking forward to the Chris Walla solo stuff, as it's like early DCFC, but you know, good.

Death Cab are arguably my favourite 3/4 bands. So many beautiful songs. And absolutely amazing live. A lot better than I thought they'd be. Really gives the songs a new identity. Plus they did "Company Calls".

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah, they have a slightly harder edge to them life, they're fantastic. First album I heard was Transatlantacism, and I thought yeah they're pretty good. Went to see them with a mate (who trekked 200-odd miles to my Uni) and they were ace, couldn't wait for Plans to come out after seeing them. And John Vanderslice was supporting, and he turned out to be pretty good too.

Favourite track off of The Photo Album would probably be Styrofoam Plates, so scathing, it's awesome.

Is You Can Play These Songs with Chords their first album?

[METALMAN]

I think it was a rarities compilation or something. I like the cover of This Charming Man on it. It's one the very few good Smiths covers I've heard.

Edited December 21, 2007 by metalman

[Cactus Drags]

I hate The Smiths.

[GoGo Yubari]

Favourite track off of The Photo Album would probably be Styrofoam Plates, so scathing, it's awesome.

Oh man, I haven't heard Syrofoam Plates in years but yeah, I remember being taken aback and really impressed with just how amazingly vicious and scathing it was. I really need to get my hands on a copy of The Photo Album again, clearly.

[Pesci]

I haven't heard much from them, but I've got mixed feelings about what I have heard. I love "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" and "Crooked Teeth", but some of the other stuff from their newest album isn't really up to my tastes. When they're good they're really good, but otherwise I find them a bit... boring, I guess.

[YI]

Yeah, they have a slightly harder edge to them life, they're fantastic. First album I heard was Transatlantacism, and I thought yeah they're pretty good. Went to see them with a mate (who trekked 200-odd miles to my Uni) and they were ace, couldn't wait for Plans to come out after seeing them. And John Vanderslice was supporting, and he turned out to be pretty good too.

Favourite track off of The Photo Album would probably be Styrofoam Plates, so scathing, it's awesome.

Is You Can Play These Songs with Chords their first album?

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah, they have a slightly harder edge to them life, they're fantastic. First album I heard was Transatlantacism, and I thought yeah they're pretty good. Went to see them with a mate (who trekked 200-odd miles to my Uni) and they were ace, couldn't wait for Plans to come out after seeing them. And John Vanderslice was supporting, and he turned out to be pretty good too.

Favourite track off of The Photo Album would probably be Styrofoam Plates, so scathing, it's awesome.

Is You Can Play These Songs with Chords their first album?

Actually, that tour was post "Plans". As I went to the gig up here. Fucking immense. I know it was post "Plans" cos they did "Crooked Teeth" then "What Sarah Said" and I went "If they do Brothers next, I'll fucking shit myself"....then they did "Brothers...." and I just basked in the awesomensss.

[YI]

Plans came out August 2005. (Y) They've obviously just fucked up their site.

[The Chief]

Marching Bands of Manhattan is the best song ever. Ever. It is.

[Skummy]

Can anyone recommend me some songs I might like? I rather like "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", although much prefer Amanda Palmer's version...anything similar to that that could perhaps tickle my fancy?

[YI]

First of all, new album news;

To follow its 2005 mainstream breakthrough, "Plans," Death Cab For Cutie opted to record live to analog tape with as few overdubs as possible. The outcome: "a sampling of the most uptempo, upbeat Death Cab songs as well as some of our saddest," bassist Nick Harmer tells Billboard.

On the as-yet-untitled album, due in late May via Atlantic, likely opener "Bixby Canyon Bridge" falls into the former category, while "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" "just breaks my heart every time," Harmer says. "It's a really pretty, electric guitar song ... it's somber like [the last album's] 'Brothers on a Hotel Bed.'"

Most unusual: the nine-minute jam "I Will Possess Your Heart," of which Harmer says, "We hit our stride on that song. We looked at the habitual things we've done in the past and tried to move beyond them."

The album also features the Long Winters' John Roderick and Pedro The Lion's David Bazan "singing on a couple of choruses, like a men's choir," as well as the song "Casino Blues," which frontman Ben Gibbard has previously debuted during his solo acoustic performances.

For his part, guitarist Chris Walla describes the album as "really weird. It's really, really good, I think, but it's totally a curve ball, and I think it's gonna be a really polarizing record. But I'm really excited about it. It's really got some teeth. The landscape of the thing is way, way more lunar than the urban meadow sort of thing that has been happening for the last couple of records."

Walla adds that it's "louder and more dissonant and ... I think abrasive would be a good word to use." A variety of influences factored into the album, he says, including Harmer's taste for "heavy, sludgy, slow metal" and Walla's rekindled interest in the synth-punk band Braniac.

Of course, a sea change after the success of "Plans" is risky, but Walla says Death Cab is collectively up for challenging its fans. "On ('Plans') we were really making a lot of decisions based on what we felt other people were gonna think," he explains. "But this record, there's this kind of slightly malicious glee that we all have that it sounds kind of crazy. It's pretty fun."

Meanwhile, Walla is crafting plans to promote his new Barsuk solo album, "Field Manual" (Jan. 29), even as the Death Cab campaign begins. He hopes to play some shows of his own but says that he'd "be surprised if I was able to do anything significant until June or July, if not later."

And it's unlikely he'd choose to open for Death Cab, even though Gibbard "floated" the idea. "I don't think it would be a very good idea, ultimately," he says, "if for no other reason than that's a long time for any one person to be on stage.

Edited January 9, 2008 by YI

[Boogey131]

I'm not a huge fan of their mellow stuff and so Plans didn't do "it" for me, but I still play the album when im tired and just want to relax a little. I am so glad to hear them say they're going for a more "abrasive" sound, because the moment I read that, like YI, I thought We Looked Like Giants which to me is a highlight of their library and features on my favorite album(Transatlanticism) I need to listen to Plans and a few of their other albums I have because to be honest, I haven't given them a real chance, just a listen here and there and from the general response there are some good songs to be heard.

[Cactus Drags]

Marching Bands of Manhattan is the best song ever. Ever. It is.

Plans is probably one of my favourite albums ever (i dont care if you don't agree ^_^ ). deathcabforcutie.com was relaunched and has a little teaser video for the new album if anyone hadn't noticed. sounds pretty good.

hoping for a UK tour this summer so i can finally catch them live (and scream like a little girl )

[YI]

http://www.hallofjusticerecording.com/songs.html

Download a lot of shit here. This isn't album stuff.

Shit...women and lyrics...IGNORE.

Ooh my little pretty one, pretty one.

When you gonna give me some time, Sharona?

Ooh you make my motor run, my motor run.

Gun it comin' off the line Sharona

DON'T PUT A LIME IN MY CORONA!!

Edited January 9, 2008 by YI

[Cactus Drags]

...WTF

Cheers for the link though.

Edited January 9, 2008 by Dragsy 7-0

[YI]

BU-BUMP!! It's been mentioned in the l33t thread, but whatever. The first single from "Narrow Stairs, the 8 and a half minute, "I Will Possess Your Heart" is available now/doing the rounds.

It's really fucking good. Not...AMAZING...but good.