Death Cab FOr Cutie: C or D?

i really hated narrow stairs for like 6 months but somehow it's become my favorite album of theirs

― the insane Dr. Morbius and his HOOSical steens (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, May 12, 2009 1:27 AM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

past hoos otm

Ben Gibbard lives in the same congressional district as me

After that last record, they completely lost me. At one point, I'd have called them my favorite band. I saw Amoeba advertising the new record was released this past Friday on my Instagram feed, and I just kind of had one of those, "Huh" type reactions. Good for them, for still being around, I guess. But I the amount of which I care about them anymore is starkly in disproportion to just how much I cared ten or twelve years ago. Absolutely no desire to hear this new one.

i'd love to love anything this band puts out at this point, but i just can't see it ever happening.

from Something About Airplanes thru Photo Album, they were probably my favorite band, too. i blindly played Airplanes on my college radio show (thanks to the Built to Spill mention on the little review someone had stuck on the jewelcase) and absolutely fell in love with it ... then when Facts finally showed up in the play box, i just played the whole thing on my show, front to back, totally blown away.

we have the facts is their inarguable masterpiece still imo

Yup. I have the LP and it's all the DCFC I really need (besides "Stability")

forced myself to do a death cab pox

405
company calls epilogue
your heart is an empty room
a movie script ending
stability
long division
song for kelly huckaby
cath...
styrofoam plates
no joy in mudville

transatlanticism was one of my favorite records of all time in high school and i don't like it at all anymore? i even like plans more, which at the v least has one of walla's best production jobs

little fury bugs!

oh yeah that one too hm

song for kelly huckaby is of a piece with it, really those are the only two songs I need from this band. but two for the ages.

Transatlaticism was the one that made me a fan, but after sitting with those records for many years, I have to agree that We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes is their best one.

Still love the Facts-era b-side 'Army Corps of Architects' more than anything else. That is such a flat out gorgeous tune.

Also, yeah: Stability EP is another favorite. I was way into Pygmalion and Sigur Rós at the time, so it was very much preaching to the choir with its clean toned delay trailing off into oblivion at a snail's pace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VK_jfL3r7o

this is a great late b-side that should've been on narrow stairs

i really love the lyrics of that one too, which is rare for me and post-photo album gibbard (the lyrics on plans are largely awful for example)

feel bad about it in a way though, in that "clearly my favorite death cab material after we have the facts is the stuff where ben gibbard was going through a major depressive episode"

also god "cath..." is so good

This band covered Waterfalls on their latest ep! Turns my stomach! Very wrong. I don't mind this band but this is awful!

okay, i didn't know about that and i'm a minute in and. . . fuck, this is bad. he wants to be coldplay and it's fucking irritating. stop, ben. or at least stop calling this death cab for cutie. ugh.

"ya'll don't hear me"

YA CUZ I'M CRINGING SO HARD MY EARDRUMS WINCED INTO MY BRAIN AND I'M TEMPORARILY DEAF FFS

i listened to whole thing.

now i'm angry.

This band covered Waterfalls on their latest ep! Turns my stomach! Very wrong. I don't mind this band but this is awful!

This is interesting! I had pretty much the diametric opposite reaction. I heard this cover for the first time a few minutes ago and thought it was an excellent reinterpretation of the song. But then, I love Death Cab and have no particular opinion either way regarding the work of TLC. I do remember the video of the original song being quite innovative.

Waterfalls came out in 1995. This is enough - heh! - water under the bridge for some people hearing Death Cab's version not to have heard the original. Like all covers, we need to ask - do you dislike it as you feel a classic has been messed up, sullied, or do you dislike it *on its own terms*? Maybe this is an impossible question to answer. Maybe we should ask someone below the age of 20 who is familiar with the modern output of Death Cab, but oblivious to the oeuvre of TLC.

Would someone below the age of 20 be familiar with the modern output of Death Cab(??)

I would have thought so, yes, why ever not?

I was thinking of polling all their albums but have held off because ILM never talks about them so not sure if it's a good idea? Even this thread is under 100 posts.

in college circa 2002 loved them. i was listening to the Photo Album in my dorm. i had no friends, just like now. "a movie script ending" touched me one evening, i was listening to it on headphones, mouthing to it with only the noise of lips softly smacking and breath pushing through holes but without resonance. my roommate walked in and heavily made fun of me. he smoked the cheapest cigarettes in Missouri by the carton, and was from Springfield. His name was Josh. He didn't give me too hard of a time, he just raised his eyebrows and closed the door. I was left alone with Death Cab, embarrassed and wondering what to do

i wouldn't mind if they all fukken shit their pants now, me too

i love early dcfc. we have the facts and we're voting yes and the stability ep are things i can still revisit with much appreciation. i thought transatlanticism was stellar at the time and saw them on that tour. they were great! album has not aged as well. diminishing returns with plans and narrow stairs (though the opening two or three track sequence on that is still one of their best moments on record). couple really good tracks here and there. then they lost me. chris and ben made meh solo records, then chris quit, then ben covered "waterfalls" and here we are.

would vote in an albums poll.

we have the facts is maybe the greatest indie rock album of all time

transatlanticism was my entry point. Loved the album when I first heard it and still do. I would definitely vote in an album poll or indeed a singles poll. Making a decision on a favourite single would be tricky.

if/when there's a poll, everyone owes me a beer for each whiney complaint/shitpost

weirdly, on my downtime learning early DCFC guitar parts for no real reason. “405” is an earworm.

This is probably more my age, but everything through Transatlanticism was fine for the most part and then Plans hit and i went into that “I’ll hold back on giving this band money for a bit mode and see how it plays out.”

sidebar - the second twilight soundtrack is a who’s who that deserves a poll

Haha, great timing for this bump. DCFC have a new album Asphalt Meadows coming out in 21 days.

This gets even crazier, tonight in DC...Monday in New York and the opening band is Low. In a month from now when they play Los Angeles the opening band is going to be Yo La Tengo.

Low have opened for Death Cab before. At least a decade back I think?

I haven't seen Death Cab live since Transatlanticism (I saw Gibbard solo once) but I am going to go to their show here to see Low open up and maybe I will stick around for a bit of the main event.

i just looked at the lineup because i assumed that it was ben having at it with a bunch of new guys, but no — jason and nick are still there!

Tix resale only $150 + fees

We Have the Cash But We’re Voting “Nah”

I think the show is sold out here. $150 (these days) seems about right for resale in that situation. I mean, Gaslight Anthem is sold out here, too, and resale prices for that are about the same. For sure I'm not paying that, I have an "in," but Death Cab is a reasonably popular band for people of a certain age (probably because they're pretty MOR indie, though as I wrote on this thread or some other I'm surprised how many single songs of theirs I enjoy when they come on).

Remember when landing a spot on the soundtrack to "The O.C." was considered a big deal?

Outstanding sub-head!! 🎩 https://t.co/ql5B2NcbcZ pic.twitter.com/lKNxqXWteg

— Toby Nangle (@toby_n) September 8, 2022

Still not really my thing, but they were good last night, really slick, bunch of good songs. I don't think I'd seen them in 20 years (!), but I don't remember Gibbard going full-frontman like he does now. Lots of dancing and moving around and stuff like that.

i haven't listened to the whole new album but the singles were the best they've sounded in years, i thought

ok, a month later i'm back to say this album is actually really good. their best since ... Narrow Stairs, maybe? (i have to admit, i've barely heard Kintsugi and Thank You For Today)

they were my favorite band '99-'03ish and i didn't think i would ever even enjoy listening to anything new by them ever again. but i am enjoying this one.

Yeah, it's really good. I was surprised by how much I really liked it.

yeah I like this album, I haven't liked anything by them in some time (probably Narrow Stairs). We won tickets to go see them last week and it was really enjoyable as well; I haven't seen them since Transatlaticism or Photo Book era, and most of the shows I saw them play were at tiny clubs 20+ years ago.