Has Death Cab Jumped The Shark?
As I vaguely indicated in an earlier post, the new Death Cab is worth buying. I love the blog controversy over whether "Someday You Will Be Loved" makes Ben come off as a "smug, pretentious, presumptuous, self-obsessed prick." That quote's from:
Lindsayism
Can you even imagine the level of unself-awareness one would have to reach to pen a song where the basic premise is "Don't worry sweetie, someday you'll get over me and someone will love you, I just know it! Even though it must be impossible to imagine now, someday you won't even care about me! Because someone else will love you probably! I even wrote a song about it. About how someday someone will find a way to love even you. Someday." I've been a fan of Death Cab since Something About Airplanes, but I can't imagine respecting them after that song. Fame really does ruin everyone.
Pluralistic Moronitude says:
The lyrics to Someday You Will Be Loved are incredible: Ben sings about how he had a one-night stand with someone a long time ago. He then reassures this person that someday, someday, _SOMEDAY_ they'll get over him. Considering it's their major label debut, it'll probably be their most popular too. Further proof that people have no fucking taste whatsoever.
Die Prinzessin says:
Death Cab for Cutie lovers, restrain yourselves. The new album, Plans, has been leaked to the Internet, and you can now download standout tracks like "Crooked Teeth" anywhere. I got this news from Stereogum, and while I was there, I couldn't resist checking out the comment section. As usual, it was full of whiny hipsters jacking off about how much DCFC sucks now that they're popular. This kind of thing pisses me off more than you can imagine, so of course I wrote a comment of my own. And of course, some pretentious ass decided to respond. Here's our friendly little exchange...
Kofi's Hat says:
I quite like it, and at first listen, liked the new album... I want to listen to it more than once before dissing any of the songs, but a few do seem a bit "dissable." Mostly good stuff, though
Filtering Craig (on Blogcritics) says:
"Someday You Will be Loved" never reaches the heights that it feels like the band was aiming for, but it doesn't slow down the album too much, because in true Death Cab fashion they finish the disc very strongly.
Jessica Coen says:
Like everyone else with marginal internet competency, I've been listening to the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Plans. While the band has hardly been known for being the sound of good cheer, I'd have to say that the album, while quite pretty, is one of the most depressing things I've ever heard. Perhaps indie woe just doesn't work with the highly produced sound of Plans, or maybe I've just finally grown out of the light emo rock of post-pubescent angst. Whatever the case may be, this thing makes me seriously want to kill myself. (This song is particularly annoying.) Back to Kelly Clarkson.
Some Random MySpace Fan says:
8/9/2005 12:38:00 PM
ben gibbard.
you are awesome.
i mean so is the rest of the band
but i'm marrying you.
not them.
no offense dudes, i just dig guys with perfectly round heads.
TMFTML says:
It's time to take the tampon out, Ben.
Rob Novak says:
[The song] is bullshit.
Is Ben no longer a heartthrob? Are indie-yuppies listening to music that shakes them up?
Still waiting for the Atlantic board trolls to weigh in, but one did post the tab for "Your Heart Is An Empty Room," which a number of you requested.
I'm also waiting to see if Jen rips the photo of Ben on her fridge and replaces it with Jerry Garcia (yesterday was the 10 year anniversary of his death).
What about Colin Meloy? Is he still dreamy?
Posted at 9:31 PM
you just gave that painful-looking (as in appearance, as in taste) girl wayyy too many myspace views.
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Is everyone forgetting what Tiny Vessals was about?
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Sounds like lots of love for Death Cab, and a very cool way that you've gathered all of those comments. They're a band worth talking about, great lyrics and music.
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Speaking of myspace, i just logged in and i had to watch an ad for that new Rob Schnieder movie. Now I know NewsCorp bought the place, and i know there has been fake ads, via phony "featured members" for a while now, but atleast they were avoidable. NOW i have to watch an ad to see what some sissy puss wrote me in my comments section. im calling shenanigans!
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Yeah, Colin Meloy's still way dreamy. How could a girl resist a guy singing shanties and using words like "pantaloons"?
*dreamy sigh*
(And the myspace guy is right. Ben's head is awfully...rotund).
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In an odd way, I really like the new record more with each listen for some reason. Maybe I'm really depressed or something (I don't think so?). Seems like they've hired a bunch of spitting cobras to handle their promo work though. Going after Fluxblog et. al. for posting a track 3 weeks in advance of release is bullshit scaredy cat major label buffoonery at its highest level.
DCFC isn't some sort of "gimme" that Atlantic should assume they're going to sell tons of records. They're popular, but they're still building a following. It should be clear to the band and everyone else now that Atlantic is still way too old school to have figured out how to treat DCFC's greatest asset: its loyal, independently-built fan base, many of whom use this new fangled invention called "internet".
If word gets around that DCFC are too good for the people who brought them up, which happens quickly on the internet, they're dead in the water no matter whether anyone thinks the record is good or not.
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Tim, you took the words out of my mouth. Tiny Vessels was an honest song that was totally open and didn't paint Ben Gibbard in a very flattering light. But the truth is that despite what we are willing to admit, we all have things we aren't proud of. I have never thought of those lyrics as boastful, which seems to be some of the insinuations floating around over "Someday You Will be Loved."
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Apparently I'm the only death cab fan less concerned with narcissistic song lyrics (most indie rock music is inherently narcissistic) and more concerned with the fact that one of my favorite band completely dropped their low-fi independent rock roots and produced a fluffy and uninspiring soundtrack for mainstream teen television.
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Oh come on Script, The O.C. ain't that bad.
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The Death Cab Album is definitely growing on me but it's scary how much my favorite music has changed once it has reached The OC or even Laguna Beach. I slowly start hating it.
Oh and you were so right about the whole Journey thing. Some of my friends actually asked me whether or not I had heard anything by them prior to Laguna Beach. What is life?
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Okay kids, nothing to see here except for your own reactionary shallowness. 1) Signed to Atlantic they may be, but Walla produced it. 2) Whoever said see "Tiny Vessels" was spot on.
There's a song that eternally puzzles me, since it seems to have a particular effect of making girls sing along with it something passionate despite the fact the central narrator is a giant asshole. In fact, I'd argue that's entirely what Transatlanticism is about - admitting and coming to terms with some of the unkind male hetero principles that hide beneath the veneer of sensitive emo boys. Gibbard dished up the truth and everyone thought it was about breakups. Instead, stupid emo chicks who actually want to be hurt in a dramatic fashion in order to construe the necessary heartbreak beholden to indie rockers swoon over it. Someday You Will Be Loved - if thought of as a half hearted apology or a mantra to keep someone wronged at bay - is really just sad and yes self absorbed, like most indie rocker dudes. At least Gibbard cops to it.
But no one's said a damn thing about the further depth on Plans and I don't expect them to, because you're all falling for the boring journalism discourse - where do their name come from, have they sold out, why are you still writing about cute relationships. Plans, if you ask me, is about something far scarier than that and I hope Gibbard is well, cause there's some serious contemplating about mortality going on instead of the usual indie rock shit. I hope he didn't get sick bad or lose parents or something. As for the sound - I think Someday is the worst track on the album for its arrangement, not its lyrics. It's the one real out of place stinker, the way every Death Cab album has one (Death of An Interior...) But everything else doesn't surprise me. This band has continually expanded its sound and the sonic assault of Different Names is worth it all. And Stereogum, stop trying to stir up indie rock shit, Pitchfork are destined to give them a snarky ass review anyway. No need to help if you really like the band.
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The Death Cab are the answer!!!!Great Blog, maybe better than mine ; !!!!!!!!!
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what is up with the recent stereogum obsession with dcfc? At least I couldn't care less
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so gibby doesn't have a degree in creative writing and writes songs about hickeys. the album's got a few gems and damn it, i'm going to listen to them 35 times in a row.
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This 'Death Cab make slightly more commercial sounding album than the last one' is the most entertaining thing for ages! I love the righteous bile floating around. I think Plans is great.
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now i'm in the limelight cuz I rhyme tight, time to get paid, blow up like the world trade
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I was playing around with the tracks on my IPod and I decided to insert "This Temporary Life" which I was slightly disappointed to see was not included in the album. I think that song would have really helped bridge the gap in terms of intensity, between Transatlanticism and Plans. We will see what the results are. No conclusions yet.
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I haven't heard Plans yet, so I haven't heard "Someone Will Love You." From the sounds of it, the lyrics seem pretty awful and super pretentious. Is there any possibility that the song is intended to be sarcastic, or is it really that pompous? Just curious.
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Here it is gummer Death Cab/Plans and a little GD for Jerry....
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - Plans ADVANCE
http://rapidshare.de/files/3861489/deadcab1.zip.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/3873836/deadcab2.zip.html
Grateful Dead - Workingmans Dead
http://rapidshare.de/files/3821233/Workingmans.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/3820789/Workingmans.part2.rar.html
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dnicolep,
You admit to having not heard the track, but seem to already have your mind made up, so why hear it?
Also, remember that half the commenters on this site are incredibly jaded. It's kind of sad really.
------
Loved that 'righteous bile' comment. Ha! It's true. So much bile...so, so much..
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Arrrrrr, I am an offical board troll! Blagggh! Death Cab For Sucky! Me, Smash!
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I don't judge people for liking Death Cab, otherwise I'd be judging a lot of people, and judgements based on music taste are pretty damned shallow, but if you're all allowed to love their music, they why aren't some of us allowed to say that it's boring, innocuous, middle-brow, and trite? I'm not saying any of YOU are those things, and I don't think most people are when they say such things, but that's just how I feel. But seeing as how I personally view the 90s as the greatest nadir in pop music, that shouldn't be surprising. Anyway, I'm just saying...they're just a band. Don't take it as a personal attack, unless it clearly is meant as such. I love Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, so I'm used to taking guff for it.
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No way I'm the troll! don't always try and take all the credit...just call Scott, gummer one time and see.
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Gummer come on please bestow upon me official troll status, I don't want to be a poser troll...any help?
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Has anyone bothered to think that he might have written this song from the perspective of SOMEONE ELSE? Gee, that would be a first in songwriting! Maybe he was the one who was told "Some day you will get over me." Is that impossible? Cut the guy some slack. I think everyone has been on one side of this story or the other at some point in their life.
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Why does every fucking blog mention The O.C. when talking about Death Cab? IS THIS REALLY NECESSARY, PEOPLE?!
re: Die Prinzessen's post -- what was that about "making condescending assumptions"? Because, uh, you did that yourself by attributing the widespread indie disdain for Plans to Death Cab's popularity. I don't give a rat's ass how popular they are, but it IS true that they are sauntering ever so preciously towards mediocrity. Can we just get another Postal Service album already?
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1. Lindsay is an idiot. Her diatribe was one of the least insightful things I've ever read.
2. The song could legitimately have been written in RETROSPECT, taking stock of what went wrong and trying to absolve yourself way after the fact, and that's what 99%* of Death Cab's songs are about so I don't understand what everyone is all panty-wadded about. I haven't heard the song but I've been reading the internet straight-up bitch about it for the past three days.
3. What that guy said about "Tiny Vessels."
*fig. estimated
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colin meloy is definitely still dreamy.
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this is why i read gum.
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1. Whomever insinuated that Death Cab has all of a sudden made some sort of abrupt jump from "lo-fi" music to some sort of slick, overproduced mainstream dreck-rock has obviously not heard the last three Death Cab records. Each one has grown increasingly more clearer and dynamic, charting a band that has matured and refined their sound - which, last time I checked, is a perfectly acceptable, appropriate thing for a band to do. I don't hear much difference, production-wise, between "Plans" and "Transatlanticism" - Walla produced both (and how many bands resist the urge, when they sign to a major label, to hire the biggest-name producer they can? Damn, give them some credit).
2. I've heard "Plans", I like some, some of it might have to grow on me, but the thing that overwhelms me about it is the overall quality of the songwriting - Death Cab has always been a songwriter-based band (Gibbard grows by leaps and bounds on each record) - and the plain fact that a major-label is, for once, releasing a thoughtful, intelligent product by a smart band that has a built in audience. Let's not lose sight of the greatest thing here - a mainstream push for music like Death Cab means more recognition for some of the other indie stalwarts that deserve it more than Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance, etc. Want to see bands like the New Pornos, Rilo Kiley, etc. get popular and get respect? Then support Death Cab, and show the major labels that smart music can move units, as opposed to getting hung up on if records are lo-fi enough or "indie" enough for your taste.
3. 3 small sub points:
a. Calling "Death of an Interior Decorator" a dud is plain wrong. That song is a standout on any record.
b. "It came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time" - respect the skills.
c. If Ted Leo and his blustery, classic rock stance (which I love) had written "Someday You Will Be Loved", then no one would care. It's because Gibbard plays up the sensitive male indie rock archetype that you're so shocked. It's a shitty song, but I'm not offended. Let the guy write jerky songs, for crying out loud.
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I'm still trying to figure out why Ben Gibbard is the Messiah for the indie kids. What gives?
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I wish Death Cab would get eaten by the goddamn shark.
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I think where they used to have SONGS they now have pleasant little ditties. Or maybe they haven't changed in any material way and I've just gotten over it. But I'm pretty sure it's the former. The best metaphor I can think of is that every track on the record is basically "everybody hurts."
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Damn it, indie kids, why you gotta confuse the singer with the song? Can't a songwriter write a song about an asshole without necessarily BEING the asshole? Has the world really become this literal?
Props to commenter "derek" above me for sub-point b. Respect the skills indeed. Whatever you may think about the subject matter, there is absolutely no denying the quality of the songcraft on this, or any, DCFC album.
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colin meloy is and always will be dreamy. come on! he has like eight different kinds of smugness! and sings epic shanties about revenge and getting eaten by whales! you can't beat that!
[the terrifying thing is that none of that was sarcastic. completely genuine.]
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Hey I have a suggestion....bloggers of the world get over yourself. Its a fucking song. Like it or don't. Next!
By the way Plans rocks, but Someday You Will Be Loved is by far the worst song.
Next!
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Am I the only person that neither loves or hates the album, but is just stuck somewhere in the middle?
I FEEL SO ALONE
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Alex,
Um, I don't have my mind made up, that's why I'm asking. Taken from lyrics alone, saying "yes, one day you'll get over me" is pretty pretentious. But considering songs include both lyrics and music, the music could very well make the lyrics sarcastic, and thus make the song not pretentious. Since I haven't heard it, I was asking if that was a possibility. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough.
On the other hand, I have to agree about some of the commenters. It is sad.
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I'm pregnant with Colin Meloy's love child.
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Mat: "Am I the only person that neither loves or hates the album, but is just stuck somewhere in the middle? I FEEL SO ALONE"
I was just about to write that same comment!! I haven't heard the new album yet, but I feel that way about DCFC in general. I think they're OK, I don't mind when my fanboy Husband puts them on (or makes me go to their shows), but their CDs are not something I go out of my way to listen to. Although I do *LOVE* The Postal Service.
P.S. Pippincat, your love child has a half-sibling. Let's arrange a play date after they are born.
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Where can i download the album? What to be able to give my 2 cents.
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Oh, I'll probably meander into Amoeba and buy the album at my leisure when it comes out. Not in a hot happy hurry to get it right this second. BUT I do quite enjoy my only downloaded track, "Soul Meets Body." Anyone else think his voice sounds WAY different (higher, louder) when he interrupts in on the chorus "I can't believe it's true..." - style? If the rest of the album is superior to this track, as many of ya'll say it is, then I'm in for a treat!
For more on "Soul Meets Body" and the ways it relates to "Why You'd Want to Live Here," feel free to visit my web domain.
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Vic, I agree with you about Die Prinzessin's post. I might normally be inclined to agree with her sentiment in principle, but it's a little funny that she shat all over the commenters her for their presumed motivations in criticizing Death Cab, then got huffy when served a taste of the same.
Just like Mommy always said: two wrongs don't make a right. Some people profess to hate Plans because they're trying to stay a step ahead of the indie curve, others probably genuinely don't like it. Some likely only listen to Death Cab because they heard it on The O.C., although clearly the new stuff is really floating some boats. Whatever. Don't throw a tantrum.
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Colin Meloy is a dreamboat, but he won't be getting anyone pregnant. I think he bats for the other team.
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Man, I was too busy enjoying the album to catch notice of the Internet hate spawning far and wide. First of all, good lord, if songwriters are always writing from their own perspective, somebody needs to set the FBI on Fiona Apple's tail stat. Last time I checked, Ben Gibbard lacks a record for domestic abuse, so we shouldn't necessarily label him as a narcissist. Second of all, I don't think it's absurdly pretentious to know someone loves you that you don't love in return and wish them happiness in the future. It's not horrific to wish someone a relationship better than one-sided appeasement.
As for the song itself, eh. It's on the boring side, but as someone said above, there's usually a clunker on each album ("Death of"..., word). The rest of the album is expansive ("Marching Bands of Manhattan"), nostalgic ("Summer Skin") and deceptively cheerful ("Crooked Teeth") - nothing unexpected from the band that brought you "The New Year", "We Looked Like Giants" and "The Sound Of Settling", respectively. The most interesting comment on here comes from RedFive, concerning Gibbard's encroaching sense of mortality. Just as the title "Transatlanticism" reflected the album's preoccupation with distances emotional and geographical, "Plans" seems to concern itself with the future, up to and including death. It's an interesting statement, considering this album is a pivotal point in the band's career - perhaps a commentary on the band itself. What is Death Cab's future sound? What loves are to be remembered ("Summer Skin") and which are to be forgotten ("Someday You Will Be Loved")? Is there love after death ("I Will Follow You Into The Dark") and how does one love the dead ("What Sarah Said")? And the first single, "Soul Meets Body", excessively derided for its upbeat tenor, is also a study of the soul's relationship with Mother Nature's vicious cycle: when the self dies, does the spirit travel too? RedFive's comment was insightful and for the first time, a truly comprehensive theme seems riddled throughout the album. This album is getting better with every listen.
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Hey AZ email me I want some of that shit your smoking...
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To answer your double question at the end of this post:
a) Yes?
b) Absolutely. I'm a sucker for cute English majors. <3
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Dammit d, that team snaps up all the best players.
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wtf? Someday You Will Be Loved is just gibbard stealing the chords for House of the Rising Sun. I love death cab, but that's just low! and the 4 minute stability???? Stability is Stability BECAUSE it's 12 minutes, it just sucks otherwise.
that's just my opinion...
tracks like I Will Follow You... onthe other hand are quite great, so i'm kinda mixed on the album as a whole
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Colin Meloy most certainly does not bat for the other team. How do I know? 'Cuz I know the guy.
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I love how there is now a backlash against a backlash, over this new Death Cab record, which hasn't even been released yet.
This indie elitism is getting quite ridiculous.
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I can't believe how people are hating the haters for hating. Consider the backlash against the backlash against the backlash on!
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Oh come on people! Just because they've signed to a major label and played on an overated TV show people are throwing hissy fits. Fact is, DCFC are finally getting credit that they deserved at the end of last century!
Indie elitisim is indeed rampant as Pat al suggests. What happened to liking music because it's good? (or disliking it because it's bad?)
For the record, Plans is nowhere near as good as Trans (although that would be hard) Too many peaks and valleys on Plans. 'Different Names...' has got to be one of the best tracks by DCFC along with 'I Will Follow You..' However, 'Stable Song' and Brother on a Hotel Bed' disappoint, compared with the high standard DCFC has set.
Plans may not be a classic, but its a lot better than 99% of the crap I've heard this year!
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Todd, I'm calling total bullshit. DCFC were offered lucrative deals by majors numerous times over the last 8 years, they turned them all down so they could maintain creative control over their music. The fact that they signed to a major indicates one or both of the following:
a) Barsuk couldn't keep up with the manufacturing and promotional demand, which makes signing to a major smart business on DCFC's part.
b) DCFC finally got tired of being considered an indie band and, after being successful on an indie for a long while, wanted the money up front instead of having to go out and earn it every year. They're not getting any younger, you know, and Atlantic does offer benefits and 401K.
Don't let that "underappreciated" nonsense get into your head -- DCFC has been approached with offers by major labels ever since they began playing shows. They just said no.
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Or, c) They felt that this particular deal would allow them to retain the creative control they feared losing.
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We always hurt the ones we love. Maybe the closer we hold a band dear, the more we'll resent them when they want a lot of other people to love them. They're supposed to be "ours"! There may be some "jilted lover" element in the "sellout" backlash. Or maybe not. For me, it's pretty much as Todd said, about liking or not liking the music. I think everyone's entitled to decide for themselves whether it's partly about other things. If such things impact their reaction to an album, hopefully they acknowledge that.
I like "Someday" largely because it's so cold and condescending. It's intriguing. I like the contrast between his dramatically declared interest in his ex's welfare and his lack of interest in whether she loves the man who will love her. Morrissey sings some unkind things in "Bigmouth Strikes Again" but it's still a good song.
Diana thinks the album gets better with every listen; that's true for me so far. Maybe that's true even for people who hated it at first. Plans, someday you will be loved. Or at least liked a lot. Let's not get greedy just because Death Cab's all big and important now. Geesh.
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Easily the thing that disturbed me about Plans, or Death Cab in general, was signing with Atlantic. Because, as EJ reminds us, they were offered major label contracts for a long time before now. And while I like Plans, I do not like corporations, I do not like wondering what the execs said when they listened to it, or if any of them had to argue to keep songs on or off, and what if they lost on any of those battles? And I feel bad for Barsuk, because they're such a great label, and they've been so good to Death Cab.
And then I looked at the Barsuk site, and it made me feel a lot better that they are putting out the vinyl copy, which I will of course buy (there's some bonus materials on it, too!). So I feel like Death Cab is still being good, in a way, to Barsuk. And I was a lot more bothered by that whole thing than the music. Bands change. Life goes on. There will be someone new to fill the lo-fi void. What is important, or more important, I suppose, is that they haven't put out carbon copies of Something About Airplanes, or the Forbidden Love EP, or even my personal favorite, We Have the Facts... I think that would be a lot worse, and everyone would be hating them for that now instead. Who wants to listen to the same thing ten different ways? And like I said, someone else will pick the lo-fi up. So if that's what you want to listen to, stop bitching and make it happen! Go make your own music that's sincere and rockin' and lo-fi! The best way to get it right is to do it yourself!
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So here's the deal.... do you remember when MTV played music videos and would interview people so we'd get to learn about all those great artists who would shape our lives as we grew up.....well those days are over on cable television... Well, THANK GOD for the internet and ManiaTV.com. We feature a segment called "Artist of the Day" which is an exclusive ManiaTV! interview with artists and a featured video 2X's a day, 5 X's a week! You can check out all the hottest music videos you can handle as well as actions sports, short films, hang in the chat and webcam rooms, interact with out Cyber Jockeys and even request vidoes to be aired during or shows... We have On-Demand channels if you want to peruse the rest of what we have to offer ya... So Join the Revolution now! Always on, always live, always worldwide, and always free!!!!!
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I just seem to remember that when "indie rock" as a phrase was first coined, when I was in high school, it referred both the status of a band, and its aesthetic/musical qualities. There was something quirky, weird, or at least somewhat less accessible about such bands that made them kind of special. Death Cab, on the other hand, is bland now and always has been, which is probably WHY majors have been approaching them for awhile. I don't think there's anything wrong with making any particular kind of music, but in opinion, Death Cab is pretty bland and not the least bit weird or quirky, and thus I don't understand why they're even considered having to do with anything subcultural at all. It's just....college rock? I don't know. I like my music to have some personality.
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well, i cant believe i just sat here and read all of that (or most of it), but i gotta give props to redfive and derek (points and subpoints) and everyone else who is here sticking up for our beloved band that everyone loves to knock around. selling out, ditching lo-fi, o.c. crap, hipster hating...what-the-F-ever. indie bands are probably the most highly scrutinized things in...well i was going to say 'in the world' just to be stupid, but certainly one of the most highly scrutinized thing on the INTERNET (along w/ startrek).
dcab love: anyone that loves this band for who they are and the music they make, whether or not they churn out the radio hits, classic albums, perfect arrangements etc, know that these guys are trying. cant ya just love em for that? and didnt anyone else here see 'drive well sleep carefully' and notice how concerned the band was with the whole major label debut thing?? these guys are scared shitless. and actaully, i was dissapointed that that was the only thing all the interview interludes were concerned about. and i mean, sure, they dont want to lose fans, but even more than that they just want people to like the new album....they just want to be loved, and yes, perhaps many of you see that as vain...but dont well all just want to be loved? SOMEDAY YOU WILL BE LOVED, GUYS! SOMEDAY YOU WILL!!!!
okay, so i havent heard the album yet. im one of those people who enjoy build up, one who gets all worked up when thinking about running into amoeba on aug30 and snatching the first 'plans' album in sight and rubbing it all over thier body. just kidding. kind of.
oh and...
P.S.--colin meloy IS still dreamy. him and his pachyderm riding, cardimam eating, odalisque parade. FLIGHT OF THE MISTEL THRUSHES AWAY!!!
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I'm wondering, oh great fans of small rock and Indie music, how you are all listening to an album that has yet to be released. maybe you all stole it, you bunch of thieves, and maybe if you all bought the albums that you take, then maybe just maybe bands like Death Cab would not have to go to a big label and "sell out", whatever that means. if i hear one more person say that Modest Mouse sold out then I am going to kill someone. Also: Holopaw's album Quite and/or Fight is fuckin awesome and wierd and kicks ass. over and out.
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I hate the whole term "selling out" being thrown around just because an album that deviates from the last happens to be on a new label. Listen to how different The Photo Album and Transatlanticism are, but no one cried sell out because they were still with Barsuk.
One of the main differences between a great band and a shitty band is that the great bands try to sound a little different with each effort (e.g. Saves the Day and Death Cab For Cutie) and the shitty bands tend to sound pretty much the same on every album (e.g. most "punk" bands).
I've been listening to Plans almost non stop since I got it. Not because it's great (it's not), but because I'm trying so hard to appreciate it -- and it gets a little better with each listen. It's a solid album...even if it's their worst one.
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Hey, I'm from Spin magazine, and I wanted to let you guys know that we have some great behind the scenes footage from Death Cab's Spin cover shoot on our website. If you're a Death Cab fan, it's definitely worth checking out:
http://www.spin.com/features/magazine/covers/2005/08/0509_deathcab_cover
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colin will ALWAYS be dreamy. mmmmm...just thinking of him gives me the chills
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Another 2 cents worth...
I am one of those people who has been into these bands since my formative years. DCFC, Modest Mouse, Beck...what have you. They made me want to be a musician. I still have Mr. Walla's mic he let me borrow for a high school project on home recording. All these guys are still awesome people making music for themselves AND for a living. Record labels change, people get old and fat, car commercials get made, but none of it should affect the way a record sounds when you're listening to it in your room. It's a lot easier to honestly judge music if you don't frequent the radio/mtvs/shopping malls, too.
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Ok so you don't have to like death cab but dont bitch about them! Have you got nothing better to do? Maybe you could try talking about bands you do like. I first heard Death Cab on the OC but i'm glad they were on the show because it introduced me to a band i noe love! Not because they were on the OC but because they are so good.Plans is one of the most thoughtful,intimate, inspiring,emotionally charged, delicate and well crafted albums in history. I think it is on a par with Trans and the fact the production is cleaner lets the music shine more. Whats the point in having crap production if you don't have to? Marching bands is an amazing song and lets not forget how amazing Ben's vocals are. Actually lets not forget how well the whole band can play.
My final point is that this band displays what song craft is about and how music is about feeling and emotion.
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what are you guys talking about??? just because ben wrote a song about that, doesnt mean he actually thinks that! i write stories and songs all the time that are the exact opposite of my views. maybe if you all stopped trying to find something to bitch about in the midst of thist next-to-perfect band you could actually sit down and ENJOY the music.
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by the way i'm glad to see more modest mouse fans here. they are the single most awesome, amazing.... THEY'RE THE BEST BAND EVER!!! Isaac Brock is so damn hot. ((i know hes not that good looking but his music compensates for his lack of... yeah.)) i have goot in arguements with many a friends who claim that Death Cab For Cutie is for queers, or that Modest Mouse sucks. they're good bands, but you cant expect every song to be awesome ((like different names for the same thing, and shit luck)) neither of which are BAD songs, they're just not orgasmic like you would expect from bands like these.
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I didn't think this song was about a one night stand. But with the way I interpreted it, I can sure as hell relate to it.
Recently I split up with my lover, and she said somethign along the same lines to me. She left me becasue she had, in the past, upset and hurt me. And she never wanted to do that again. So she told me that I should go and find someone else. Fall in love with someone else, who will treat me better.
Maybe it's about self doubt after all?
Letting go?
I don't know. but the lyrics did not make Ben gibbard seem like a self-important person to me. It made him seem a lot more honest with himself.
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Anyway, the last time I listened to this album was on the best day of my life, in the garden with my girlfriend in the sunset. It went perfectly.
I think the album is simply amazing.
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