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February 27, 2009

New Death Cab For Cutie Video - "Grapevine Fires"

thumbnail icon: New Death Cab For Cutie Video - "Grapevine Fires"

Ben Gibbard lost weight, grew his hair out, affixed Neil Young sideburns to the side of his face, and got engaged to Zooey Deschanel. Add those things together and it's hard to find a recent writeup that doesn't include at least a passing mention of the Death Cab For Cutie frontman's appearance. Which is maybe why he's kept such a low profile in the last two Narrow Stairs video clips: He was nowhere to be seen in "No Sunlight" and the new Walter Robot-concocted "Grapevine Fires" only gives us a passing view of a cartoon Ben (good to see the sideburns are rendered accurately, natch). It's a bummer of a video to offer up on a Friday afternoon, but it is only a matter of time before we all burn.

TGIF.

Narrow Stairs is out now on Atlantic.

Posted at 4:55 PM by brandon in
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19 Comments

Ahh, this reminds me of the golden days of "Emo" Death Cab, before Emo was bastardized by the millennials.

Great vid.

Posted by: JRstone profile link at 02/27/09 5:05 PM  | Reply
Score = 4 Vote up Vote down

wow...
this song was so epic at bumbershoot...

beautiful video

Posted by: winton at 02/27/09 5:56 PM  | Reply
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you forgot "had lasik eye surgery"

then again, nobody has mentioned that one

Posted by: grover profile link at 02/27/09 6:44 PM  | Reply
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oh yay
this was the 1 song i really really liked off NS
this strikes me as kinda paranoid android-y, which im digging

Posted by: sarahspy profile link at 02/27/09 6:51 PM  | Reply
Score = 7 Vote up Vote down

I feel like I wanna give Narrow Stairs another chance after watching that.

Posted by: Deezey profile link at 02/27/09 7:05 PM  | Reply
Score = 8 Vote up Vote down

that made me want to kill myself for all the right reasons. think ill go listen to that album now.

Posted by: teeshirtweather profile link at 02/27/09 7:47 PM  | Reply
Score = 10 Vote up Vote down

wow, this video touched my soul. perhaps one of the greatest things i have ever seen in my entire 26 years of existence

Posted by: chris at 02/27/09 8:03 PM  | Reply
Score = 2 Vote up Vote down

here's a link to a much higher quality version.
the video is epic: http://walterrobot.com/deathcab/deathcab_final.mov

Posted by: Bill at 02/27/09 8:04 PM  | Reply
Score = -1 Vote up Vote down

what a stunning video. Absolutely beautiful.

Posted by: indiefan at 02/27/09 10:10 PM  | Reply
Score = 4 Vote up Vote down

Crazy video and a great song. It was a great idea going with the cartoon version because if it were actors it wouldn't have had the same effect.

Posted by: Beez at 02/28/09 9:37 AM  | Reply
Score = 2 Vote up Vote down

i liked it, but where is cartoon ben?

Posted by: maude at 02/28/09 1:18 PM  | Reply
Score = -1 Vote up Vote down

1:14 I think. Ha, it looks just like him...

Posted by: alltheumbrellas profile link  in reply to maude's comment at 02/28/09 7:59 PM  | Reply
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I hate to echo the other comments here but it really is a beautiful video.

Posted by: McFly at 02/28/09 1:59 PM  | Reply
Score = 2 Vote up Vote down

love it

Posted by: nadsat profile link at 02/28/09 2:12 PM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

Epic!

Posted by: Chris at 02/28/09 10:48 PM  | Reply
Score = -1 Vote up Vote down

It wouldn't take much to turn this into a Celine Dion video - the music is already bland and cliched, the lyrics are already juvenile and cliched, and the video metaphors are already awkward and cliched.

Just make the video live action rather than animated.

Posted by: josephscott profile link at 03/02/09 6:15 AM  | Reply
Score = -7 Vote up Vote down

You're a fucking idiot if you think that. Since when did Celine Dion write lyrics like "it's only a matter of time before we all burn" and have videos about dealing with loss and tragedy.

Posted by: Taylor  in reply to josephscott's comment at 03/02/09 5:15 PM  | Reply
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Via Google:

"Suddenly the world is upside down
Broken like glass
And the earth is shattered to pieces
In front of me, in front of me
And I'm burning and you will burn" - Celine Dion 'Jours de fievre'

Is that similar enough to "it's only a matter of time before we all burn", which, by the way, is like a line from a 13 year old emo-kid's poetry.

And as for videos about loss: 'My heart will go on' from 'Titanic'? That has probably a similar number of cliches.

You're a fucking idiot if you DON'T think that.

Posted by: josephscott profile link  in reply to Taylor's comment at 03/03/09 3:27 PM  | Reply
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Yeah, but when did Celine Dion ever sound as beautiful as this song does?
Music is different to everyones ears. No one is right or wrong when it comes to what they like and don't.
& I love this song :)

Posted by: Megan at 03/11/09 11:02 PM  | Reply
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