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| Tuesday, August 01, 2006 |
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Death Cab for Cutie: Driven to Tears
By Image Mag Staff @ 12:00 AM :: 162 Views ::
0 Comments :: Music: Artist Spotlight
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Death Cab for Cutie: Driven to Tears
wordplay by Brian Kenney
If there was ever a song truly written for cell phone ring tone translation, it’s Death Cab for Cutie’s "Soul Meets Body." A surreal, exploratory song with a familiar comforting melody, Death Cab's interstellar single off of 2005's Plans makes even the busiest curmudgeon of a boss answer their phone, for one reason and one reason only: the melody is comforting.
It wasn't always this comfortable for DCFC. Then again, perhaps comfort comes with age. "All of us in the band are starting to turn a corner and realize that our youth is basically over," recalls lead singer and founder of DCFC Ben Gibbard. "That's not a bad thing; it’s just that the feeling of invincibility falls by the wayside."
Yes, the boys next door are now men. The geeks have grown up, shed the horn-rimmed glasses (OK maybe not) and moved out of the basement. Gibbard and DCFC, in some respects, came of age during the making of Plans. Death Cab for Cutie could have gone any direction with this disc; they could have even fallen off the edge of the earth and succumbed to major label pressure but instead edged into their 30s with grace under pressure. .
2005's Plans proved a foundation to which these thirtysomethings are now building upon their ever fledging popularity. "Our longevity and history came through a lot on [Plans]" says bassist Nick Harmer. As a result of this longevity, history, and ever fledging popularity: success, which is both comfortable and comforting.
Raised on a steady diet of Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Teen Age Fanclub, spliced in with blue collar ethic and college level heartache and heartbreak, Gibbard and fellow Western Washington University students Chris Walla (guitar) and Harmer formed DCFC in Bellingham in 1997. (Drummer Jason McGerr was brought on board in 2003)
Taking their moniker from a skit in the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour, Death Cab for Cutie entered a Pac Norwest music scene that had just seen the last remnants of original grunge being sent adrift into the Puget Sound. Gone was Soundgarden and (sadly) Nirvana and simply and soon enough, Death Cab appeared, hatching debut disc You Can Play These Songs with Chords. DCFC were being as honest as possible at the time: they were not accomplished musicians.
It was a simplicity that preoccupied their songwriting for eight years. Their major label debut Plans changes all that. Venturing away from the safety and comfort of wit and innocence, Plans offered some twists for the band. Their first on Atlantic, it was DCFC's first disc recorded outside of the Seattle area, with most of the songs written in and around Boston. And while producer Walla exploited Death Cab's multilayered harmonies with Brian Wilson-like precision production, many of the songs contain that same minimalist composition: most songs were easily composed with a single acoustic guitar, and a solitary Gibbard.
One solitary song; "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" echoes just how much Death Cab have grown. Featuring only Gibbard on acoustic guitar sans band, and possesses many of the similar essentials that Lennon/McCartney did on the less gregarious Beatles tracks, a simple melody, an emotional harmony, a minimalist approach. This track stands out from the rest of the disc, ironically just as The Beatles "I'll Follow the Sun" stood out form the rest of the Beatles 1965 work such as "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride".
The song also showcases some of Gibbard's ethereal lyrics which, at times, confront his own mortality and the mortality of those around him. "I'm becoming an adult," he comments. "And for me, that means being aware of the slow process of losing people in your life." DCFC's primary songwriter, along with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Sunny Day Real Estate's Jeremy Enigk, round out indie rock’s saddest trifecta since Morrissey stepped aside. He sees his music existing on a spiritual and existential level.
There's a dichotomy within the disc; a split between the composition and the content. Songs possess that simple familiarity that makes us love the Beatles and love Death Cab for Cutie. This dichotomy is best personified by the subliminal but working competition and contradiction that is Gibbard and Walla.
Gibbard, the founder of the band, is driven, and deeply invested in Death Cab, and has ambitions for the band which may exceed its limits. Just as Paul McCartney did with the Beatles. Walla is more spontaneous, and has often wandered away from the band, at times relating a dissidence and distance of "take it or leave it". These same qualities made John Lennon wander, and ultimately made the Beatles split.
Many industry personnel, as well as fans alike, have likened them to this generation's REM. While that compliments, it also sets up for corporate sell out to pop-friendly markets. In REM's latter years for every "Don’t Go Back to Rockville" there was a "Shiny Happy People."
Others are concerned with a failure to live up to Plans' success, just as some of the bands Death Cab toured with early on. (See: Harvey Danger.) Perhaps what gives Death Cab such a spectrum of maturity is the side project they're involved with. Gibbard hit a different audience and gathered even more momentum with The Postal Service, while Walla has helmed production duties and recording processes for The Decemberists and Hot Hot Heat.
Perhaps it's these side projects that left them hungry and refreshed to go back home so by the time 2003's Transatlanticism rolled around, you could not throw a stone without hitting a DCFC reference; from the soundtrack appearances on the "OC" to "Wedding Crashers," to the 2006 Grammy's, where they were finalists for Best Alternative Album, losing out to The White Stripes for Get Behind Me Satan.
DCFC's Plans differs in capacity and discipline from previous recordings. "If Transatlanticism was an inhale," drummer McGerr has said, "Then Plans was the exhale." Each track emits a certain visceral response; broken hearts and hearts on sleeves, the disc is a constant cerebral struggle of the right hemisphere of creativity and emotion, vs. left hemisphere of logic and reasoning; that same struggle of chemistry existed between Lennon and McCartney and exists between Gibbard and Walla. "Our communication as a band has improved so much over the last two records, [that] I just found myself saying ‘yes’ a heck of a lot more than I said ‘no,’" says Walla who produced Plans as well as previous DCFC discs.
From the prom song swoon of "Soul Meets Body" to the declarative and independent "Crooked Teeth" (Yes it was 100 degrees…) Death Cab for Cutie offers sanctuary for tangential individuals lost within cross threads of identity. Embrace them while they’re young. Recently adding a second date at the Fillmore Auditorium, they play there on August 6th and 7th with Mates of State. In what might be the twilight of their twenties, Death Cab for Cutie is offering a ride… You should take it.
That and they write insatiable ring tones.
August 6th & 7th @ The Fillmore
DeathCabForCutie.com
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