Indie-yuppie poster boys Death Cab For Cutie release their major-label debut Plans in September. Fans from the Something About Airplanes days never predicted this much notoriety for the band. Will they stick around even after Transatlanticism‘s high-profile cameos on The O.C. and Six Feet Under?
A few weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly visited DCFC in the studio while producer/guitarist Chris Walla gave Plans a final polish. Lead Cutie Ben Gibbard acknowledged the mounting pressure.
BEN GIBBARD: We’re in the insanity phase. It’s an intense period of self-doubt. Time will tell whether this thing is a good thing or not. I hope it is. But if not, hey, we’re on the same label as Led Zeppelin!
An incomplete, out-of-order tracklisting for Plans:
“Broken Yoke In Western Sky”
“Brothers On A Hotel Bed”
“I Will Follow You Into The Dark”
“Marching Bands Of Manhattan”
“Someday You Will Be Loved”
“Soul Meets Body”
“Talking Like Turnstiles”
“Your Heart Is An Empty Room”
“Walking The Ghost”
Not positive about “Broken Yoke,” but Ben did perform it at a tsunami benefit in Seattle earlier this year, so here’s a potential preview:
 |
 |
%s1 / %s2
sounds like an arm with a mouth eating a baby.
must all the song titles be upward of 3 words??
Go watch my movie, “Cinderlla Man” or i’ll fuckin’ throw something at you! Crikey!
i was at that show, it was amazing. james mercer from shins and dave bazan from pedro the lion. gibbard fucked up more than once, choking on his own spit, it somehow made the show even better. the highlight of gibbard’s set was the Alan Hull cover of I hate to see you cry.
and easyp, at least its not like sufjan stevens illinois cd tracklist sentences.
Advance copies available in July, I keep you posted Gummer……
i know that list is incomplete so i hope its got more than 9 songs
I really hope they break up before it’s ever finished and, thusly, never released.
i hope some of the folks from the previous stereogum post about death cab’s appearance on “the oc” are seeing this. i said they started selling out often already and them signing onto a major labor cements it to even the most generous indie-capitalist pig that they have officially been bought. love to say i told you so, not from spite, but somehow i was on the vast minority side of that arguement. people are idiots i guess.
a note to stereogum though, i understand that you deal in hollywood bull here. i just pop in off mp3blogs.org link occaisionally for news on music. to hell with the rest of it. but to the point, even if you’re more of a fag e-rag than a musically interest based group you’d be wise not to be another one of idiots posting info about “indie” bands that have signed with major lables. idie means indie. i’m in an indie band. death cab is now officially not independent in any way shape or form. hope they die by the way. calling a major label band indie is like saying that an infant sucking its mother’s teet is an independent man.
point made. thanks for the informative post. good day!
somebody doesn’t understand the term indie-yuppy very well
in fact i don’t think cowboy dave understands much at all…
people are idiots indeed
Cowboy Dan,
1. At this point, Indie is a genre. I mean, there are a bazillion independent labels, offering everything from classical to world music to hip hop. Am I expected to believe that these all sound like Pavement?
2. Selling Out means changing your sound to make more money. Death Cab have always been on the record as saying they will record to the best of their abilities at the maximum they can afford. That’s why they went from 8 track, to 24 track, to full studio. They’ve always said that. Just because they’re on TV doesn’t mean anything, expect that they’re getting paid. I don’t remember where that was a bad thing.
3. Everyone always drags this tired our DIY argument out. But these guys paid their dues. And all the bands from Sex Pistols to Ramones to Talking Heads were all on majors. So get over it, and let the kids have their fun.
thanks!
oh, and congratulations!
“i’m in an indie band”
How can “indie” be a genre if it encompasses hip-hop, classical and world music? “Indie” obviously is a term that has lost its punch, evolving from literally meaning “on an independant label” to what it is now. Now it can’t really be defined.
In my observation, “indie” is most aptly used in a few scenarios: 1) the literal meaning mentioned above; 2) a label given to what one may deem as good, non-mainstream music, especially if it has started out as actually independant; 3) music that has been adopted by a counter-culture of some sort before becoming widely accepted and appreciated by a wide assortment of music fans.
Ultimately, trying to decide what is indie and what isn’t is stupid. It isn’t just rock, it isn’t made for or from just one genre. Stop bickering about what it means, because the “definition” is different to everyone.
“I feel like there has been created, in the past two to three years, an indie-yuppie establishment. Bands like Death Cab for Cutie”
- Adam Shore ( Vice Magazine)
That’s what Gum was referring to. Carry on linguistic hounds!!
oh man – the people at the stage at this fall’s austin city limits will definitely be blah.
Cowboy Dan, I sincerely hope your indie band doesn’t sell more than 12 copies of anything. Wouldn’t want to become too popular! After all, success marks the death of an artist. Down with success! Down with the indie-capitalist pigs! In fact, don’t sell anything. You’ll show them!
Yeah, yeah. I read all the indie-yuppie comments here…but being a linguistic whore, well, I don’t know what to think about the remark in Vice.
More importantly, in Broken Yoke Gibbard sounds like a dying Giraffe, except more boring.
Just give me more Postal service dag-namit!
in non-indie yuppiedeathcab news, your favorite Paul Anka’s on Letterman tomorrow. But you probably already knew that.
cowboy dan’s in an indie band
he’s got cred cos he gigs from a van
he hates those sell-outs cos he can
cowboy dan, you’re the man
he won’t let his music be on the OC
he won’t record in stereo just to please me
he releases his records without a promo plan
yee ha, cowboy dan, you’re the man
Another obligatory Death Cab update: They suck.
I love Death Cab for Cutie. I’ve loved them for a long time, and I will continue to love them as long as they continue to make pretty, well-crafted songs. I don’t give a single fuck about anything except those songs. I don’t care what label they’re on, what genre they fall under, how many other people buy the new album, or how Ben Gibbard likes his eggs done. It’s about the music, and I don’t know why so many people forget that.
indie means you are on an independent label – there’s no two ways about it. once you sign with a major label you are no longer an indie band. you are also, sadly, a major sucker! props to cowboy dave for keepin’ it real!
does anyone feel the need to address the fact that their albums = not so good as of late? oops, i guess it had to be me.
now i’m the jerk.
Uhm, actually that list of songs that are going to be on Plans is wrong. I have the cd because it leaked and broken yoke and a few of those other songs are not going to be on the album. This is the album:
1. Marching Bands of Manhattan
2. Soul Meets Body
3. Summer Skin
4. Different Names for the Same Thing
5. I Will Follow You into the Dark
6. Your Heart Is an Empty Room
7. Someday You Will Be Loved
8. Crooked Teeth
9. What Sarah Said
10. Brothers on a Hotel Bed
11. Stable Song