There are two reasons for Death Cab For Cutie fans to be excited this year: the first is that Chris Walla, guitarist for Death Cab (and sometime-producer for The Decemberists, Tegan & Sara and more) is releasing his solo album, “Field Manual” on January 29; and, secondly, Death Cab itself will be releasing their follow up to the 2005 mainstream breakthrough, “Plans
Chris Walla – Sing Again
Sing Again is the first released track off of Walla’s forthcoming album, “Field Manual
Let’s sing again
Sing together without disguise
Let’s raise up a song in unrest
I think that would be best
All in all, the song is very much what you would expect from Walla, if you were at all familiar with his work as a musician or producer; but that doesn’t mean it’s not a wonderful track. It’s been a long time coming, and even though the
Listen: Chris Walla – Sing Again
Ben Gibbard – Casino Blues (live)
Ben Gibbard has been performing Casino Blues at his solo gigs for some time now, and it’s finally been confirmed that the song will be appearing on the as-yet-unnamed follow-up to Death Cab’s last album, “Plans”.
The album must have record-exec’s chewing their nails nervously; Chris Walla has said of the album that it’s:
“…really weird. It’s really, really good, I think, but it’s totally a curve ball, and I think it’s gonna be a really polarizing record. But I’m really excited about it. It’s really got some teeth. The landscape of the thing is way, way more lunar than the urban meadow sort of thing that has been happening for the last couple of records.”
One song, “I Will Possess Your Heart”, is even purported to be a nine minute jam. Whatever happens, the album promises to be interesting.
Here’s a live performance of Ben performing “Casino Blues”. If this song is anything to go by, the album could see Death Cab producing more upbeat, uptempo songs than in the past. By late May, we should be able to see if that’s a good thing or not.