All posts in: Death Cab For Cutie

13 Sep 2012

Politics + Music w/ Chris Walla

[On whether it matters that Obama is aware of pop culture and knows who Jay-Z is]: “I think it does. When the level of awareness of pop culture that the opponent has is limited to “grits y’all,” the choice is pretty clear.” – Chris Walla

Rolling Stone interviewed Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla recently to see where he stands on the issues and how he feels about Presidential candidates working with musicians and bands. It’s pretty short, but still a significant read – at least in my opinion.

Check it here yo.

19 Jul 2012

Ben Gibbard To Release Solo Album

Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard will release his first solo album (under his actual name this time) on October 16, 2012. The album entitled “Former Lives” will be a full-length solo LP by Barsuk. Gibbard has previously released another album as well, however, under the moniker ¡All-TIme Quarterback!

I could not be more excited to hear this album. Death Cab for Cutie was practically the soundtrack to my teenage years and with each year, his work continues to amaze me. This, I’m sure, will be no exception.

[Source]

07 Apr 2012

One Year Ago Today

– Seattle Restaurant Week began! This year, it runs through April 8-19. Check out the participating restaurants here.

– We viewed Death Cab For Cutie’s live music video for “You Are A Tourist.”

– We read some news and stuff.

– Madewell debuted their Fall 2011 collection and it was glorious!

– I got a little antsy about summer wedding season. Ashley and I spent 45 minutes watching wedding/proposal videos this evening.

– I wanted to buy some things. What else is new?

Most importantly, I discussed the 21 things I learned from my 21st birthday!

– There were a few things that I was obsessing over and they were awesome. Enough said.

– This infographic already told us what we already knew about the Pacific Northwest.

– This book was pretty cool.

– I wondered why Washington never had any cool prints made for them like this one.

– This is the best excuse I’ve ever seen.

14 Dec 2011

Nerd Crush: Chris Walla

pic cred: last.fm

When most people hear of the band “Death Cab For Cutie,” they automatically think of Ben Gibbard, but ladies and gentlemen – I’m here to remind you that there is another dreamboat within the group and his name is Chris Walla. Oh yeah. Chris. Walla. He’s the guitarist in the band, but occasionally can be heard on vocals. Did you also know that he put out a solo album under his name called “Field Manual” in 2008? If you enjoy listening to Death Cab For Cutie, then you will absolutely enjoy his side project. His latest project though has been creating his own record label – Trans Records. The first band on the label was The Lonely Forest, but I recently read that the label will now be working with Minneapolis indie pop group Now, Now.

10 Dec 2011

Deck the Hall Ball 2011 Recap

King Mark Foster would like to welcome you into this extravagant holiday concert post. [For some REAL photos from the event, check out Dave Lichterman’s work here.]

Lineup:

  • Grouplove
  • Two Door Cinema Club
  • Young the Giant
  • Foster the People
  • Cage the Elephant
  • Death Cab For Cutie
  • Mumford & Sons

Year after year, I have always dismissed radio station sponsored concerts, but this year, I made an exception. As soon as I saw the lineup for the first four bands (without the headliners being announced,) I was all in. Two Door and Foster are bands that I have been wanting to see for a very long time and Young the Giant and Grouplove are bands that are quickly on the rise. The concert started promptly at 4PM and didn’t end until what I imagine was probably 11PM. I left two songs into Mumford & Sons, but before you bite my head off about that – allow me to explain later on. Kevin and I had pretty decent seats, which I was grateful for cause I get claustrophobic in general admission. Overall, it was definitely an experience for me and one that I will never forget.

[The view from our seats]

From the event, I learned a few things. The first – in regards to bands – is that the set list is crucial. Young the Giant kicked off their set with my favorite song, “Apartment,” but probably could have got the crowd going more with “My Body,” or a song similar to that since most bands wouldn’t start with their hit single. If you don’t start off with a strong song, you can introduce yourselves with a unique intro. Grouplove entered the stage to a Kanye song and right away, everyone was like, “Who is this band?” These days, I’m a really strange concert attendee because of my Blackberry note taking. I mean – it’s meant for posts like these! At shows, I find it hard to enjoy it completely because aside from singing along to songs and dancing to them, I’m constantly fixated on the band – how they perform, the mechanics of it all, their movement, their interaction with the crowd.

Read more “Deck the Hall Ball 2011 Recap”

06 Dec 2011

Tomorrow’s Festivities

I have until tomorrow to learn the lyrics of these bands:

Death Cab For Cutie

photo cred: Ryan Russell

Foster the People

photo cred: nme

Young the Giant

Two Door Cinema Club

photo cred: hypetrak

Grouplove

Deck the Hall Ball – I am ready for you.

12 Oct 2011

In the News…

Ashton Kutcher’s fling Sara Leal has gone public with her details to US Weekly. [Source]

Ozzy Osbourne will be a grandfather again as his son Jack Osbourne is expecting. [Source]

Maroon 5 and Kanye West will perform at this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. [Source]

Girls Aloud member Sarah Harding has checked into rehab. [Source]

Jamie Bell looking extremely attractive on the cover of Vogue Hommes. [Source]

Jared and Genevieve Padalecki are expecting. [Source]

– Street style photography is setting the bar high for women to dress up in public. [Source] [Picture Source]

Tyler Shields photographs Mischa Barton with raw steaks. PETA not happy. [Source] [Picture Source]

Conde Nast hoping to expand into the entertainment industry. [Source]

NBC has purchased a new pilot called “Ten years” from Courteney Cox and David Arquette. [Source]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbnkNbEqlcE]

Death Cab  For Cutie is releasing a collection of remixed songs from their latest album “Codes and Keys.” Their first single is “Doors Unlocked and Open” with Cut Copy. You can download the remix EP on November 22. [Source]

The Black Keys will be live streaming their concert tomorrow night at 4G Factory in New York City. The show starts at 11PM EST and will include an appearance by Questlove (The Roots.) You can stream the show from their Facebook page. [Source]

Samuel L. Jackson is officially on Twitter! [Source]

– Let’s end this on an educational note! Here are the top 10 most expensive schools in the US and how much financial aid they provide. Barrrrf. [Source]

27 Sep 2011

Song of the Day

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcKJh0ZB7XU]

Death Cab For Cutie – Stay Young, Go Dancing

I was JUST talking about this song yesterday! Over the weekend, my friend got married and her first dance with her husband was to a song by Lifehouse. Typically the “first dance” song is a slow one, but being a girl I’ve started thinking about my own future wedding – and have considered a more upbeat song for this special moment. The only song that came to mind was this one. So what do you guys think? Do you think it would be an appropriate first dance song? I mean, whatever you say probably won’t change my mind anyways, but I’m curious if any of you have thought of your song yet.

23 Aug 2011

Nerd Herd

On the season finale of The Glee Project, my favorite contestant Cameron returned for the final episode. While I was extremely happy that Damien took home the win, I don’t think I paid that much attention to him as much as I focused on the scenes Cameron was actually in. Bree and I agreed last night that while it is obvious that he is talented, there is definitely something that draws our eye towards him throughout the entire episode. Sure, it’s his voice and the hipster attire, but another part of me thinks that it is because he represents a group of people  that has never been a part of the in crowd: the nerds. There’s no one like him on Glee or even on television right now.

As we all know, I’ve got a pretty sweet spot for the nerds – as do many girls. Can you really find a reason to not like one? I mean, have you ever seen a douchey nerd? And I’m not talking about those pretentious characters in television shows, I mean in real life. They don’t exist! They never cheat, except for that one episode of Saved By the Bell. They are known for being the shy smart types. They’ve got a type of style that isn’t mainstream and they always seem to know what’s going on before everyone else. A blogger’s dream right? Today, I learned from HelloGiggles that there’s actually a distinction between geek, nerd and dork. Who knew, right?

In short:

“Geek- Smart but not awkward
Nerd- Smart and awkward
Dork- Smart in less useful areas, awkward but proud regardless”

Feel free to read the rest of the article here:

What I also recognized today was the similarities between a nerd and a hipster. The same transition process occurs when scenesters become hipster. In this case, you start out being a nerd and develop into a full-grown adult-sized hipster. I’ve decided to highlight some of my favorite nerds in this post, but I’ll let you be the judge as to whether or not they are really as hip as they appear to be.

[Cameron Mitchell – The Glee Project right]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVRNMlFwqhU]

I think I’ve talked enough about Cameron in the text above so I won’t exhaust you anymore. He is basically the proudest nerd I have ever seen promoting the “Nerd Herd” in his YouTube videos, on the television series, and even in his music.

[Michael Cera]

Self-explanatory.

Read more “Nerd Herd”