Death Cab w/ Stars @ 9:30 Club THIS SUNDAY
So I’m hesitant to make this post because it will knock We Are Scientists from the top spot on the page, and everyone really needs to hear that band, so make sure you check them out below this when you’re done here.
I will be going, along with my adorable sidekick Zack Friendly, to see Death Cab For Cutie w/ Stars this Sunday at the 9:30 Club in DC and I legitimately could not be more excited. Not only do I get to see Death Cab, who are firmly entrenched on my top 5 favorite bands list, I also get to see Stars, who I also love. Like I’d pay a good deal of money to see either of these bands separately, and the fact that I’m seeing them together just has me over the moon (as Grandma Jamarv would say). I probably have never been more excited for a concert ever, and proof of this can be found in the fact that I’m pulling an Ellen Malinowski and showing up an hour before doors open to assure that I can be front-row, as close to Ben Gibbard as possible. But anyway, in honor of this momentous occasion I am making a Death Cab/Ben Gibbard megapost (akin to the “More Bloc Party Than You Can Handle” post of last month) that’s as chock full of MP3 hotness as it is long-winded. But I’ll kick things off with some special goodness courtesy of Stars, as they are amazing in their own right.
If you haven’t heard them already on M3 Volume 1 or The OC, Stars (which includes members of Broken Social Scene) are your prototypically fantastic Canadian band featuring the lush arrangements and ethereal instrumentation that only Canadian artists seem capable of creating as of late, as well as the beautiful boy-girl harmonies of dual-vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. They’re most recent album, the often wrongly overlooked Set Yourself On Fire, released earlier this year on Arts & Crafts, propelled them from obscurity on the strength of lead single “Ageless Beauty” and heard-it-on-The OC classic “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”, the latter being one of my favorite tracks of the year.
“Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” - Stars [highly recommended… as always]
“Ageless Beauty” - Stars
“Celebration Guns” - Stars
“Elevator Love Letter” - Stars
In an interesting turn of events, both Stars and Death Cab have released fantastic covers of The Smiths classic, “This Charming Man”. Death Cab decides to speed things up and gives us an uptempo interpetation of the song, while Stars opt to slow things down and transform it into a ballad of their own. Download both below, as well as the original Smiths version.
“This Charming Man” - Stars
“This Charming Man” - Death Cab [highly recommended]
“This Charming Man” - The Smiths
Death Cab, on the other hand, needs no introduction, especially since their 2004 signing to major-label Atlantic Records. Rather than post my favorite DCFC songs that everyone’s already heard and fallen in love with, I’m posting some more obscure gems and other Ben Gibbard-related material. Up first are these two gems from Death Cab’s early You Can Play These Songs With Chords, before Gibbard had perfected his voice and discovered that now-famous falsetto of his. “TV Trays” which was also featured as the b-side on the “Sound of Settling” single release, perfectly captures the feelings and emotions of the transitional period between late summer and fall/winter, and You Can Play… also features Death Cab wonderfully re-imagining The Smiths’ classic “This Charming Man” (available for download above).
“TV Trays” - Death Cab
I also am posting this awesome unreleased track from Death Cab, “This Temporary Life”, a b-side from the Transatlanticism sessions. The song was featured on the Barsuk-organized compilation, Future Soundtrack of America, a joint project between MoveOn.org and Music For America (purchase here). However, don’t take it’s b-side status as a statement about it’s quality, as it’s a great song that just didn’t flow well with the rest of the material on Transatlanticism.
“This Temporary Life” - Death Cab [highly recommended]
The final segment of this post is devoted to Ben Gibbard’s legendary solo material, accumulated from live shows and his self-titled solo album, which Gibbard released under the alias, All-Time Quarterback. Gibbard’s legendary solo live shows have yielded priceless material, and frequently include covers (some awe-inspiring, some hilarious) of his bands’ (Postal Service, Death Cab, ATQB) classics. Below you can download Ben’s top tracks from his All-Time Quarterback days, “Plans Get Complex” and “Dinner At Eight”, an original song, “You Remind Me of Home”, as well as his flawless collaboration with Belgian electro-pop master Styrofoam, “Couches In Alleys”, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. Covers are futher below.
“Plans Get Complex” - All-Time Quarterback
“Dinner At Eight in the Suburbs” - All-Time Quarterback
“You Remind Me of Home” - Ben Gibbard
“Couches In Alleys” - Styrofoam [highly highly recommended]
Finally, here are Gibbard’s legendary live covers. Gibbard offers incredible acoustic renditions of Dntel’s “This Is The Dream…” and Postal Service’s “Recycled Air”, as well as awesome covers of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Cindi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, and a hilarious version of Avril Lavigne’s 2000 chart-topper, “Complicated”. All of these are [highly recommended] and demand that you download them.
“(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan” - Ben Gibbard (Dntel)
“Recycled Air” - Ben Gibbard (Postal Service)
“Thriller” - Ben Gibbard (Michael Jackson)
“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” - Ben Gibbard (Cyndi Lauper)
“Complicated” - Ben Gibbard (Avril Lavigne)
Video: (coming on Saturday or Sunday, can’t post them right now)
“Ageless Beauty” - Stars
“Reunion” - Stars
“Plans Get Complex” - All-Time Quarterback (hi-res)
“Title and Registration” - Death Cab For Cutie (hi-res)
“Such Great Heights” - Postal Service
I need a nap now, but check back on Monday for a summary of the show and some unreleased Plans b-sides for download.