Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf

I'm house sitting for my cousins' family while they're away over Spring Break (apparantly everyone I'm related to is out galavanting around the globe except for myself...) and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hole myself up in their house and do a lot of reading and homework and general nerdy-antic-participation in general. I found their computer though, so I guess that's a no-go because Myspace is feeding me music and I'm feeding myself coffee so I guess homework is out the window for the time being. Speaking of Myspace, I find it almost useless (I have a feeling they're kind of hating on Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg's sick commercial genius right now) except for the music network, which is GREAT because it means I don't have to track down band websites to find out if they have new music/albums/shows. So, because I don't talk about music too often, I'm going to take up some of your time (you're still reading? Props! I love you) to do so now.

I'm pretty awesome-excited because Death Cab for Cutie has a new album out on May 13, 2008 and apparantly they do some cool and different stuff on this album that they would never have thought of doing back in the late 1990's. DCFC is my long time favorite band (Nada Surf and Bloc Party are the other ultimate-can-do-no-wrong bands in my collection) and I feel justified spending large amounts of money on albums that I haven't even sampled because I know they're not going to fail me. I'm a very lyrics-based person and Ben Gibbard has written stuff that would put Bob Dylan to shame (I don't actually like Bob Dylan. He has a terrible voice, and while some of his lyrics are nice, on the whole I think there are many, many more talented lyricists out there who deserve some of the glory. Dylan is kind of a glory-hamster, always hoarding it away and enjoying it in the corner. I only alluded to him because I know a lot of people DO like him and I wanted to put Gibbard in perspective). I'm talking absolutely brilliant stuff here - 2003's Transatlanticism is the album that actually changed my life. I'm not going to give examples because I desperatly want you to check them out yourselves (links are at the bottom). I'm extremely bad at labelling bands and describing a band's sound in conventional terms, so please bear with me when I say that Death Cab is a band that swells with so much heart and love and nostalgia; they're full of starry nights and fireflies, of Polaroid-type memories, of false glamour and empty romance, of chai lattes and warm fires. So if you love the feeling any of those things brings you, get on the Death Cab train!

As I just mentioned, I'm also head over heels for Nada Surf. They, along with Death Cab, are on Barsuk Records (which is my favorite label because it's signed the kind of bands that can pull back your skin and bones and crawl into your organs and love you from the inside). They released a new album last month called Lucky, which I've heard a few songs from but haven't actually bought yet (I'm finally a 'poor college student'! I never thought I actually would be, but finding a loonie in my car brings me so much joy.. I'm saving my change for this album) and they are also playing at the Commodore on March 29th (I don't care how poor I am, somehow I will be there). They have a similar thing going next to Death Cab, but a different look and a different voice. Once again doing my strange music description thing, they kind of feel like driving fast on the highway, or skinny dipping on a warm summer night, or rolling down hills full of cool grass - actually, they're kind of the musical incarnation of what Kurt Halsey's art is all about (scroll down: I wrote about him a few weeks ago).


If you're into downloading (I'll admit, I do it, but only to sample bands - but I wont burn an album. Wouldn't you want to get paid for your work??), I reccommend these songs to get you going:

by Death Cab:

Marching Bands of Manhattan
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
The New Year
The Sound of Settling
We Laugh Indoors
Company Calls
Company Calls Epilogue
Champagne in a Paper Cup

by Nada Surf:

Do It Again
Always Love
Blizzard of '77
Blonde on Blonde
Là Pour Ça
Popular

Here are some links to check these babies out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_cab
http://www.myspace.com/deathcabforcutie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nada_surf
http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf
http://www.barsuk.com/