When the names of the artists involved in the New Moon Soundtrack started to filter out over a month ago, it was obvious that Alexandra Patsavas, the music supervisor for the film, was trying to attract an entirely new audience than the one that is so feverishly dedicated to Stephanie Meyer’s books. I find it fascinating to think about a 13 year old girl getting introduced to the majesty of Bon Iver, the haunting melodies of Grizzly Bear, or even the utter brilliance of Thom Yorke through their contributions to this soundtrack. However, it’s ultimately a shame that a majority of the songs chosen for the album don’t necessarily reflect these stellar artist’s best work. A lot of these tracks sound like castoffs that didn’t quite make the cut on far superior records, a veritable B-squad of songs from A-list artists, if you will. And while I certainly hope that the 13 year old girl hearing Lykke Li for the first time goes beyond this soundtrack and explores her wonderful debut album, I know that for some young listeners their experimental musical journey will begin and end with this soundtrack, and that would certainly be a shame.

Not that there aren’t flashes of prowess found on New Moon, like the fuzzed-out, retro catchiness of ‘Friends’ by Southhampton’s Band Of Skulls, which shakes the record up a bit after the flat, somber wistfulness of Death Cab For Cutie‘s ‘Meet Me On The Equinox.’ Thom Yorke’s much hyped contribution sounds pretty much like I thought it would, exploring the same quivering electronica that was featured on The Eraser. But even a substandard Yorke song soars above most of the other contributions to New Moon. Lykke Li’s ‘Possibility’ eventually becomes a moving song, but just takes far too long to get there, losing my interest along the way. The Killers ‘A White Demon Love Song,’ is a musical mess, seemingly trying to be three or four different songs all at once over the course of it’s three and a half minutes, but never coalescing into anything memorable.

Anya Marina‘s ‘Satellite Heart’ is pleasant enough, but the focus is placed squarely on her rather sophomoric lyrics and puerile rhyme schemes, with a spare musical arrangement layered too far underneath her vocals to save the song. The lively histrionics of Muse‘s ‘I Belong To You’ is given the New Moon Remix treatment, essentially turning Matt Bellamy’s guitars up a bit and toning down the jaunty piano line that is threaded throughout the song, while also completely doing away with the two minute French-ified coda found on the original. Only die hard fans will find much of a difference between the two versions, and I truly feel for any Muse completest buying this album specifically for their contribution. Bon Iver & St. Vincent team up for the doleful ‘Roslyn,’ which sounded a bit better on paper than it actually does on record, with the song floating along forlornly, but in the end being unable to achieve the emotional impact of either artist’s other work. The same is true of ‘Slow Life,’ by Grizzly Bear (featuring Victoria Legrand), which hints at the grandeur found on the sublime Veckatimest, but never quite reaches those heights.

And that is essentially where New Moon fails most; for while collecting these venerable artists together on a soundtrack sounds like it can’t fail, there ultimately isn’t any real consistency to these contributions, and the album has a disconnected sound to it, like a mix-tape gone off the rails. And while these songs have a built in appeal simply because of the bands that are involved, none of the contributions truly reflect the unique skills of these artists. So, for those of us who have their actual albums, we’ll simply go listen to those instead. But for those that are getting introduced to these talented artists for the first time by this soundtrack, here’s to hoping that they dig a little bit deeper than this and discover the true beauty found in the songs that got all of us interested in the first place.

Rejoice! Death Cab For Cutie are back and what’s more, they’re back with a single that’s way stronger than anything on last years dissapointing Narrow Stairs. Due to demand, the release date for the single, the very UN-Death Cab titled ‘Meet Me In The Equinox’ is now being released this Monday (12th October via Atlantic). The song is lifted from the new Twilight movie which has arguably the best lineup in soundtrack history: a Bon Iver and St. Vincent duet, Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, Band Of Skulls and my future wife Lykke Li.

The full tracklisting for the Soundtrack is thus:

1. Death Cab for Cutie – Meet Me On the Equinox
2. Band of Skulls – Friends
3. Thom Yorke – Hearing Damage
4. Lykke Li – Possibility
5. The Killers – A White Demon Love Song
6. Anya Marina – Satellite Heart
7. Muse- I Belong To You (New Moon Remix)
8. Bon Iver & St. Vincent- Rosyln
9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Done All Wrong
10. Hurricane Bells – Monsters
11. Sea Wolf- The Violet Hour
12. OK GO – Shooting the Moon
13. Grizzly Bear – Slow Life
14. Editors – No Sound But the Wind
15. Alexandre Desplat – New Moon (The Meadow)

It isn’t called selling out anymore. It’s called ‘Licensing’. Today’s musical climate has taken the excitement and joy out of release date fever. Today’s youth can download, legally or otherwise, what they want, when they want it. The radio is playing things safe. It is the era of the Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. Ticket prices are soaring (it’s the only way the band can make money if you download kids…..you have been warned). In these conditions, TV can be the way to go for many bands- the only way to guarantee exposure and ultimately form a career in an increasingly stale market. Earlier this month Bloc Party suggested, with tongue only slightly in cheek, that they might release a whole album as a series of adverts. Just a few years ago bands would have been called out for choosing this career path. Now its just an accepted part of life for the immaculately dressed box-fresh youth that cram into Brixton Academy for the show tonight. As Orange County lies smoldering thousands of miles away a wave of sensitive youths have descended on South London. The show was moved down from Alexandra Palace-perhaps an indication that Death Cab For Cutie don’t hold quite such a hold on this nations youth as they do in the US.

The nights jollity begins with TLOBF endorsed Scots Frightened Rabbit. Over the past two years I have had a number of encounters with the band and have to admit that they have never really done that much for me. While nothing they did tonight changed that, for the first time I ‘got it’. In the cavernous Brixton Academy Frightened Rabbit’s blend of soaring tonsils, stadium bothering delay and huge drumming seemed to fit. When they get it right, their sound recalls a more rough around the edges take on the epic melodic pop that has become synonymous in my mind with Loney Dear. However, the epic pop sound can frequently go wrong and all too often the balance tips against Frightened Rabbit, and they plunge headlong into the predictable bland territory in which Snow Patrol seem to permanently reside. With such a big sound and a string of support slots at big venues (next up a tour with fellow Scots Biffy Clyro), their confidence is clearly high as they attempt to lead the crowd in a hands-above-the-head clap-a-long. The attempt falls rather flat, and isn’t the only thing which can be accused of being flat in their set. All too often the vocal harmonies they try to create fall woefully short of the mark. If they can sort this out, however, it doesn’t seem to much of a stretch to imagine Frightened Rabbit gracing stages of this size in their own right in the not to distant future. Plus, I can’t help but wish them well after the drummer thanks the audience at the end of the set before telling them all to ‘drink Stella’. Carling Brixton Academy indeed.

When the lights go down again there is a tension hanging in the air. This is it. This is our sensitive youth. The ‘No Logo’ generation. A generation that has seen it’s own subcultures bought off them, repackaged and sold back to them in a more sanitised form at a profit without batting an eyelid. Generation Why? The iGeneration. The O.C. generation. Death Cab For Cutie are their leaders. With a working knowledge of their covers, a smattering of their material on my ipod and a genuine love of one of their side projects I wasn’t quite prepared for the sheer adulation on show as soon as the band hit the stage. This is hero worship of the highest order. Teen screams greet the end of every song and the opening bars of the next. Couples embrace. Someone beside me sheds a tear of disbelief that they managed to get ‘so close’. However it isn’t until ‘The New Year’ that the band really hit their stride, the crowd singing a long at the top of their lungs. The headlong charge of ‘We Laugh Indoors’ is punk rock without the bad attitude- sanitised and melodic. The kind of thing you could take home to your mother (providing that she isn’t a Minor Threat fan or anything, in which case she would probably criticise it for lacking a certain edge.)

Without doubt Death Cab For Cutie do what they do very well indeed. And what they do is college rock writ large; jangly, emotive pop rock with Ben Gibbard’s slightly nasal vocal. They are the latest in the long line of bands with a similar sound; They Might Be Giants without the novelty songs, or Fountains of Wayne prior to their involvement with gross-out comedy. During a lull in the set I overhear a conversation that sums up the evening well. One girl says ‘I sort of feel like I recognise them all’. After a while the songs do rather merge into one, long pleasant noise. While it is hard to fault the performance, it is equally hard to get excited by it.

The night’s one true highlight comes as the rest of the band take a seat leaving frontman Gibbard alone with his acoustic guitar, bathed in light, picking gently through the beautiful ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark.’ It’s a genuine ‘moment’, though sadly it seems we no longer know how to experience such things. As soon as the opening notes ring out hands rush to pockets and mobile phones, and cameras are held aloft, with the result being that the audience is effectively watching the show through a hundred tiny screens. In our rush to document and share our every move with others, it seems the iGeneration has forgotten how to actually experience things.

Frightened Rabbit will support Death Cab For Cutie on their Autumn UK tourdates. It seems as though Death Cab are quite taken with the Rabbit – In the latest issue of Rock Sound Magazine, bass player Nick Harmer called The Midnight Organ Fight his album of the year, stating: “It’s lyrically perfect with words that hit you right in the heart. And coupled with the singer’s (Scott Hutchinson) vocals, the whole thing just kills me.” He ‘aint wrong. We loved it too.

Those tour dates in full:

November
12 – St. Georges Market, Belfast
13 – Ambassador Theatre, Dublin
14 – Corn Exchange, Edinburgh
15 – Rock City, Nottingham
16 – Colston Hall, Bristol
17 – Carling Academy, Sheffield
19 – Alexandra Palace, London

Death Cab For Cutie have announced yet another tour of the UK in support of their latest release Narrow Stairs. The band have already been over here twice this year, most recently with a tour that included dates at London’s KOKO and Brixton Academy venue, plus an appearence at the Latitude festival. The tour will coincide with the release of the third single from Narrow Stairs; ‘No Sunlight’ – probably my least favourite track from the album. Why they don’t release ‘Long Division’ is beyond me – totally the best song on the album.

November
Wed 12 BELFAST St Georges Market
Thurs 13 DUBLIN Ambassador
Fri 14 EDINBURGH Corn Exchange
Sat 15 NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Sun 16 BRISTOL Colston Hall
Mon 17 SHEFFIELD Academy
Wed 19 LONDON Alexandra Palace

Get tickets here:
24 hour credit card hotline: 0871 2200 260
www.gigsandtours.com

Be quick though! They’re gonna sell out real fast I reckon…

Photographs by Valerio Berdini

Back in May, a few of my friends went to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Electric Ballroom. Anyone listening to them bang on about it upon their return could be forgiven for thinking that they had actually gone to see Jesus or Batman or something.

The incessant fawning and the constant reminders of how I “so should’ve gone, seriously” finally got the better of me. When a date was announced for the 14th  of July at Koko I wrote myself a reminder on my calendar – ‘go to death cab’.

Predictably, by the time this show had worked it’s way around I was really looking forward to it. This was to be my first Death Cab for Cutie gig and I was fully prepared to be blow away. I wasn’t.

This isn’t necessarily Death Cab’s fault. They played an interesting and varied set, nobody could accuse them of neglecting their back-catalogue ‘New Year’ and ‘Crooked Teeth’  were particular highlights, while the new material seems to make perfect sense live, representing encouraging development for an already seasoned band. ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ is also a great live experience.

What fell short then? Well pretty much everything else, unfortunately. The venue was absolutely packed, with a fairly significant element of semi-interested, casual observers who were happy to have a chat and a pint. The sound was pretty woeful, the band sounded distinctly as though they were playing in the next room. The atmosphere was sapped as a result, Death Cab had an uphill struggle to engage the audience, even without the technical difficulties that plagued them. Most frustrating.

None of this, however, seemed to be able to cloud the performances of ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’ and ‘Transatlanticism’ the former inspiring one of those rare moments when it’s actually okay for the audience to sing along, the latter reminding just exactly why it remains such a seminal anthem.

I was pretty disappointed with the way things turned for this show, if anything it’s really inspired a need in me to go and see Death Cab for Cutie again – which leaves me back at square one, really.

Last minute gigs are always the best aren’t they? Especially when the gig in question sold out in like 10 seconds or something and is Death Cab For Cutie’s only UK show until July. Whilst on my daily jaunt to Tesco yesterday lunch time I received a text message from a friend of mine. “Yo. U are on tha list for dcfc tonite if u want”. Hmmmmm… let me think about that for a second. I’m 120 miles away from London and it’s going to cost me about 35 quid to get there….And, I’m totally skint. Sod it. It’s Death Cab! Get in. I love DCFC quite a bit see. This very site is named after one of their tracks don’t you know, so turning down the chance to see them at such an intimate venue as Camden’s Electric Ballroom would be rather silly of me wouldn’t it?

Arriving at London two hours before show time, I popped into The Cock on Great Portland Street for a catch up with an old friend. I feel I should mention this particular detail purely for the fact that its the cheapest pub I’ve ever been in. Seriously – £1.70 for a pint of lager. Now that, my friends, is a bargain.

Anyway, back to business. The Electric Ballroom was heaving by the time I made it to the venue. Full of the usual suspects you’re likely to see at a Death Cab gig. Seth Cohen look-a-likes (he’s from The OC btw, just in case you’re over the age of 26) and people who look like Goths but with indie haircuts and slightly better fashion sense. I think they’re called Emos. I squeezed down the front to catch the last couple of songs from Clearlake. I’ve never liked them so didn’t pay much attention to them. Standard indie rock fayre. Rather forgettable.

Death Cab arrive on stage at 9 on the dot. Blasting out a polished and faithful version of ‘Bixby Canyon Bridge’ from the new album Narrow Stairs – the band are as tight as a mouses ear and Ben Gibbard is in fine, fine voice and looking rather fetching in his trademark chequered shirt. ‘The New Year’ is next – and again, totally faithful to the album version. Which, it has to be said, is my only gripe with the live DCFC. They are so polished, and so tight that if you close your eyes – you could just be sitting at home listening to the album. When I see a band, I like to see some spontaneity, some rawness – which Death Cab lack slightly on the live front.

Luckily though, they made up for it with a sterling and filler-less greatest hits set. ‘A Movie Script Ending’ was beautiful, ‘Soul Meets Body’ was greeted by the audience with rapture and a rather moving reading of ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’. Which even had that Get Cape Wear Cape Fly fella singing along at the bar. Bless him. You just want to run up to him and squeeze his cheeks don’t you? No? Oh ok, just me then.

Around six songs were showcased from the new record. Unsurprisingly, it was current single ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ which was greeted with the biggest cheer. It sounded great too, especially with Nick Harmer’s brooding bass line taking centre stage. Certainly a highlight of the evening. ‘Long Division’ rocked even harder than it does on record, a future hit single in the making for sure. The albums most average moment ‘Talking Bird’ didn’t fair any better in a live setting though.

Of course, a DCFC gig wouldnt be a DCFC gig without the classic set closer (and my personal favourite) ‘Transatlantiscm’. “I need you so much closer “, such a simple lyric but one that never fails to make the hairs down the back of my neck stand to attention. Even thinking about it now, I can feel my bottom lip quivering.

Death Cab For Cutie release Narrow Stairs on May 12th via Atlantic, with a full UK tour and an appearance at the Latitude festival in July.

[Download Narrow Stairs]

Heres an audience recording from last years Bonnaroo festival. Its pretty good quality considering – certainly worth a download.

Death Cab For Cutie – Live Bonnaroo Festival 16/06/06
Tracklisting:
01. Passenger Seat
02. Different Names for the Same Thing
03. The New Year
04. We Laugh Indoors
05. Title And Registration
06. Soul Meets Body
07. Lowell, Ma
08. Crooked Teeth
09. Your Heart Is an Empty Room
10. A Movie Script Ending
11. Company Calls
12. What Sarah Said
13. I Will Follow You Into the Dark
14. We Looked Like Giants
15. The Sound of Settling
16. Transatlanticism

[download]