I will admit, I’m an instant gratification type of girl…I do one hour photo, microwave
popcorn, and I downloaded the new Death Cab for Cutie album early. Before anyone gets all uptight…don’t worry. I will buy it, more than one copy, actually. But I wanted to spend some quality time with my hometown boys and their new tunes and wanted to do it NOW .
Anyhow…the album has gotten some great reviews from the music press and as I fan, I fully expected to enjoy the album. What I really didn’t expect was to be so moved, so influenced by it.

I have a 45 minute commute to work and back. This is MY time, and I usually spend it absorbing my latest music love, replaying the songs that catch my ear over and over and over. This was my time to meditate with Ben Gibbard’s lyrics and over the past 10 days or so my favorite songs have shifted, my interpretation of the songs was enhanced, my love for this album cemented. I’m didn’t want to go song by song, but I just couldn’t help it. So stop reading now if you don’t want to hear what I think, at least briefly. But each song demanded its own moment, good or bad.

(I also sprinkled a couple of photos I took at their show last April, lauching their current tour...I couldn't help it. Words need pictures.)

The first song on the album is the one that speaks the clearest to me. Bixby Canyon Bridge chronicles Ben’s attempt to channel Jack Kerouac’s spirit, looking for insight into his future, while those around him settle down. He seems to fear that he’s “missing a dream” and the music soars into a reverb heavy, almost shoe-gazey sound before Ben returns to his car, “no closer to any kind of truth, as I must assume was the case with you”. A song that can cause middle-aged angst in the most confident of people…and I’m not sure you even have to be middle-aged to feel it.

Chances are you’ve all heard the 5 minute menacing bass line of the stalker anthem, I Will Possess Your Heart (love it! Creepiness at it’s best!) and No Sunlight has Ben’s inner optimist dying, set to a happy poppy back beat. Too good.

The 4th tune seems (to me, at least) to return to the subject of the song Company Calls Epilogue (from the album We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes), a loved woman, marrying the wrong man. But the pain in that song seems dulled and the revisit to the wedding is more a view of pity than sorrow. It’s like its 10 years later and the lyrics are from a more mature perspective. Still sad, just not so full of anguish and loss.

Talking Bird is my least favored song on the CD. Maybe it’s too analogous for me…I mean, I like a metaphor as much as the next person but, come on. Maybe I just find it offensive that the singer seems to have such little respect for his little pet “talking bird” and you just feel he thinks she’s stupid to stick around, that he’s just daring her to fly.

You Can Do Better than Me, coming in at just under 2 minutes is short but anything but sweet and is a brutal song. The final line says it all: There’s times I think of leaving, but it’s something I’ll never do/ Cause you can do better than me, but I can’t do better than you” Ouch.

Grapevine Fires is perhaps the best song on the CD, although not my personal fave. It is also the only song with hope for the future, with a positive thread woven through the dark beauty of fire, graves and prayers. Lovely visual lyrics that show Ben Gibbard at his best, IMO .

Twin Sized Bed is sad sad sad. “You look so defeated lying there in your new twin sized bed, your single pillow underneath your single head.” The melody here is a standout, with haunting guitar hooks that my 8 year old daughter really digs; she wants to bring this song to her guitar lessons as one of the next songs to learn. I’m not quite sure what her teacher will think of the lyrics, but, oh well.

Long Division is rapidly becoming one of my favorites on this album, although it did take several listenings for it to do so. About a relationship that just isn’t working, that keeps having to carry the remainder in a long division equation that never comes out with an even solution. This is the good use of analogy. I mean, long division is hard and we all had to work hard at it. Love the song as much as I hated math in school.

Pity and Fear…seems to be the same fellow from Tiny Vessels; feeling bad for not feeling worse when he uses a lover but doesn’t love them, an emotional void where affection and regret should be.

And the last song: The Ice is Getting Thinner. Maybe because it’s so slow tempo’d, maybe because it hasn’t gotten the playtime the rest of the album has because of it’s bringing up the rear, but although the words are melancholy magic, the song leaves me tired…so I start all over with Bixby. Heh.

So, there’s the album recap, from my ears to your eyes, for what it’s worth. You listen and you may get a whole different take. You should try it. Bet you’ll like it.

The critics kept saying that this is a make or break album; that fans of 2005’s Plans might not like Narrow Stairs. And they might not. I don’t know if the younger fans will really get the uncertainty the songs display. These songs aren’t about college parties, or being afraid of making your move on the girl of your dreams, or making drunken phone calls trying to win back your lost love. These songs are about whether you’re making a mistake not taking the road most traveled, about settling for a relationship that isn’t mind blowing, but is merely comfortable, about being a loser in the game of love. I’m not sure I’m ready to face these things and I’m probably twice the age of the average Death Cab fan. However, another MOGGER told me he thinks this is the album Death Cab was meant to write and record, the album hinted at with Tiny Vessels and We Looked Like Giants and I think that is perfectly put. I don’t think they have reached their ultimate potential, but have climbed another rung on the ladder toward it.

The only thing about this album that bothers me is probably the greatest compliment I can give it; the music is powerful enough to taint your emotions with a generalized sense of discontent and disillusionment. It’s made me look at my life and wonder is this all there is ? which is CRAZY because I have a FABULOUS life, with a great husband, kids, job, friends…but then I KNOW my husband can do better than me, but I can’t do better than him…??would?? I leave if I had better prospects? Probably not but…

Damn you, Ben Gibbard.

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Last year, at Lollapalooza I was faced with the age old festival dilemma; 2 bands overlapped, both good, both "must see's" at least in your book. Modest Mouse on one side of Grant Park, My Morning Jacket on the other.

I went with Modest Mouse. I knew their music better and besides, they were from Issaquah, WA, a town only 10 miles from my house. MMJ I only knew of, although I had heard they were a good show.

I wasn't unhappy with my choice even when the others in our group who did see MMJ gushed over the amazing set; Modest Mouse was awesome too, dammit!

However, when I saw MMJ on the Coachella bill, I knew I wasn't going to miss them this time. I figured I might leave a little early, to catch one of my new musical loves, Sons and Daughters but I was going to see some of the set.

I was alone waiting...Jaye had run to the restrooms and I noticed the crowd thinning...so what do you do? You move up, way up. So that you are only about 10 people from the front. And you text EVERYONE to join you. So it happened that Blair, Lizzie, Henry, Jaye, Kate (I think?) and I had a nice vantage point for what would soon be blowing me away.

It only took me seconds to realize that MMJ was a cut above. Lead singer, Jim Jones just attacks the guitar and covers the whole stage.

He has energy to spare and expends it fully, jumping, kicking, bending and just rocking it.

Lizzie was having a good time too.

She and I fell hard for the guitarist...he has possibly the best rock star hair at Coachella and was rather pretty.

and

and

and when he rocked the 12-string...sigh. Sorry Lizzie-girl. He's mine.

Needless to say, I didn't make Son's and Daughters. You don't leave a sure thing, you don't leave amazing, you just don't. Blair kept poking me in the shoulder; "you see...they are fantastic" was what those pushes meant. He was right.

Someone told me that MMJ wasn't their kind of band, that they were just too jam-bandy. I think that's a large part of their charm. You get the feeling you are seeing something unique that won't be the same next time they play the song. Besides, how can you not love a band that can pull off this foot wear?

And for the record...I'm rethinking that Modest Mouse/MMJ choice. But Modest Mouse still gave a great show.

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