Death Cab confessions

>>Washington’s Death Cab for Cutie come clean

FARE PLAY: Death Cab for Cutie

By ERIK LEIJON

Washington-based indie pop-rockers Death Cab for Cutie might be able to empathize with former White House press secretary Scott McClellan—who recently penned a scathing memoir about his time serving under President George W. Bush, saving his misgivings about the Iraq war, CIA leaks and the response to Katrina until after leaving his post. Death Cab’s previous album, Plans, was their first for major label Atlantic Records, a transition drummer Jason McGerr says the group didn’t acknowledge as being stressful until they started working on their 2008 follow-up, Narrow Stairs.

“We weren’t even aware of what was going on because we were working so hard,” says McGerr, a longtime friend of the group who officially joined the line-up in 2003. “We maybe didn’t have as much fun in the process because everything was so surgical, everything had to be right. At the time, we didn’t even acknowledge that [signing with Atlantic] was a big deal. They let us do our thing, but there’s a lot more work to do when you open up the doors to the world.”

Plans was described by the group at the time of release as having been constructed bit by bit, whereas the looser Narrow Stairs finally fulfils the typically restrained pop-rock quartet’s desire to write a Can record. Truthfully, the group still sticks to their pop sensibilities, although the epic eight-and-a-half minute single “I Will Possess Your Heart” is as close to experimental krautrock as the former O.C. darlings will ever get. “It’s that progressive rock approach to constructing a song, it has a long build-up,” says McGerr. “It’s an entire performance from start to finish, with a natural evolution to it.”

If Scott McClellan taking his supposed guilt-ridden conscience to Keith Olbermann’s show is a reaction to years of the Bush administration’s perceived hostility towards the liberal media, then Narrow Stairs is Death Cab’s similar riposte to the immaculately built Plans. After having toured for two years in the wake of Plans, the group wanted the follow-up to reflect the organic feel of their live setting.

“Narrow Stairs wasn’t like Plans at all,” says McGerr. “This was four guys in a room rocking out and hitting the record button. You spend two or three months recording, then nine months out of the year, it’s four guys on stage sweating it out, playing live. As a musician, your natural tendencies are to perform, making music with individuals in a room. No one in the band wanted to sit in the studio reading a book while I played drums alone for six hours.”

For a band with a fanbase as protective as Death Cab for Cutie’s, the group was keenly aware that any sudden shifts in style could send the bandwagon toppling over. Known for Ben Gibbard’s literate songwriting and soft vocals, as well as guitarist/producer Chris Walla’s attentiveness in the studio, many fans could find the more laissez-faire and darker Death Cab worthy of the explosive adjectives currently being used by flummoxed music critics. McGerr believes Narrow Stairs represents a more gradual trajectory for the band, as pieces of the adventurous new record will remind listeners of their previous six LPs.

“Even when bands try to do something off the charts, like record underwater or isolate themselves for eight months straight—even when there’s an extreme approach to recording, the band usually still sounds like the band.”

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on June 6, 7 p.m., 35$, rain or shine, all ages