(3113) Death Cab for Cutie / My Morning Jacket

From the ACL Taping Program on November 6, 2005:

From indie-pop fan favorite to a headlining gig on The O.C., Death Cab for Cutie has come a long way since they began recording songs in the late ’90s. The Washington-based group, led by Ben Gibbard, has long been a critical favorite for their infectious melodies and moody lyrics.

Death Cab broke through to a bigger audience with their fourth CD, Transatlanticism. This lush, experimental and emotional release landed the band on many critics “best of the year” lists. Spin wrote the band had “never made the truly great album that their best songs promised. Until now.” And two years after its release Rolling Stone wrote that “That disc still sounds so great, it's a little scary.”

With such a critically-acclaimed release the band could have come up short on their follow-up but drummer Jason McGerr said “If Transatlanticism was an inhale, Plans is the exhale.” The band’s fifth CD, Plans, deals with struggles of maturing for a release that the Alternative Press said “seamlessly picks up right where 2003's Transatlanticism left off.”

“All of us in the band are starting to turn a corner and realize our youth is basically over,” said Ben Gibbard. “That’s not a bad thing; it’s just that the feeling of invincibility begins to fall by the wayside. ... I’m becoming an adult. And for me, that means being aware of the slow process of losing people in your life.”

Link to Death Cab for Cutie's artist page.

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From the ACL Taping Program on November 20, 2005:

Over the last six years, My Morning Jacket have taken exotic soundscapes and unironic guitar rock and combined them for a unique sound that has won the band an ever growing group of fans. Many of those fans are also music critics.  Rolling Stone recently wrote My Morning Jacket “just released one of the year’s best rock albums — and are challenging Wilco’s title as America's most innovative rock act.”

With each of their releases — 1999’s The Tennessee Fire, 2001’s At Dawn and 2003’s It Still Moves — My Morning Jacket embarks on sonic exploration. Their new release, Z, features an evolved sound that incorporates MMJ signature elements including singer Jim James’ immaculate voice.

Mojo wrote “With this album, MMJ have transcended compartmentalisation. ... With Z, five guys from Kentucky have revived big music’s pulse and given true believers a reason to smile again.”

Although a slight departure from their past releases, Z continues in the band’s main musical goals. “I’ve always wanted the music — the rhythms, the strings, the guitar solos, everything — to be just as important as the words,” James said. “I’ve never wanted on thing to be the most important ingredient. I like to think of the band as something that’s not really about any one person or any one thing. It’s just this weird cloud that is all-encompassing in terms of what we all do to it.”

Link to My Morning Jacket's artist page.

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