Death Cab For Cutie We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes Barsuk, 2000 amazon

My Death Cab For Cutie story is long and involved. It begins one Friday night somewhere around 1999, when i heard Live 105 DJ Aaron Axelson (another long story there) play "Pictures in an Exhibition". I liked the song, and bought their debut album Something About Airplanes shortly thereafter. However, i didn't give the rest of the album a chance and it soon faded from my listening rotation. Months later, my local indie guru Lance mentioned he was going to see DCFC play at Bottom of the Hill, and i tagged along. He was impressed that this was a band i knew of before he introduced me to them. The show was a revelation ... the band were tight, and the songs leapt out at me. Something About Airplanes went into heavy rotation on my walkman. My interest in the band swelled, devouring their early demo tapes and their sophomore 2000 effort We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes. The opener "Title Track" demonstrates frontman Ben Gibbard's resonant lyrical ability ("Talking how the group had begun to splinter, and i could taste your lipstick on the filter"), as well as his talent for marrying profound words to emotionally matched musical compositions. Unlike the equally brilliant but perhaps more straightforward rock of Something About Airplanes, We Have The Facts progresses through somber, quiet recollections ("The Employment Pages", "405", "Little Fury Bugs") and driving swells of bass and rhythm ("For What Reason", "Company Calls"). The album boasts a pair of climaxes. The first is the lost love epic "Company Calls Epilogue", casting a wedding day episode against a plodding jangly guitar riff ("when they lay down, the fish will swim upstream, and i'll contest but they won't listen, when the casualty rate's near 100%"), while the second occurs during the tidal wave buildup at the close of "Scientist Studies", a song that brought me to my knees (figuratively) when elaborated upon live. This album had me going to every Death Cab show in the Bay Area, witnessing a number of stellar Bottom of the Hill performances. Their between album release The Death Cab For Cutie Forbidden Love E.P. incorporated synthesizers into Gibbard and guitarist Chris Walla's songwriting, and gave every inclination that their third album would be another gem. However, 2001's The Photo Album struck a sour note for me. While the first single "A Movie Script Ending" (also the band's first video) remains among their best songs, the album as a whole didn't share the emotional power of the first two efforts. Worse, at this point the mainstream began to become aware of Death Cab, and i now had to share my secret love with every other loser who just saw them on MTV. The situation only worsened with 2003's Transatlanticism, a superior work to The Photo Album but again with only flashes of the brilliance of their first two records. I longed for the days when i would see them with a small crowd at Bottom of the Hill, as opposed to their current sell-out shows at much larger venues. I saw the video for the "405"-esque "Title and Registration" yesterday, and must say i don't begrudge Ben, Chris, and co. the success they've earned. Sadly i think they've passed me by, but i'll always think fondly of seeing them at Boston's Middle East covering the Eurythmics' "Here Comes The Rain Again".

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