DC4C videos (this has been out a while, the news that is)

[obiwankobe]

Death Cab for Cutie Prep Plans Videos

Zach Vowell reports:
Looks like Plans, Death Cab for Cutie's lukewarm sixth album and major label debut, won't be going away any time soon. Last month, the disc was nominated for everybody's favorite punching bag, the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album (it's up against the Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, the White Stripes, and Beck). And over the holidays, Atlantic Records announced that the band will make a set of short films inspired by the songs on Plans available through their website early this month.

The project, entitled Directions, was spearheaded by the production company Otaku-House, run by filmmaker Aaron Stewart-Ahn and DCFC bassist Nick Harmer, apparently trying to catch up with bandmates Gibbard and Walla in the extracurricular department. Each clip was created by a different director, including video veterans Lance Bangs and P.R. Brown, graphic novelist Jeffrey Brown, Death Cab photographer Autumn de Wilde, and Rob Schrab, the man behind "Heat Vision and Jack" and Channel 101.

Fans of the band members' handsome faces will be disappointed to learn that Death Cab for Cutie do not actually appear in any of the films. Those of us who think that Harmer should wear a hat and hide in the back more often will not.

Directions tracklist:

01 "Marching Bands of Manhattan" directed by P.R. Brown
02 "Soul Meets Body" directed by Cat Solen
03 "Summer Skin" directed by Lightborne
04 "Different Names for the Same Thing" directed by Autumn de Wilde
05 "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" directed by Monkmus
06 "Your Heart Is an Empty Room" directed by Jeffrey Brown, animated by Eliza Kinkz
07 "Someday You Will Be Loved" directed by Ace Norton
08 "Crooked Teeth" directed by Rob Schrab
09 "What Sarah Said" directed by Laurent Briet
10 "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" directed by Chris Grismer
11 "Stable Song" directed by Aaron Stewart-Ahn
12 "Talking Like Turnstiles" directed by Lance Bangs

No word yet on whether Directions will be released as a DVD or some other tangible project in the future. Guess we'll just have to wait until Plans sells millions of copies and is reissued in a Limited Edition Deluxe Platinum Special Collector's Edition Gold Box Set.

In other Death Cab news, the band's New Year's Eve performance at the Giant Village festival in Los Angeles, alongside such strange bedfellows as the Black Eyed Peas, the Crystal Method, and John Digweed, was postponed due to weather concerns (insert Fergie pee joke here).

Those left out in the rain can console themselves by catching Death Cab on suddenly blog-worthy "Saturday Night Live" on January 14, with guest host Scarlett Johansson. (Hippest "SNL" pairing since Jack Black and the Strokes?) The weekend before, on January 8, Gibbard and Harmer will be interviewed by the New York Times' Jon Pareles in front of a live audience at the CUNY Graduate Center, as part of the Times' Arts & Leisure weekend. Sorry, Pareles fans, the event is already sold out.

Also sold out is Gibbard's January 10 solo performance at NYC's Bowery Ballroom, on a bill with American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny and Nada Surf's Matthew Caws. Frontman's Union Local 202 meets after the show, apparently.

And as previously reported, Death Cab for Cutie have a European tour scheduled for February and early March. Those dates again:

02-04 Malmo, Sweden - KB
02-05 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
02-06 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns
02-11 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
02-17 Vienna, Austria - Arena
02-19 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri-son
02-20 Zurich, Switzerland - Abart
02-21 Milan, Italy - Transilvania Live
02-23 Barcelona, Spain - Bikini
02-24 Madrid, Spain - Copernica
02-27 Paris, France - Trabendo
02-28 London, England - Astoria
03-01 London, England - Astoria
03-02 Nottingham, England - Rock City
03-03 Manchester, England - Academy
03-04 Glasgow, Scotland - Garage
03-05 Newcastle, England - Northumbria University Stage 2
03-06 Portsmouth, England - Wedgewood Rooms
03-07 Brussels, Belgium - AB Box
03-08 Amsterdam, Netherlands - The Melkweg

* Pitchfork Review: Death Cab for Cutie: Plans
* Pitchfork News: Death Cab for Cutie Announce European Tour
* Death Cab for Cutie: http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/
* Otaku-House: http://www.otaku-house.com/