Death Cab For Cutie Ben Gibbard’s iPod Playlist

The indie pop quartet out of Bellingham, Washington with the unusual name, “Death Cab For Cutie”, has taken the rock world by storm in the past two years with heart-filled indie rock songs, thoughtful lyrics and creative musicianship. (photo, left: Photo by Autumn De Wilde)

DCFC (as they are known to many fans, or else just “Death Cab”)consists of singer, songwriter and guitarist Ben Gibbard, guitarist Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Michael Schorr.

The guys of Death Cab have been together for a decade, but their popularity reached international proportions only recently and rather quickly.

Prior to 2005, Death Cab released a number of CDs, LPs and EPs with moderate success, but it wasn’t until their 2005 Atlantic Records release “Plans” that the band’s name became recognizable to millions worldwide.

Even more recognition has come the band’s way via Ben Gibbard’s “side project” The Postal Service, which pumped out a big hit with “Such Great Heights” – a popular radio and online dance hit that was later covered by alt country rock outfit Iron & Wine, whose acoustic version of “Such Great Heights” brought them enormous attention and name recognition.

Let’s face it, “Such Great Heights,” both versions, is arguably one of the classic rock songs of the 21st century.

Curious to this indie rock fan and perhaps others is what happens when Ben Gibbard fans go to a Death Cab For Cutie concert and he doesn’t play “Such Great Heights”.

Gibbard is probably not stupid enough to fall for that every time; it can kill a singer/songwriter to be “type cast” in the music industry by one song or one sound.

For example, such a dilemma is threatening to “do in” Blue October with their worldwide hit “Hate Me”.

At this point, Blue October pretty much has to play “Hate Me” (trying not to) at every f**king concert or there will be a full-scale riot by hundreds, if not thousands, of screaming girls from pre-teens up to “full grown” adults.

There was a time when Pearl Jam couldn’t have a concert without playing “Even Flow”. In fact, it’s still like that. Most recent example: Lollapalooza 2007 (Aug. 3-5, Chicago). Eddie, you don’t “have to” do anything, remember?

In Gibbard’s case, his talent speaks for itself and it is unlikely that he, of all the songwriters out there, is to be pigeon-hold into one sound or song. So, with that in mind, what would you think Ben Gibbard has on his iPod?

Well, let Ben tell you what music he listens to; for starters, his tastes in music are surprisingly eclectic – from post modern minimalism (Brian Eno) and electronica pop (Letting Up Despite Great Faults) to country (Joe Tex) and R&B (Doris Duke).

Get DCFC and Postal Service MP3s and music videos at IndieRockSongs.com.