A Complete Explanation Of Everything

Review: Death Cab for Cutie - Drive Well, Sleep Carefully DVD

I was always deeply suspicious of the band name. I had seen it mentioned here and there but Irish radio being what it is, and my deep hatred of said medium, meant I was never likely to hear that all of my preconceptions were utterly ill-founded.

It took being tossed a copy of The Postal Service's debut, "Give Up", which was so literally jaw dropping (well, on a couple of tracks at least) that I decided to investigate.

I have all of DCFC's records now, barring the first EP and am a firmly committed fan. That said, the following review will be impartial.

Basically, it opens with the boys livin' it up, trailer style. And reminiscing about days of yore, spent travelling the West coast of Yankee-land in vans, etc. Standard enough, you might say and so it is.

Between bemoaning the potential ills of signing with a major label and the curse of life on the road, contrasted admittedly with the associated highs the band readily profess to feeling, there's nothing extraordinary going on here to the naked eye.

But in the ear, the ear's the thing.

Gibbard's songwriting, complemented by the musicianship of the remaining four piece provokes a much more interesting live specimen than I would have thought possible. The songs are given a much more intense edge, probably best illustrated on a song like "Tiny Vessels", the simple direct approach from Cutie live seems to be to play the easy rockers.

Which given the understated nature of the majority of their material is kind of an intriguing choice. Or does it belie even further the deep rooted insecurity from which the majority of Gibbard's subject matter is garnered.

But rock they do. Many props to the rhythm section for this, bass player, Nick Harmer, turns out to be an animal player and could well do with getting someone to lift the bass mix up on the records. I'd always envisioned DCFC as much of a one or two man project and had ascribed the rather limp bass mix to this idea but clearly, there's more at issue here. Jason McGerr, provides the perfect mix of straight ahead and esoteric on the drums and Chris Walla, the lead guitarist, has an easy template to follow. Given the records are masterpieces for indie guitar parts.

Either way, we get great relaxing albums (although they are soaked in bitter regret) and a rockin' live band.

That's two for the price of one.

And that can't be a bad thing...