News

New England garage punk trio Perennial are back to announce a new EP, Perennial ‘65, out April 4th. They’ve also shared the EP’s title track.

Perennial ‘65 finds the band expanding on the ’60s-inspired “mod-punk” sound captured on their 2024 album, Art History. The EP is comprised of a cover of The Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night,” originals “C is for Cubism” and the newly-revealed title track, and two remixes of tracks from Art History: a rework of “Tiger Technique” courtesy of The Blood Brothers’ Cody Votolato, and a remix of “Up-Tight” from ex-Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and producer Chris Walla.

“Perennial ’65” is as catchy and rambunctious as anything on Art History, and serves as a great crash course into the band’s mix of classic pop and explosive punk. The incessant tambourine hits and old-school organ playing bring an air of nostalgia, but the dueling...

Charles R. Cross, the New York Times bestselling author who wrote Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain and Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, died on Friday of natural causes, his family confirmed. He was 67.

“We are sorry to share that Charles Cross has passed. He died peacefully of natural causes in his sleep on August 9th, 2024,” the statement from his family reads. “We are all grief-stricken and trying to get through this difficult process of dealing with the next steps.”

Cross’ agent, Sarah Lazin...

News of Steve Albini’s unexpected passing on Wednesday, May 8th, has been met with an outpouring of tributes from fellow musicians, including those who had worked with him.

Cloud Nothings worked with Albini on their 2012 magnum opus, Attack on Memory. “steve touched countless lives and changed mine and many others for the better,” frontman Dylan Baldi wrote on Twitter. “a genuine, singular, principled person. spent the last 40 years helping people make art. there’s no reason for him to be gone and the world is less interesting without him. just a really sad day.”

Pj Harvey said working with Albini on 1992’s Dry “changed the course of my life. He taught me so much about music, and life. Steve was a great friend – wise, kind and generous. I am so grateful.”

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker collaborated with Albini on his 2009 solo album, Further Complications. “Working with Steve Albini was...

Ratboys made their much-deserved national TV debut over the weekend on CBS Saturday Sessions, where the Chicago indie rockers performed their songs “The Window,” “Morning Zoo,” and “It’s Alive.”

All three songs come from Ratboys’ recent album The Window, which we just crowned one of the best albums of 2023. Their performance backs up that claim, with vocalist Julia Steiner sounding just as pristine in CBS’ live studio as she does on tape.

Watch Ratboys perform “The Window,” “Morning Zoo,” and “It’s Alive” below.

Steiner also recently chatted with Consequence‘s Kyle Meredith for an episode of the Kyle Meredith With… podcast, where she discussed The Window and working with producer Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie.

Ratboys Make Their TV Debut on CBS Saturday Sessions: Watch

Abby Jones...

Ratboys are back with a new album called The Window. The group’s latest LP arrives August 25th via Topshelf Records, and along with the news, they’ve shared a new run of North American tour dates and the lead single “It’s Alive!”

The Window marks the first time Ratboys bassist Sean Neumann and drummer Marcus Nuccio collaborated with guitarists Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan. Teaming with Seattle producer Chris Walla, the band spent two years working out the album’s 11 songs, with notes from Walla, before putting them to tape in 2022.

“The language Chris uses when speaking about music comes from a very emotionally centered place, and that’s something that resonated with us. He would say things like, ‘This cymbal hurts my feelings,’ or ‘This song is like a cat,’” Nuccio recalled in a statement. According to Neumann, “It was such a disarming thing. We didn’t get bogged down in technical terms,...

After making it through the rough time that surrounded Death Cab for Cutie’s last record, Kintsugi – made after frontman Ben Gibbard’s divorce and just before the departure of founding member Chris Walla – the band sounds rejuvenated on Thank You for Today. They’ve added two new members, guitarist Dave Depper and keyboardist Zac Rae, to their lineup and they allowed themselves to take some risks like indulging pop production techniques on the record, which they made with Kintsugi producer Rich Costey.

Right from the start on lead track,...

Death Cab for Cutie released a dreamy new song, “Autumn Love,” from their upcoming album Thank You for Today, out August 17th.

The track is built on layers of guitar: a strummed acoustic, ringing electric leads and Nick Harmer’s high-octave bass. Frontman Ben Gibbard taps into a trademark melancholy, singing, “No more lighthouses to deceive me/ Just leave me floating on the open ocean and let the moonlight take me anywhere.”

The Rich Costey-produced Thank You For Today, the band’s ninth LP, follows 2015’s Kintsugi. Band members Dave Depper and Zac Rae,...

The post-apocalyptic Go North is the narrative debut of Emmy-nominated documentarian Matt Ogens (Meet the Hitlers) and was Executive Produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me, Rats).

Its haunting, evocative score was composed by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla.

Synopsis:

In the aftermath of an unknown catastrophe, a community left with zero living adults has descended into a modern-day Lord of the Flies, run by a small cabal of what had been the jocks occupying the athletic and social upper crust of the local high school, headed by Caleb (Patrick Schwarzenegger).

Faced with the bleak despair of their situation, Josh (Jacob Lofland) and Jessie (Sophie Kennedy Clark) strike out on a dangerous journey into the unknown to find family and hope for the f [Continued ...]...

Gunpowder & Sky Distribution have released the theatrical poster and trailer to the post-apocalyptic coming-of-age tale Go North, which hits select Us cinemas and VOD on January 13th 2017.

In the aftermath of an unknown catastrophe, a community left with zero living adults has descended into a modern-day Lord of the Flies, run by a small cabal of what had been the jocks occupying the athletic and social upper crust of the local high school, headed by Caleb (Patrick Schwarzenegger). Faced with the bleak despair of their situation, Josh (Jacob Lofland) and Jessie (Sophie Kennedy Clark) strike out on a dangerous journey into the unknown to find family and hope for the future, with Caleb and his vicious underling Gentry (James Bloor) in hot pursuit.

Go North is the narrative debut of Emmy-nominated documentarian Matt Ogens (Meet the Hitlers) and was Executive Produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me, Rats). The film features a haunting,...

Death Cab for Cutie brought the rumbling grooves of Kintsugi's "No Room in Frame" to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Monday.

The group moved effortlessly through the slow burning cut off their 2015 album. The song's keyboard flourishes frame Ben Gibbard's heartfelt vocals. "No Room in Frame" builds on the dreamy, cinematic twang of Gibbard's guitar. 

Death Cab for Cutie released Kintsugi last year, marking their eighth LP and last with founding guitarist Chris Walla, who announced his departure from the group during recording. Death Cab has a handful...

War Machine

Will Poulter ("We're the Millers," "The Maze Runner") has joined the cast of David Michod's Netflix black comedy feature "War Machine" alongside Brad Pitt, Topher Grace, Scoot McNairy, Emory Cohen, John Magaro and Anthony Michael Hall.

Pitt plays a four-star general whose track record lands him the commanding job in the American conflict in Afghanistan. Filming begins this Fall and Netflix will open the film in select cinemas next year along with streaming it on its online service. [Source: Variety]

The Comedian's Guide To Survival

James Buckley ("The Inbetweeners") has scored a role in Mark Murphy's "The Comedian's Guide To Survival" alongside Paul Kaye, MyAnna Buring and Neil Stuke.

Buckley plays failed comic James Mullinger, who travels the world interviewing more successful funny types to find the secret to comedy. Various famed comedians like Jimmy Carr, Omid Dalilli and Gilbert Gottfried will appear. [Source: Screen]

North

"Leatherface" reboot star James Bloor...

Striking while his career iron is still heating up, Brit newcomer James Bloor is following his unlikely role in Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel Leatherface with some more American genre action. He's signed on for North, a post-apocalyptic yarn also starring Jacob Lofland (Mud), Patrick Schwarzenegger (Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse) and Sophie Kennedy Clark (Philomena).Documentarian Matthew Ogens is making the switch to fiction to direct the film. Its sketchy plot details so far reveal a group of teenagers striking out into the dangerous, blasted unknown in the wake of a cataclysm. Chris Walla of the band Death Cab For Cutie is providing the soundtrack.Bloor's only screen acting credits so far are a two-part Dci Banks story and a short based on Hansel And Gretel. In Leatherface he's reportedly playing one of three teenagers who might grow into the chainsaw-wielding maniac.North is currently shooting in Detroit.

Death Cab For Cutie have been relatively generous ahead of their new album Kintsugi‘s release, offering the video for “Black Sun” and live previews of many of the tracks. Now they’ve shared the studio version for one of the songs they played back last month during a show in their hometown of Seattle. “No Room in Frame” is twangy slice of soft rock with vocalist Ben Gibbard’s vocals at the forefront. Related: Death Cab for Cutie Call the Shots in ‘Black Sun’ Video: Watch The song, like the rest of the album, features guitar work from recently departed founding member and producer Chris Walla. Coincidentally or not, it has a sentimentality. “We’ll both go on being lonely with someone else,” Gibbard sings. Kintsugi, the band’s first album since 2011’s Codes and Keys, is due out March 31.

Welcome back to the Rolling Stone "Everything Index," where we rank the week's pop-culture power players, based solely on their proximity to unlimited breadsticks.

Yes, there's plenty happening in the pop-o-sphere this week – the NFL is falling apart, Scotland is voting for independence, Rihanna is pissed and the Olive Garden is under assault. Luckily, we're here with our advanced algorithms to put them all in proper order. Let's get Indexing.

1. The Wrath of Rihanna: CBS feels the fury of Rihanna's Navy after it pulls "Run This Town" from Thursday Night Football.

It's the end of an era for Death Cab for Cutie. Founding guitarist Chris Walla announced on Wednesday that he'll be leaving the alternative rock band after 17 years, in a statement released to Seattle-based music blog Slog. His last concert with the group will take place at Victoria, BC's Rifflandia Festival on September 13. You can find the full text of Walla's statement below, and further down a response from his Death Cab bandmates Ben Gibbard, Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr: "Short version: I’m leaving Death Cab for Cutie. My last show with the band will be September 13, 2014, at the Rifflandia Festival in Victoria, BC. I hope you guys can make it. Longer version: I think I long for the unknown. It might be that simple. I will miss being a quarter of this band, and will support whatever course Death Cab for Cutie chooses from here. I am profoundly grateful to Ben,...

So this is the new era of Death Cab for Cutie. Guitarist Chris Walla, one of the founding members of the alt-rock band, is leaving the group after 17 years. Frontman Ben Gibbard, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr announced Walla's departure today on their website. "We've had an incredible 17 years of making music with Chris," they said in a statement. "We are very proud of what we've accomplished together, including our 8th studio album which we have just put the finishing touches on. We will miss Chris and wish him all the best in the next chapter of his career. We are excited about sharing new music, and seeing all of you very soon." Lest this leave...

Washington-based rock band The Lonely Forest may have most recently been lauded for 2011’s Arrows, but following an illustrious few years sharing stages with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and The Joy Formidable, the band is ready to release new music to an ever-growing fan base. The Lonely Forest’s forthcoming album, Adding Up The Wasted Hours, was recorded with DEath Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla and includes 11 new tracks. The band has already given away one song from Adding Up The Wasted Hours, “Warm/Happy,” for free download on their Facebook page, but now eager fans can...

Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, and their Death Cab For Cutie compatriots are currently on tour, through May, with Magik*Magik Orchestra, a group that was also featured on 2011’s Codes And Keys. Following those shows, Death Cab has announced it will embark on an 18-date summer tour, beginning in Ontario and wrapping up in Delaware at the Firefly Music Festival. After that, well, it may be a while before the band does anything at all. According to Billboard and Spin, Walla is unsure about Death Cab’s immediate future, saying, “I think a break of some kind is probably ...

John Singer Sergeant is not a solo project. And yet, it’s not a full-band side-project, either. For John Dufilho (of I Love Math, The Deathray Davies and The Apples in Stereo), John Singer Sergeant is the culmination of years of hard work—writing, recording, playing all instruments, arranging and mixing. Except for the vocals. He enlisted his friends to do those. And judging by the musical guests that appear on the 14-track album, Dufilho has some pretty talented pals. Will Johnson, Ben Kweller, Sir Earl Toon, Sarah Jaffe and Chris Walla are just some of the featured vocalists on John Singer Sergeant, but the record itself feels like it was made for personal fulfillment, rather than with commercial intent.

By Zachary Swickey

April is undoubtedly a great month for music. On top of Coachella kicking the festival season off, April also has Record Store Day (4/21) and just so happens to also be Public Radio Music Month (Prrm). Artists from just about every genre – including the Black Keys, Dave Matthews, the Roots, the Civil Wars, the Decemberists and Jack White – have even show their support with an open love letter of sorts to public radio.

For those of you not in the know, public radio is a great place to discover new bands and artists. NPR, for example, frequently gives album sneak previews and first listens with some of the best indie and mainstream bands around.

A wealth of notable artists have signed their name to the open love letter to public radio, which essentially reads like a list of heartfelt “thanks you’s.”

“Thank you for taking chances. Thank...

With guests like Chris Walla, Ben Kweller and Rhett Miller, John Dufilho’s (Apples in Stereo) _John Singer Sergeant: The Music and Words of John Dufilho_ is notably a buzzworthy album. Before its release on April 10, Dufilho has given us a taste with the first song off of the album, featuring vocals from Will Johnson (Monsters of Folk, New Multitudes, Centro-matic).

Foster the People and others help break down the Stone Temple Pilots frontman's Christmas video.

By Matt Elias

Scott Weiland in his "Winter Wonderland" video

Photo: Atco / Softdrive Records

With Christmas just around the corner, it's safe to assume you're enveloped in holiday tunes — whether inescapably at the mall or blaring from your laptop by choice. Beyond the old standards, there's Michael Bublé's chart-topping Christmas album and even Justin Bieber's first Christmas contribution, Under the Mistletoe, but you might not be aware that Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland released his own holiday disc this year.

That's right, and while Weiland's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year dropped back in October, even some of his contemporaries were unaware of his Xmas effort. That gave us the perfect opportunity to share the album's first music video with the bands on the bill at Kroq's annual Almost Acoustic Christmas earlier this month.

In the wake of their divorce, we've compiled a list of the most heartbreaking She & Him and Death Cab for Cutie tunes.

By MTV News staff

Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel

Photo: Getty Images

On Tuesday night, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and singer/actress Zooey Deschanel announced they had decided to end their two-year marriage. It's a split that was not only unforeseen, but decidedly sad, too. After all, the pair were basically the go-to indie couple, especially with the recent separation of alt-rock figureheads Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon.

Given the rather expansive back catalog of heartbreakers Gibbard and Deschanel have penned over the years for Death Cab and She & Him, respectively, we're greeting the news with an exceptionally weepy playlist of their saddest songs. It's a rather somber day, so why not offer up some appropriate tearjerkers?

"405": Gibbard's hazy rumination on a (somewhat) long-distance relationship gone awry.

With Nevermind anniversary weeks away, music's biggest bands reflect on the other indispensible albums from a great year for rock.

By James Montgomery

My Bloody Valentine's <i>Loveless</i>

Photo: Sire

On September 24, Nirvana's epochal Nevermind album turns 20, a milestone that will be marked with much coverage, celebration and consternation in the media ... not to mention a sundry of other events, including a high-profile benefit concert at Seattle's Experience Music Project and a Jon Stewart-hosted Q&A with Nirvana's surviving members.

And understandably so. After all, Nevermind was a game-changer in every sense of the term — the kind of album that brought about seismic shifts in music, fashion and culture in general, one that defined a generation and, as such, deserves to be mythologized. And, in the coming weeks, we suspect you'll see no shortage of stories that do just that.

And while Nevermind casts an indelibly lengthy shadow,...

By Zachary Swickey

Death Cab For Cutie are about to tackle the second leg of their North American tour behind their seventh album, Codes and Keys, and the group is vocally keen on the prospect of a string quartet backing them on tour.

“It would be really fun to take Magik*Magik Orchestra out,” Death Cab guitarist/producer Chris Walla told Billboard. “But unfortunately, it is kind of a nightmare to try and figure it out.”

Magik*Magik is the small San Fransisco orchestra that provided Dcfc with string accompaniment on two of their new album’s tracks: “Codes and Keys” and “Stay Young, Go Dancing.” Magik even performed the tunes alongside Death Cab during their appearance on VH1’s Storytellers earlier this year.

Walla continued lamenting, “You can make a living or you can play with an orchestra. They’re totally mutually exclusive – you almost can’t do one and the other.

In the final stop on our 'Seattle Sonics' tour, Dcfc take us to the city's legendary Avast! Studio.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla at Avast! Recording Co. in Seattle

Photo: MTV News

Seattle — The Avast! Recording Company, the final stop on our "Death Cab for Cutie: Seattle Sonics" tour, jokingly proclaims on their official site, "We pledge to have a website by 2010." Of course, they've got one, but the humor lies in the fact that the pledge is a very Seattle statement: slightly self-effacing, sure, but also steadfastly defiant. This is a town that, when it comes to music, likes to adhere to the old standard that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Which is why, in the many studios that dot the landscape here, you won't find a whole lot of high-end gadgetry. Instead, the rooms are packet with rickety pianos, dented Fenders and,...

In part two of our 'Seattle Sonics' series, the band takes us to their Sip & Ship 'nerve center' and American Music shop.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla and Jason McGerr

Photo: MTV News

Seattle — Chris Walla is a bit of a multitasker: That much is clear just by his rather prodigious output as a producer, solo musician and full-time member of Death Cab for Cutie. So it should probably come as no surprise that, for MTV News' second edition of "Seattle Sonics," Walla decided to take us to one of his favorite spots in Seatown: Sip & Ship, the kind of place that defines multitasking.

See, S&S is the sort of place that seemingly only exists in Seattle: A communal, cozy combination shipping depot/coffee bar that also happens to be a gift shop. Oh, and they make a mean grilled cheese, too.

Located in the...

"Unobstructed Views" is the longest track on Codes and Keys, the seventh disc by Seattle band Death Cab for Cutie and their third for Atlantic Records. It's the centerpiece, too, sitting exactly in the middle of the 11-track album as an anchor and an epic. As such, it unfurls gradually, throbs of keyboard bass bulging against sheets of noise and swelling piano glissandi. After three minutes of glacial, considered movement, Ben Gibbard finally cuts over the sound, his voice confident and clear, as though emerging from the din with a newfound clarity.

That moment is not only one of the best on Codes and Keys--another imperfect but rewarding album from Death Cab--but also one of the most telling: Gibbard says he delved into country music before recording Codes and Keys, using it to reconsider his voice as an instrument. What's more, guitarist and producer Chris Walla had been exploring Bowie's Berlin Trilogy,...

New album sees frontman Ben Gibbard getting happy while feeling more alone than ever, in Bigger Than the Sound.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab For Cutie's <i>Codes and Keys</i>

Photo: Atlantic Records

"Some boys don't know how to love," Ben Gibbard sings on Death Cab for Cutie's new Codes and Keys album, perhaps unaware of the fact that he's just summed up the band's entire career in the process.

Of course, the object of that love — self, location, family, girls — has never really been as important as the sentiment itself. Death Cab truly are at their best when they're at their lowest, their most lost, be it on songs like "Styrofoam Plates" and "405" or albums like Transatlanticism and Narrow Stairs. They are, for all intents and purposes, a band that seems incapable of solving the eternal quandaries of the heart.

So what, then, will fans make of Keys, an...

Dcfc played first show in nearly two years on Wednesday, a surprise club gig in front of a raucous hometown crowd.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard (file)

Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Seattle — On their upcoming album, Death Cab for Cutie long to go home, even if they're not quite sure where home is anymore. Codes and Keys is practically propelled by that paradox — home may be four walls and a bed, it may be the space between our two ears or it may be neither. After all, we carry so much of ourselves with us at all times that one could reasonably argue that we are always at home, even when we're on the road. But, then, the band wonders, if we're so connected, why do we so often feel nothing of the sort?

The answer they seem to come up with over the...

Death Cab for Cutie's music video for their brand new single "You Are a Tourist" has just made its way out in full. Directed by Tim Nackashi, it becomes the first-ever scripted, single-take music video production to be broadcast live as it is filmed.

Wearing black light-up ensemble, Ben Gibbard and his bandmates are playing in a jam session as some ballet dancers are engaged in a kaleidoscopic sequence. "It's lots and lots of lights, there are a lot of people involved, and there are a lot of cameras. It's sort of like old world Broadway-come-Hollywood magic at the moment," Chris Walla told Billboard.

"You Are a Tourist" is a lead single for Death Cab for Cutie's upcoming seventh studio album "Codes and Keys". The song has been released since last month, but the album will not be made available for purchase in the United States until May...

Ra Ra Riot Upstate New York-based alt-rock ensemble Ra Ra Riot, founded in 2006, is comprised of Milo Bonacci (guitar), Alexandra Lawn (cello, vocals), Wesley Miles (keys, vocals), Gabriel Duquette (drums), Mathieu Santos (bass), and Rebecca Zeller (violin). The late John Pike (drums, vocals) co-wrote much of the group's 2007 debut release. Collaborations/shared stages include Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), The Editors, and legendary New Wave unit Bow Wow Wow. With five releases to date, get "Winter '05," from Ra Ra Riot's 2008 project The Rhumb Line. Buy: iTunes.com Genre: AlternativeArtist: Ra Ra RiotSong: Winter '05Album: The Rhumb LineÓlöf Arnalds Icelandic multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Ólöf Arnalds was born in the Reagan era. By the age of 8, she picked up the violin and classical singing and never put them down, studying music through grad school at the Iceland Academy...

Canadian duo Tegan and Sara produced one of the most underrated albums of 2009 in Sainthood, a collection of 13 blissfully melancholy blasts of 21st century New Wave. It contains all of the elements that made Tegan and Sara indie rock darlings (vocal harmonies, layers of strummy guitars, esoteric melodies) as well as a handful of new twists (including more experiments with electronics and a bigger focus on production care of Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla). Songs like "Arrow," "Hell" and "Alligator" all seem to be smashes-in-waiting, as they are full of gigantic hooks and easy-going singalong choruses.

The pair just released a video for the album's best song "On Directing," which is probably the finest example of the "classic" Tegan and Sara sound: Jangly guitars, insistent rhythms, subtle melodies and a building sense of urgency. The clip is a fairly straightforward affair, with both Tegan and Sara appearing in...

Frontman Ben Gibbard says band's only motivation these days is to have fun.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab for Cutie

Photo: Frank Micelotta/ Getty Images

The last time MTV News spoke to Death Cab for Cutie about the status of their new album, guitarist/producer Chris Walla said things were still in the "scratchy, unfinished demos" stage but that the music was already looking to split the difference between the live-and-loose Narrow Stairs and the more polished Plans.

So, when we got Dcfc frontman Ben Gibbard on the phone last week — to discuss his love of all things Seattle Mariner-y — we asked him for an update on the project. From the sound of things, the focus has sharpened considerably.

"We're going in the studio in June to start working on the record," Gibbard told MTV News. "We're going to be recording through the summer and into the fall, and all things being equal,...

In a tweet about Men at Work plagiarism case, Walla writes, 'Related: Owl City should really consider buying Ben [Gibbard] a pony.'

By James Montgomery

Owl City

Photo: Universal Republic

Last year, Chris Walla raised eyebrows when he called brooding "Twilight" bloodsucker Edward Cullen "an a--hole." Then, at rehearsals for the mtvU Woodie Awards, he made sure to point out the "high beefcake quotient" of the "New Moon" film. And how can we forget the international incident he created when the master tapes for his Field Manual album ran afoul of the Department of Homeland Security?

Basically, the Death Cab for Cutie guitarist/producer is unafraid to speak his mind or rankle the third-largest Cabinet department in the U.S., which makes him a rare breed in these buttoned-up, sound-bite-ified times. And now, he's wading into the whole "Boy, Owl City sure sounds a lot like the Postal Service" fray.

'It's the project this year for us,' drummer Jason McGerr tells MTV News.

By James Montgomery

Chris Walla and Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie

Photo: MTV News

When we spoke to Death Cab for Cutie at rehearsals for the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards, they brought us up to speed on the progress of their new album, which may or may not sound a whole lot like Wilco and was still very much in its infancy.

So when we caught up with them at rehearsals for another awards show (the 2010 Critics' Choice Awards, where they paid tribute to the late John Hughes with a performance of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from "The Breakfast Club"), we decided to ask them for a new progress report on the album. And it sounds like the album is still very much in the early stages.

Oh, and in keeping with the circular nature of things,...

Band will perform Simple Minds' 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' in honor of the late director.

By Kyle Anderson, with reporting by Matt Elias

Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Jason McGerr

Photo: MTV News

The Critics' Choice Movie Awards — which air live Friday (January 15) on VH1 at 9 p.m. — will celebrate some of the biggest and most acclaimed films of 2009, including "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Precious" and "Up in the Air." But expect the evening's most heartfelt moment to come in celebration of an absent member of the Hollywood community, as the show will pay tribute to John Hughes, who died last year at the age of 59.

The director of such modern classics as "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" will get a salute on the show care of Death Cab for Cutie, who will perform Simple Minds' "Don't You...

Death Cab For Cutie were at the recent mtvU Woodie Awards where they performed Meet Me On the Equinox and chatted about their New Moon experience. Read more belowThough they didnt walk away with any slabs of timber under their arms it could be argued that Death Cab for Cutie were the allstars of the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards. The awards show that celebrates independent music of all types welcomed back a true ragstoriches story in the quartet who toiled tirelessly on the margins for years before graduating to arenarock size and scope. They delivered the evenings centerpiece performance a runthrough of their current single Meet Me on the Equinox which has garnered the band quite a bit of attention as its on the soundtrack to current boxoffice juggernaut The Twilight Saga New Moon.In fact the bands newfound vampireassisted success is just another twist in what has been a career full of unusual turns.

'I don't think we've ever done anything like this,' guitarist Chris Walla says of the band's inclusion on the blockbuster soundtrack.

By Kyle Anderson, with reporting by James Montgomery

Death Cab for Cutie at the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards

Photo: Frank Micelotta/ Getty Images

Though they didn't walk away with any slabs of timber under their arms, it could be argued that Death Cab for Cutie were the all-stars of the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards. The awards show that celebrates independent music of all types welcomed back a true rags-to-riches story in the quartet, who toiled tirelessly on the margins for years before graduating to arena-rock size and scope. They delivered the evening's centerpiece performance, a run-through of their current single "Meet Me on the Equinox," which has garnered the band quite a bit of attention as it's on the soundtrack to current box-office juggernaut "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

In fact,...

Death Cab for Cutie may not be the first name you’d associate with descriptors like “bratty,” “snarling” or “3-chord punk anthems,” but Dcfc guitarist Chris Walla has been working with bratty, snarling punk anthem-ists The Thermals for years. This December, Walla will set up camp in Portland’s Jackpot Recording Studio for his third time with The Thermals for the band’s fifth album, to be released on Sept. 7, 2010 on Kill Rock Stars....

Elder statesmen perform their 'New Moon' soundtrack song at the show, which airs December 4 at 10 p.m. on MTV, MTV2 and mtvU.

By Kyle Anderson

Death Cab for Cutie performs at the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards

Photo: Frank Micelotta/ Getty Images

New York — The Woodie Awards, mtvU's annual celebration of college music and independent spirit, are often thought of as the raucous kid brother to the Video Music Awards. They feature artists on the fringes of various music scenes and bands who are only a radio hit or buzzworthy live show away from breaking into the big time. This year's show was no different, featuring envelope-pushing weirdos like Matt and Kim and Passion Pit.

So what were Death Cab for Cutie — a band that has sold millions of records for a major label and whose recent hit is attached to the most hotly anticipated Hollywood movie of the season — doing there?...

Chris Walla says the album's 'timeline is sort of getting pushed into the future' because of 'New Moon' hoopla.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla

Photo: MTV News

Death Cab for Cutie already have some experience with the whole "original song for a movie" thing (by now you are surely aware that their "Meet Me on the Equinox" served as the lead single from the "New Moon" soundtrack), but by the sound of things, it seems like they're about ready for a career change.

On Wednesday night at the mtvU Woodie Awards — where Death Cab performed "Equinox" — MTV News got a chance to speak with them about their plans for life post-"Twilight." And, as it turns out, they've got even more soundtrack work on the horizon.

"We've got Death Cab stuff at some point in 2010. We sort of need to figure out when we're going to do it.

'I think they need EMTs on site for the movie' due to girls passing out, Nick Harmer says.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla and Nick Harmer

Photo: MTV News

Death Cab for Cutie have seen "New Moon" — a benefit of recording the first single from the film's soundtrack — and they said they really liked it. But there was one thing they found sort of odd ...

"It's really good, we went to the premiere," Dcfc guitarist Chris Walla said backstage at rehearsals for the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards. "[But] there are plenty of shirtless dudes! When the shirtless-dude factor happens, it seems to me like it was done with a little 'Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.' It's like, 'Ok, I'm going to take my shirt off at this moment ...' "

"I think they need to have EMTs on site for the movie — I think there will be reports of girls passing out,...

Every day a multitude of stars wanders through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

There might have been other cultural events happening last night, but as far as the pop universe is concerned, the only real event last night (and all week, really) was the premiere of "New Moon," the hotly-anticipated second entry in the "Twilight" film series. The film had its big red carpet event last night (check out last night's live blog over at Hollywood Crush for all the sordid details) that again brought together the series' hot trio of Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The premiere was also attended by co-stars Dakota Fanning, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene, as well as 50 Cent,...

Nikki Reed, Edi Gathegi and director Chris Weitz also clean up nicely for the premiere.

By Jocelyn Vena

Ashley Greene at the "New Moon" premiere in Los Angeles on Monday

Photo: Lester Cohen/ WireImage

Did the stars of "New Moon" decide on a fashion theme for the film's Los Angeles red-carpet premiere? Because all the "Twilight Saga" celebs donned their best vampy-glam looks on Monday night (November 16).

The movie's supporting cast certainly showed they have leading-man (or woman) style. The wolf pack's lone lady, Julia Jones, who plays Leah Clearwater in "Eclipse," looked absolutely stunning in a strapless dress by Norwegian designer Leila Hafzi. Justine Wachsberger, who plays Gianna in "New Moon," was in a very pretty strapless, green Issa dress with a Swarovski clutch. And Justin Chon, who plays Bella's classmate Eric, represented for the humans wearing a Dolce & Gabbana suit.

'New Moon' Premieres In L.A.

'It's one part of our career that we actually do alone,' Sara says of their first collaborative songwriting effort.

By Joel Hanek, with reporting by Jim Cantiello

Tegan and Sara

Photo: MTV News

Tegan and Sara have been a band for 14 years and six albums, but there's one thing the twins have never tried until new album Sainthood: writing music together. On the just-released record, produced by Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie, the Decemberists, the Postal Service), the duo put their heads together to write "Paperback Head."

Sara summed up the process with one word: "Awkward. Not just because it was Tegan, [but] I don't think I would project a level of comfort with anyone. It's such an intimate time. I've never approached music as a collaborative effort. It's one part of our career that we actually do alone."

"Only one song we collaborated on made the final 13," Tegan said of "Paperback Head.

Billboard.com has a new interview with Deathcab For Cuties Chris Walla. Chris talks about writing Meet Me On The Equinox Twilight and being a part of a movie soundtrack. Read more belowDid you write Meet Me on the Equinox specifically for the soundtrack or was it something you had laying around that you thought would work well with the film? A bit of both. The song was already written and then it got tweaked a fair bit to make it work for this. When we first started working on this Ben Gibbard sent about 10 demos he thought might work and while nine of them ended up not feeling quite right one was eerily perfect.That said it definitely needed retooling and there was a real concern about the timing. Ben just got married Nick was in the middle of a crosscountry move and Jason has a 1yearold hes barely...

'We wrote and recorded the song and turned it in, and you hoped the people deemed it worthy,' said frontman Ben Gibbard of their 'New Moon' track.

By James Montgomery

Death Cab For Cutie

Photo: Ben Ritter

Death Cab for Cutie's "Meet Me on the Equinox" wasn't the most likely choice for the first single off the "New Moon" soundtrack, but in a lot of ways, it was the best choice. Seems they know a thing or two about the central themes of the whole "Twilight" series: love and loss. They've sort of made a career out of documenting both.

"I think everyone was looking for that next big series after 'Harry Potter,' and that's when I first started hearing about the 'Twilight' series," Dcfc bassist Nick Harmer said. "And at first, I was drawn to the books because of the vampires and werewolves, but...

Death Cab for Cutie have finally debuted a music video for "Meet Me on the Equinox", one of the soundtracks for "The Twilight Saga's New Moon". Footage of the band performing inside a spooky mansion on the outskirts of Toronto is intercepted by the film's scenes, one of which shows Kristen Stewart's Bella jumping from the cliff.

"The whole idea behind the video is that this house that we're in, this crazy ski lodge of a building here, it's going to get cut together with scenes from the film," guitarist Chris Walla previously told MTV News about the scenes they filmed for the video. "Sort of like it's a place that might be in Forks, sort of a place that might be next door to Bella's house or something."

Beside including a song from Death Cab for Cutie, the soundtrack album for the movie, which will come out in U.

Sneak peek to Death Cab for Cutie's upcoming music video for their new single "Meet Me on the Equinox" has surfaced in the form of on-set footage. Brought out by MTV, the clip shows the band in a spooky mansion on the outskirts of Toronto, working once again with the directorial team known as Walter Robot who helped them making "Grapevine Fires" video.

"Meet Me on the Equinox" was unveiled on September 13, while its accompanying music video will be premiered this Wednesday, October 7. The song serves as the lead single off "The Twilight Saga's New Moon" soundtrack album.

"The whole idea behind the video is that this house that we're in, this crazy ski lodge of a building here, it's going to get cut together with scenes from the film" guitarist Chris Walla previously told MTV News about the scenes they filmed for the video. "Sort of like it's...