CD Review

With Death Cab for Cutie’s recent signing to Atlantic Records, it won’t be long before the band becomes just shy of mainstream. Shit, Ben Gibbard was already hanging out with Bruce Springsteen and company on last summer’s Vote For Change Tour. Along with Conor Oberst, the sensitive voiced front-man is helping bridge the gap of emo to more tolerable and credible reaches. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have multi-talented guitarist/producer Chris Walla on your side either. Named after their sound engineer on their spring 2004 Transatlanticsm tour, The John Byrd EP brings us three nights in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, capturing seven songs for the independent Barsuk Records.

Amidst casual banter from Gibbard, including a joke of Barry Manilow pleading for the band to change their dark sounding name to anything but, Death Cab showcases their nice guy personalities. Much of the band’s history is represented, including rockers “We Laugh Indoors” and “Why You Want To Live Here,” making full use of simple flickering guitar fills and steady drums to create their low-fi lush. “Lightness” challenges the band to recreate the studio mastery of Transatlanticsm live, but with a few squeaks along the way. Meanwhile “Photobooth” plays with an up-tempo beat, that sounds very un-Death Cab, before moving into a jammed out version of “We Looked Like Giants.”

The EP ends with a cover of Sebadoh’s “Brand New Love,” proving that almost anything goes at a Death Cab For Cutie show. The John Byrd EP is a nice live portrait of a band in a transitional period from the clubs to bigger venues in the near future. Catch them while you can.