Before Death Cab for Cutie started stalking some poor blonde chick on their latest album, Narrow Stairs, before they left indie mainstay Barsuk and signed to Atlantic, (earning a Grammy nomination for Plans), and before Narrow Stairs became the 11-year-old band’s first-ever #1 album, Death Cab was writing lush, image-soaked songs about eating Thanksgiving dinner off Styrofoam plates in a church hall, broken homes, the fetid funk of L.A., and heartbreak magnified past the point of general psychological discomfort (see: every song that isn’t about the first three points). Real melancholy and the infinite sadness type stuff — the music of unnamed emotional mile markers heightened by the painful earnestness of Ben Gibbard’s meadowlark-as-man tenor.

Death Cab is the poet laureate of the post-Nirvana, post-Napster generation. More than a band, we think of them more like an anti-heroic amalgam of high school valedictorian, the biggest music geek you’ll ever know, the guy who skipped prom to watch Werner Herzog films that night, and the hyper-literate boy who didn’t get picked first in gym, as you’ll see in their Artist of the Week spots.

Death Cab is successful almost to a fault. But are they caught up in rock star posturing? Not even slightly. Seven albums and myriad solo albums, EPs, films, and side projects (Chris Walla’s pretty much the Timbaland of the indie world, and you have heard of the Postal Service, right?), and they’re still the same unpretentious guys in thrift store flannel — four of least assuming, most down-to-earth (not to mention, palest) guys in the music business today. And now, if you’ll excuse them, they’ve got some WhirlyBall to lose.

+ Check out a few of Death Cab for Cutie’s Artist of the Week videos below, and watch them all, plus acoustic performances, right here. After the jump, check out photos of Death Cab for Cutie on the set of their Artist of the Week video shoot in Washington State, watch both versions of their “I Will Possess Your Heart” video, plus more Death Cab videos and live performances, check out their exclusive Buzzworthy tour blogs, get more on Narrow Stairs, and see a whole new side — a Whirly-er side of Death Cab for Cutie.

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Death Cab for Cutie bassist Nick Harmer sent us his fourth and final Buzzworthy tour diary a week before the band’s latest album, Narrow Stairs, was released. In this entry, Nick, drummer Jason McGerr, and Death Cab sound guy Will take a train out to Kew Gardens and wander the eponymous greens, mired in Death Cab reflection. Two weeks later, the album became the band’s biggest debut success to date when it opened at #1.

So, has success changed Death Cab, or are they still the same type of guys who take public transportation and recognize the meta-ness of documenting while being documented, just as we appreciate the irony of creating content about creating content? Likely they’re still the same type of guys who look like dudes you’d see reading Tolstoy with a Hi-Liter in a coffee shop and who ruminate over creating “bizarre moments.” And PopMatters’ interview with the ever-humble, intensely honest Ben Gibbard pretty much proves that. Which is comforting, because a Death Cab that zooms around London in an H3 is not a Death Cab we wanna know.

Check out Nick’s final Buzzworthy tour diary from London, check out the rest of their tour dispatches, and watch their “I Will Possess Your Heart” video.

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

Today was my last day here in London, and what a whirlwind trip it has been. I only was lucky enough to get one full night of sleep, which came at the best possible time, right before our show, and then last night I fell back into the jet lag routine. I suppose it is for the best because I really don’t want to get completely on a London time zone schedule — otherwise when I fly to Boston tomorrow, I’ll be all twisted up there too.

These are the fun days of this kind of traveling, the days where you sleep where you can sleep and eat when you are hungry and completely abandon the “normal” schedule you perceive everyone else to be on. I’ll be home soon enough, I keep telling myself.

I was lucky today to have a big break from press and promo right in the middle of the day. I actually had some time to myself to explore, and Jason and I took full advantage of the beautiful weather here to ride a train out to Kew Gardens with our sound guy Will. The three of us were keeping our fingers crossed for a big scary hedge maze, but when that didn’t materialize we just wandered around the expansive lawns and let our heads clear of the oftentimes cramped winding city that London can be.

I brought my camera along hoping to take some great photos, but in the end I left the camera in the bag and let the memory of today just live in my mind. Somehow, after all this content we have been generating for press and radio over here, generating more content of my own seemed like overkill. Instead, I found a photo that I took the last time I was here in London of Big Ben against a stormy sky and thought I’d share that with everyone. So, here, let’s just pretend I saw this on this trip.

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All Death Cab for Cutie bassist Nick Harmer needed was a little (actually, a lot of) sleep and some historical fiction to cure him of a near-crippling case of transatlantic jet lag contracted by the band’s trip to London.

Read about his ongoing battle between adventure-seeking and running down a couple of dreams in his exclusive Death Cab tour diary, and catch up on last week’s tour tale here.

Tuesday, May 5th, 2008

Today was one of the good days. Everything starts with a great night of sleep. Last night, to completely ensure that I would sleep the sleep of a thousand years (not to be confused with the Jacksonian “funk of 40,000 years”) I rented on my hotel pay-per-view The Assassination of Jesse James, which is a film I thoroughly enjoyed when I first saw, but one with a nice quiet pace, somber and calming musical score and this Ken Burns-esque voiceover narration that, when you are exhausted, is just enough of a reminder of history class that it tips the scales in favor of narcolepsy. I was out like a light before the opening train robbery scene. And a nice deep nine hours of sleep followed.

Damn. How rock and roll is this? Talking about a good night’s sleep. I’m sorry. I should be trying to spin some wild yarn about rocking and rolling every night and partying every day. It’s funny I guess, when I am on the road, crazy adventures is the easy part. The hard part and therefore, in my mind, the more interesting stuff is the normal things. Like, getting sleep, getting food, and getting a shower. You might be surprised.

Yes, Mr. Vonnegut, “and so it goes.”

We began our day doing a live session for XFM with and amazing studio engineer and producer named Chris. Chris was such a professional — he moved quick, worked quick and made us sound incredible given the limitations of what he was working with. We recorded acoustic versions of “Talking Bird” and “I Will Possess Your Heart” and a cover of a Graham Nash song called “Military Madness.” We were in and out and had a great time.

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+ Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer are reportedly seeing each other…naked. (E! Online)

+ Meanwhile, Mayer’s ex Jessica Simpson may or may not have cheated on her boyfriend Tony Romo with effeminate Scrubs star Zach Braff. (Allie Is Wired)

+ Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz discovers a new way to cash in on his quickie-marriage to Ashlee Simpson. (Dlisted)

+ Franz Ferdinand, Blondie, Interpol and Death Cab for Cutie are among the talented headliners at Latitude, a first-rate music festival that’s (sadly!) for U.K. fans only. (Virtual Festivals)

+ If you want to see Madonna in concert, you’d better hurry. Tickets are selling out faster than you can say “Four Minutes.” And they wonder why she’s called “The Material Girl.” (Pollstar)

+ Excited for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards? You should be. Especially now that Coldplay and The Pussycat Dolls are both confirmed performers. (MTV)

We always suspected Death Cab for Cutie had a nocturnal side — songs like “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”, “No Sunlight,” and entire ode to a beat-down, cold-ass Coney Island — suggest the band spends more time indoors than out. (Oh yeah: and “We Laugh Indoors.”) But this? This is bad.

Read Death Cab’s second blog dispatch from London, where bassist Nick Harmer contends with a nasty bout of jet lag, and get caught up with their first entry here.

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Today has been an extremely rough day thanks to my good friend, jet lag. Last night I thought I was going to be in great shape as I managed to keep myself awake until midnight, and then I thought for sure seven or eight hours of deep sleep would be mine. Imagine how excited I was when I woke up WIDE awake at 4:30a.m. Sweet. I get to see the sun rise over London.

I tried in vain to fall back asleep but instead I just ended up lying in the dark staring at the ceiling getting angry at myself for not being able to fall back asleep. My mind knew I was going to need more than four hours of sleep to get through today, but my body wasn’t having it. Since there no place to go or nothing to do I caught up on some episodes of Battlestar Galactica season 3 to kill the time and waited until everyone else was ready to roll to breakfast.

We began the day by recording a BBC session at a studio whose name I either cannot remember or never actually heard in the first place. All I can tell you is that it was in a basement, not very large, and we had some technical issues. We managed to track five songs while we were there, and we are all hoping that some number of them turn out cool enough to be broadcast on the BBC. I’m sure everything will sound fine. It’s just through my fog of sleepiness I really had a hard time focusing on anything other than staying awake. It’s days like today that I wish there was some kind of intravenous coffee drip contraption that I could hook up and wheel around with me.

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+ Popjustice thinks Solange’s new album is going to trump Beyonce’s last album. (Really?? Better than B’Day? For REAL for real?)

+ You know that film about t.A.t.u.’s going to suck when even the star of the movie can’t sit through it. (Idolator)

+ Miley Cyrus has a new not-for-kids video game. Unofficial and unsanctioned, of course. (TheImproper)

+ T.I. says he was “hands-on” during the birth of his sixth child. Which, presumably, explains why said child is named Major G. (MTV)

+ Don’t Stop the Pop is unabashedly celebrating the most unabashedly Swedish music ever.

+ MusicWarship tackles the “Is Duffy the new Amy Winehouse” question.

+ Death Cab For Cutie takes over blogging duties at Stereogum. Next step for DCFC: Finally admitting that we are destined to be together. (Stereogum)

+ We actually really like Kat Von D’s new makeup line.

+ According to Diddy, Sean Jean’s style can be summed up in two words: “Fashion Viagra.” According to us, Diddy’s analogy can be summed up in one word: “Ew.” (HollywoodRag)

+ Celebitchy thinks Justin Timberlake is about to pop the question.

+ Fergie’s bringing sexy skintight vinyl leggings back. (Popsugar)

+ The Jonas Brothers can’t decide which American Idol finalist to vote for. (MTV)

+ Still-hot Anthony Kiedis makes us long for the days when Red Hot Chili Peppers still played music… which isn’t happening any time soon because the band’s on hiatus. Boo. (Antimusic)

+ Relevant video: crappy album, awesome song:

When you ask Death Cab for Cutie to email you updates from the road, you can expect verbose musings and meandering missives. And that’s exactly what bassist Nick Harmer (pictured left) sent us.

The band’s currently on tour in support of their seventh studio album, Narrow Stairs, which just came out this past Tuesday and is poised to ascend the great heights of the Billboard 200 next week. And because they’ve got a way with words, and because they’re some of the nicest guys in the business, they agreed to email us tour diary entries.

Here’s the first of several Death Cab for Cutie tour updates:

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

We landed this morning at Heathrow, and for the first time in recent memory everyone’s checked bags actually showed up on the other side. Good bag karma is a great way to begin any trip for sure.

So here we are. In glorious London, England. The struggle and the only real priority for the rest of today will be to stay awake. Jet lag is a formidable foe but one that can be defeated. As long as you tackle it immediately, there is no such thing as “napping to get adjusted to the new time zone.” I’ll just have to put up with the strange mix of starvation (Am I hungry? Should I eat now?), nausea (Am I going to be sick?), nervous energy (I’m in London!!!) and exhaustion (What time is it back home again?) no matter what.

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If musical forefathers the Cure and the Smiths hadn’t pretty much invented sad-sack songwriting, Death Cab For Cutie could’ve taken out a patent on the genre. The guys are certifiable pros at writing painfully introspective songs that could, even on your happiest of birthdays, make you cry your eyes out and swear you’ll never love again as you choke on your own snot-drool mixture.

But, on their latest album, Narrow Stairs, the guys seem to have, well, grown a pair, and traded in the wounded English major act for a slightly tougher sound, inspired by, of all things, Krautrock.

Narrow Stairs isn’t out for another week, but you can stream the entire album on “The Leak,” and watch an exclusive track-by-track interview and an exclusive Buzzworthy interview to find out what inspired the album title. Plus: check out yesterday’s Buzzworthy interview with Death Cab to see the band discuss recording the album.

With the release of their new album, Narrow Stairs, looming, Death Cab for Cutie gave us a glimpse into what the recording process was like this time around. There were some heated moments and admittedly unnecessary freak outs, but the album is ready, set, go for release on May 13. (In case you haven’t caught on yet, that internet “leak” was just a joke, which means you’ve actually been listening to this band.) Watch what Death Cab had to say about their studio experience…

Not only is Death Cab For Cutie the brains behind one of Buzzworthy’s current favorite videos — the epic “I Will Possess Your Heart”– but they also know how to put together one eclectic playlist. Judging by their selections it’s safe to say that their iPods are even more well-rounded than Rick Ross‘ belly. Seriously, it’s got it all…except for Rick Ross actually.

How many people do you know who can string together a playlist featuring Johnny Cash, De La Soul, Superchunk, Queensryche and Lupe Fiasco without coming across as pretentious hipster trash? None. Except these guys, who are welcome to DJ the next sweaty house party over at Buzzworthy Manor any time.

Watch the first DC4C-narrated video below, and watch the whole show here.