Death Cab for Cutie Celebrates ‘Thank You For Today’ Release at iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles

Fans flooded the iHeartRadio Theater in Burbank, Calif., to support the iHeartRadio Album Release Party with Death Cab for Cutie, celebrating their new album, Thank You for Today. 

During the live event that included a Q&A session hosted by Harms from ALT 98.7, the band performed a selection of songs from the new album including “Gold Rush” and “Your Hurricane,” as well previous hits such as “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” and“Soul Meets Body.”

Highlights:

• To celebrate the release of new album, Death Cab for Cutie’s hometown of Seattle made “Gold Rush” an ice cream flavor this week! Host Harms spoke with front man Ben Gibbard about how the city has changed dramatically over the last 10-15 years with the rise of Amazon and other tech firms. Gibbard wanted to write “Gold Rush” to “highlight the personal nature of how we connect our memories to geography, and discuss how when the geography around us changes, we have to grapple with our memories all over again.”
• The band included a Yoko Ono sample in “Gold Rush.” Gibbard noted that he has been a Yoko Ono fan for a number of years. He thinks that she is one of the most important artists of the 20^th century, and that her music has never gotten the credit that it deserves due to the narrative that she broke up The Beatles, along with the sexism and racism that plays into that as well.
• They spoke about how Gibbard’s all-time favorite Seattle venue, The Showbox, is currently in trouble, as a group is planning to buy The Showbox, tear it down, and build 44 stories of luxury condos. Harms noted that this type of thing could happen to historic music venues all around the world if we’re not careful.
• Gibbard and Harms spoke about how the band leader recently wrote an article ranking Death Cab for Cutie’s albums from 1-9. When asked if that was a difficult thing to do, Gibbard noted that it wasn’t because he’s aware of the albums that not only the fans love the most, but that the band also loves. As they have gotten more distance from some of the music they have made over the years, it becomes easier to see the successes and failures of each record. He ranked Transatlanticism as #1.
• The band decided to cap the number of songs on Thank You for Today at 10 songs, which is short for a tradition album, so the full album would fit on one vinyl record.
• They discussed Gibbard’s comment that this album is pivotal for the future of the band, and how when Chris Walla left the band four years ago, they first worked on moving forward and figuring out their tour which is when Dave Depper and Zac Rae came on board. Over the course of the next 2-3 years they became full members of the band and Gibbard realized that they all wanted to make an album together. He noted, “When you go through a lineup shift, which is a big deal in a bands lineage, you really have to come out swinging and make something that proves you have staying power.”

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