Transatlanticism

Like, it's just...

It feels like Transatlanticism.

It feels like that whole era of Death Cab, and I love it.

So I, I don't know exactly what that means, but when you say it doesn't feel like it came out this year, what...

Very classic Death Cab.

Like, earl- Got it ... like, I would say '99, 2001, like, that era of Death Cab.

Uh, like, Transatlanticism is one of my favorite records of all time, and that came out, fuck, uh...

Ooh, Transatla- 2007.

And...

Transatlanticism by Death Cab.

Okay.

Just play another one, please.

For whatever reason, misremembering that concert led me to the true origins of my Death Cab fandom.

The song Transatlanticism from the album of the same name plays at the end of the penultimate episode of Parenthood's third season in 2012.

It was an emotional entry in one of my favorite shows of all time, and the opening chords of that song grabbed me for the first time.

In fact, I, I think something changes inside me chemically when that song shuffles on, and I'm gripped until the closing please.

So come on, come on.

Ugh, I get chills just saying those words.

Anyway, it's one of those songs, one of those albums that changed my life.

I started there, uh, with that album, which first released in 2003, and then moved on to Plans from 2005 and Codes and Keys from 2011.

Ben Gibbard is the singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band Death Cab for Cutie, with whom he's been making thoughtful, gorgeous, heartfelt indie rock for nearly 30 years.

Death Cab made its way out of the underground and into the mainstream with 2003's epic Transatlanticism, and 2003 was also the year that birthed Gibbard's unexpectedly massive side project, The Postal Service.

But while those two records might get a lot of the glory, Death Cab has a deep, rich catalog that continues to grow and thrive to this day.

The band's latest album, I Built You a Tower, came out earlier this year, and it sits comfortably with their best.

This came out on Sub Pop, as I said, in February of 2003.

And this album is... arguably the thing that Ben Gibbard is most known for, along with the big hits from Plans and Transatlanticism.

This album, to me, though, feels like it has kind of transcended even Death Cab in terms of its influence and particularly Such Great Heights, the way that that song has just kind of everywhere and everyone kind of knows it.

is a pretty special record and a pretty important record in both the history of independent music and the history of this career that we've been talking about for the last few months.

so we move on to another band from the Pacific Northwest formed around the same time, Death Cab for Cutie.

So you might remember Death Cab for Cutie with songs like Transatlanticism.

I will follow you into the dark.

And I will possess your heart.

man being trapped by his own routines.

It's fairly restrained.

It also felt like something that could have appeared on an album like Transatlanticism.

But lyrically, it seems to be about a man trapped by routine, who's used to sameness, that even something good or beautiful in front of him feels suffocating instead of enjoyable.

4, Asphalt Meadows.

3, Transatlanticism.

2, I Built You a Tower.

And number one, Plans.

...

but The Transatlanticism was the album that a bunch of-

Yes

... kids who were feeling a lot of feelings and-