Death Cab For Cutie
Transatlanticism
Barsuk Records
Within five notes you know that it’s a Death Cab record. It’s not Gang Starr and Ben Gibbard isn’t Guru, but it’s mostly the voice. Gibbard’s silky voice is the perfect to the cocoons of sound that production mastermind Chris Walla weaves for the Death Cab canon. In my cranky old age, it normally takes a lot for me to listen to song that postulating as to whether the glove compartment of your average automobile is a misnomer, but I’ve got to say that Title and Registration is one of the best things I’ve heard all year. I would have thought that the success of The Postal Service would have taken its toll on the amount of good material for Transatlanticism, but no worries here. This will be a big deal for Barsuk and Death Cab and rightfully so, Seattle’s finest have kept the same formula for years now, refining it more and more with every release. If there’s any justice, this record will be huge on both sides of the Atlantic.

Evan Dando
Baby I’m Bored
breath of salt water/BARNONE records
If you went out to rock shows in town in the 97-98 epoch, you were privy to Evan Dando’s antics. For a guy that was supposedly post-rehab, he sure looked a wee bit polluted. After hanging at the same show with him for four nights in a row, I figured I’d be a Lemonhead. The time after that was rife with Evan hanging with Oasis and the kids of 60s rock stars and not doing too much of anything save for spending an uncomfortable amount of time in the company of young Bens Lee and Kweller, There was the Live from the Brattle Theatre record and companion EP, but none of the stuff seemed to be all that great. Could obscurity and cult notoriety beckon ala his buddy Epic Soundtracks? I guess in the broad spectrum of things, the Lemonheads were not really successful except for their covers, so success is probably more of a relative thing, but this record should keep him on the fan radar, and very possibly make a couple of year end best-ofs. The collabo with Royston Langdon is as bad as you’d surmise, not sure who decided that bold-faced pilfering of a Talking Heads song was a good idea, but the Suffragette City organ parts are definitely his fault. Ugh. The stuff recorded at WaveLab is exceptional, though. The sun-baked environs must suit Dando well, he seems relaxed and in fine voice. He’s never going to be huge, but Evan Dando has certainly earned himself a career, Bored or not.