Elvis Costello night at the Croc

Tonight the Crocodile Cafe is hosting Elvis Costello Cover Night, featuring a ton of great bands. Since I'm a huge Elvis Costello fan, this makes me happy. I'm going to try to get my lazy arse out to the club for a rare (for me) mid-week rock throwdown.

In tribute to the show, I'm going to post a few things related to both the bands playing the show and Elvis himself this afternoon.

I actually posted this last year, which is some video from the "Decades Rock Live" that was a tribute to Elvis that featured Death Cab (who are not on the bill tonight, to be clear).



There's also some footage available from Death Cab's soundcheck for that show.



More to come later!

Death Cab grammy nom

Blogger warning: What follows is a disorganized stream of thought.

You've probably heard by now that Death Cab For Cutie snagged a grammy nomiation for "Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal." Their competitors in the category are a motley crew of artists... the nominees are:

My Humps, Black Eyed Peas
I Will Follow You Into the Dark, Death Cab for Cutie
Over My Head (Cable Car), the Fray
Is It Any Wonder?, Keane
Stickwitu, Pussycat Dolls

On one hand, I suppose it's encouraging that three of the five nominees (DCFC, The Fray and Keane) are not prefab, disposable pop groups. On the other hand, anyone want to place bets against either Black Eyed Peas or Pussycat Dolls? The Peas are a group that I can occasionally appreciate, and they've done a few songs that I've genuinely enjoyed when I come across them on the radio dial. But, seriously, my humps is definately among the worst songs written in the past decade. And don't get me started on the Pussycat Dolls... But, in this race, my money is on one of the two.

Anyway, complaining about the Grammys is like shooting fish in a barrel. So, I won't bore you with more there. Rather, I want to comment on the interesting shift that DCFC has experienced. Namely, last year they were in the "alternative album" category and this year it's the "pop song" category. I suppose that's reflective of their success with the Plans album and a lucrative 2006 in general. But, it's interesting to look at the 2007 alternative album nominees:

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Arctic Monkeys
At War With the Mystics, the Flaming Lips
St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley
Show Your Bones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Eraser, Thom Yorke

Perhaps it's perspective. But, one might argue DCFC still belongs here moreso than the pop song category. Now, I know the latter is recognizing songs and the former is recognizing albums, and I know that Plans was already a 2006 alternative album nominee. It's all still kind of facinating to watch.

I suppose the nomination itself is an award, of sorts, as it seems to recognize a certain plateu of success has been reached. So, in the end, a hearty congrats to DCFC on their nomination. I'll be pulling for you on the inside, while recognizing that fergie's humps may just be insurmountable, if you know what I mean.

Video from the vault: DCFC

My wife forwarded this one to me. Death Cab for Cutie's "A Movie Script Ending."

Just..... WOW

So, Death Cab For Cutie is playing Key Arena on December 9th. That's so crazy... hard to wrap my mind around them being so big. But, good for them! And speaking of wackiness, I saw a pair of tickets for sale to the show on craigslist for $159. Now THAT'S crazy!

Death Cab "backstage pass"

I came across an MTVu piece called "backstage pass" on Death Cab for Cutie. Unfortunately, I can't embed it here on the blog. But, it's a relatively interesting (if somewhat rudimentary) interview of the band. It's worth 6 minutes of your time...

Death Cab items

Just picked this up via myspace:

Tune into The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this tonight (MONDAY, 9/25) to catch Ben play "I Will Follow You into the Dark." Other guest includes Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives. The show will air at 11:35 PST/EST. Click here for local showtimes.

Death Cab for Cutie is a contender in week three of the mtvU Streaming Woodie Award. You must stream DCFC's video to vote for them, so go to woodies.mtvu.com and stream now! Voting ends Sunday 10/01 at 11:59PM EST.

I'm going to sound quite a bit like Beavis here, but.... heh, heh, heh. They said "woodie." There is surely an Eva Longoria joke in there somewhere!!

Death Cab documentary

There's a Death Cab documentary? Who knew? But, as it turns out, there is, and it's called Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road with Death Cab for Cutie. It appears to be a performanced based document, "spanning the band's career as well as bonus features including an acoustic performance, interviews, alternate versions, and behind the scenes footage. It is a compelling and candid snap shot of the guys."

I can't for the life of me figure out how to see said documentary, although that information is supposedly contained in this Starz page.

Death Cab meets Elvis Costello

I don't know that I've ever uttered the following phrase, but it's true today:

"Damn, I wish I had VH1 Classic."

Why? Well, this evening they're running an Elvis Costello tribute as part of the Decades Rock Live series.

And what's the local connection? Well, Death Cab for Cutie is all over the place! A brief sample clip of their take on "kinder murder" is available online. There is also a clip of them backing Declan himself on "accidents will happen." A few of the Death Cab guys also are in the mix along with Billie Joe of Green Day and Fiona Apple for "what's so funny about peace, love and understanding" and others.

I'll make you a dinner of corn dogs and tater tots if you can get me a copy of this complete event. Anyone got tivo and dv-r?