Lana Del Rey covers Death Cab for Cutie on recent tour stop

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell tour is bringing in all the guests!

On Monday night (Nov. 4), the songstress took over the Bellco Theater in Denver as part of her current Norman Fucking Rockwell fall tour.

Like with past gigs, Del Rey brought up two special guests to perform alongside her.

Australian musician Julia Jacklin joined the “Summertime Sadness” crooner on stage for a collaborative version of the former’s song “Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You.” The song can be found on Jacklin’s recently released album, Crushing.

The second guest of the evening was Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard. Gibbard’s appearance wasn’t a total shock since he actually played a solo set before Del Rey took over the stage. Instead of taking a page out of Del Rey’s discography, the duo settled on one of Death Cab’s biggest hits; “I Will Follow You into the Dark.”

Check out the fan-shot video here.

Guest appearances are quickly becoming the norm on this outing. To date, Del Rey has been joined by Chris Issak at the Hollywood Bowl, Joan Baez at the Greek Theatre, and Sean Lennon.

The Norman Fucking Rockwell tour is in support of Del Rey’s recently released album by the same name. The excursion will conclude on Nov. 19 at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.

Soon after wrapping up the cross-country trip, the self-proclaimed “Venice Bitch” will appear on Kacey Musgraves’ Christmas Special on Amazon Prime. The special airs on Nov. 29.

Ben Gibbard to release Teenage Fanclub covers album

Ben Gibbard is giving Teenage Fanclub’s 1991 album, Bandwagonesque, a special spin as part of a special new project. On Friday (July 12), it was announced that the Death Cab for Cutie frontman will be taking part in a special project called “SOUNDS DELICIOUS” all made possible by Turntable Kitchen. Turntable Kitchen’s “SOUNDS DELICIOUS” is a vinyl subscription club which offers subscribers exclusive full-length artist-chosen cover albums on a limited-edition vinyl.

For Gibbard, the musician chose Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque because, according to him, it’s his favorite record from his favorite band.

“Turntable Kitchen approached me last summer about being part of their Sounds Delicious Vinyl series and I was excited about the idea of covering an album in its entirety,” Gibbard said in a press release.

He continues: “Bandwagonesque is my favorite record by my favorite band of all time. It came along at a pivotal time in my musical life and I’ve loved it for over 25 years. It’s been such a blast taking these songs apart to see how they work and then putting them back together again.”

“I was thrilled and extremely flattered when I heard that Ben Gibbard had decided to cover Bandwagonesque in its entirety,” said Teenage Fanclub vocalist/guitarist Norman Blake. “Needless to say that the re-imagining of the album by this very talented fella is both inventive and deftly executed. Thanks Ben.”

For more information about “SOUNDS DELICIOUS” head on over to their website here while the animated video for the first track off the album,”The Concept,” can be seen above. Ben Gibbard’s Bandwagonesque is set to be released on July 28 through Canvasback Music/Turntable Kitchen.

Bandwagonesque was released in November of 1991 and marked Teenage Fanclub’s major label debut and their most acclaimed record at that time. Tracks like “Star Sign,” “What You Do to Me,” and “The Concept” all managed to reach spots in the top 20 at alternative radio stations across the country. As if the record being highly rated by music reviewers wasn’t enough, Bandwagonesque was also featured in Universe Publishing 2005 book, “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.”

Not too bad for a bunch of Scottish dudes.

Death Cab for Cutie Frontman Voices Opinion About TIDAL

While the vast majority of the world were probably sitting back in awe and giving props to Jay-Z  and his friends when he announced the launch of his new music streaming service, TIDAL, there were some artists who were not too impressed by it.

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Mumford & Sons frontman, Marcus Mumford said that they wouldn’t have joined the streaming site due to its “bias towards only popular artists.” For those who didn’t see the launch last month, Jay-Z announced the service on stage, alongside the likes of Kanye West, Madonna, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Arcade Fire, Jack White, Daft Punk and more.

While British firecracker, Lily Allen mirrored the sentiments by sending out many tweets saying: “I love Jay Z so much, but TIDAL is [so] expensive compared to other perfectly good streaming services… He’s taken the biggest artists & made them exclusive to TIDAL… people are going to swarm back to pirate sites in droves sending traffic to torrent sites.”

The most recent person to join the anti-TIDAL campaign is Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard.

Gibbard who like Mumford was being interviewed by The Daily Beast (unrelated interviews),told the publication just want he thought about the new service.

“If I had been Jay-Z, I would have brought out ten artists that were underground or independent and said, ‘These are the people who are struggling to make a living in today’s music industry. Whereas this competitor streaming site pays this person 15 cents for X amount of streams, that same amount of streams on my site, on TIDAL, will pay that artist this much.’ I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid,” said Gibbard.

“There was a wonderful opportunity squandered to highlight what this service would mean for artists who are struggling and to make a plea to people’s hearts and pocketbooks to pay a little more for this service that was going to pay these artists a more reasonable rate. And they didn’t do it. That’s why this thing is going to fail miserably.”

The Verge also point out in an article, that Jay-Z and TIDAL might have a secret weapon under their puffy jackets; Live Nation.

In other news, TIDAL premium is priced at $9.99 (USD) per month while TIDAL HiFi is priced at $19.99 (USD) per month and Jay-Z has officially taken down his debut album Reasonable Doubt, with the exception of one song, from Spotify.

Death Cab for Cutie Frontman Suffers Running Mishap

How about this for a major OUCH?

Over the weekend, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard broke his wrist while participating in a 50K. If you’re wondering just how the singer managed to break his wrist while running, it seems to have been a misfortune event.

Gibbard, who had become known for being a runner, posted a photo of himself with a sad face and a cast around his wrist. In the caption that accompanies the photo on the social media site, he explains how around mile marker 20 of the course, he slid on a super slick bridge and went down resulting in a broken wrist.

But all is not lost. In the post he remains optimistic when he says that it will heal and he will be back as soon as it does.

Check out his post below.

https://instagram.com/p/y0rPlivyZa/

Considering that it is a serious injury, there has been no word on whether this will affect the band’s touring schedule. As of now, it appears their upcoming tour will still begin on April 10 in Arizona, but we’re sure Gibbard and the rest of the band will keep the fans updated in the event that his injury gets in the way of touring.

Those upcoming 2015 tour dates can be seen here.

Kintsugi, the band’s upcoming new album, will be released on March 31 through Atlantic Records.

Death Cab For Cutie Unveil New Album Name, Release Date

Back in August, Death Cab for Cutie revealed that founding member and guitarist Chris Walla has decided to leave the band once their slew of festival dates had concluded.

The only silver-lining to Walla’s departure announcement was that the band revealed they had been working on a new album in the meantime; the follow-up to 2011’s Codes and Keys. At the time, the only information given was that it would be released sometime in 2015 with a lot of tour dates to follow.

Today, the band not only revealed the album title, but also the release date for their eighth studio record. Kintsugi will be released on March 31 through Atlantic Records.

When asked about the album’s title, bassist Nick Harmer said that it’s a “Japanese style of art where they take fractured, broken ceramics and put them back together with very obvious, real gold. It’s making the repair of an object a visual part of its history.”

If you’re thinking this is a tribute to the “fractured” band line-up due to the departure of Walla, then you might be onto something as confirmed by DCFC frontman, Ben Gibbard.

“This is an opportunity for the band to become something it could only become by losing a founding member. It’s our goal to make records that rank amongst the best work we’ve ever done.

I completely respect and understand why people love Transatlanticism or We Have the Facts… or Narrow Stairs. And I would hope that as we move forward, people listen with as little prejudice as they can and try to hear the music for what it is and not what they want it to be.”

While the band appears to have moved on since Walla’s official final show and departure, there has been no indication if they have brought in someone to fill in for him.

For now, check out the cover art and track list for the new album below.

Kintsugi Tracklist:

1. No Room in Frame
2. Black Sun
3. The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
4. Little Wanderer
5. You’ve Haunted Me All My Life
6. Hold No Guns
7. Everything’s a Ceiling
8. Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)
9. El Dorado
10. Ingénue
11. Binary Sea