5 posts tagged “death cab for cutie”

The Grammy category we’re celebrating the most since the nomination announcement last week is Best New Artist since we’ve hosted 3 of the 5! Nominees The Ting Tings made their U.S. radio debut on Morning Becomes Eclectic on December 20, 2007. Nic Harcourt brought in their demos and put them on the air after he noticed his young kids singing along to “That’s Not My Name” – a surefire sign of a catchy hit. Silversun Pickups are one of the biggest bands to break out of LA in the past few years and we’ve hosted two live performances with them. We’ve also featured MGMT, who are nominated in a second category for “Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals” for their track “Kids.”  

Also, Garth Trinidad hosted a rare radio interview with Maxwell about his long awaited return to music earlier this year. His new album “BLACKsummer's Night" thrust the soul icon back into the spotlight and he was nominated for six awards, including “Best Male Pop Vocal Performance,” along with John Legend, who performed a terrific set on Chris Douridas’ show a few years ago. Four of the 5 nominees in the “Best Pop Instrumental Performance” have graced our airwaves -- Maxwell, Bela Fleck, Herb Alpert and Imogen Heap, who dropped into our studios to debut a track off her new album “Ellipse” in July.

Check out a recent performance from the Crystal Method, nominated in the best “Best Electronic/Dance Album” category, and Death Cab For Cutie and Phoenix, who are both up for “Beat Alternative Music Album.” Steve Earle’s fantastic tribute to his musical role modelTownes Van Zandt was nominated in the “Best Contemporary Folk Album” category and another KCRW favorite, Amadou and Mariam’s “Welcome to Mali,” is up for “Best Contemporary World Music Album.”

KCRW debuted Oren Lavie’s video for the track “Her Morning Elegance” which is nominated in the “Best Short Form Music Video” category. You can see it, and hear his live performance, here.

Also, our own Gary Calamar is nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media” category for his work on the “True Blood” Soundtrack.
 
There are many other KCRW connections to the Grammy nominees but these are some of the standouts. Check them out in the archives when you get a chance and view all the nominations online here.

RR
 

 

KCRW’s online-only music channel Eclectic24 will stream the soundtrack to the latest film in the “Twilight” series tonight at 8pm PST on Monday, Nov 9. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” OST will also be available streaming ON DEMAND for one week only! You can check it all out here.

The soundtrack includes fantastic new songs from Death Cab for Cutie, Band of Skulls and Bon Iver, among others. Enjoy!

Next week, we preview Norah Jones’ latest “The Fall.”

RR

 
 

A mutual love of Jack Kerouac  -- particularly his 1962 novel “Big Sur” – inspired Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie to combine their talents for a fantastic new album. It may seem like an unlikely pairing, but both were inspired by Kerouac’s autobiographical story.  It is easy for us locals to take the stretch of California coastline to our North for granted, but the combination of ocean and towering mountains has inspired MANY an artist. Many of the lyrics on “One Fast Move or I’m Gone” are text taken directly from the book itself. Today, we got to experience a live performance of those songs, with help from a few other musicians familiar to our studios -- Nick Harmer (Death Cab for Cutie), Mark Spencer (Son Volt) and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Bob Mould, The Mountain Goats).

Check it out here

RR

Death Cab for Cutie played an excellent semi-acoustic set on MBE this morning.

The session started off with Chris Walla joking about “robot cockroaches.” We were all a bit confused until he explained that the robotic cameras we use to videotape the studio sessions looked like cockroaches because they moved so quickly. Not the nicest image, but I guess it can be disconcerting to have a tiny, moving camera pointed at you while you play.

(For the record, we have four of them in the studio and our web video guru Rob LaFond adjusts the angles and switches from camera to camera, shot to shot LIVE during the performances from the control room – that’s what you see on KCRW.com!)

The band kicked things off with “405,” “Photobooth,” and “Wait,” a Secret Stars cover. Ben did his best to chat up the invisible radio audience in between the songs, especially for “Talking Bird.” He started out by saying it sounded like a Neil Young song and then rambled about how he now looks like Neil Young with long hair and chops. It was pretty funny.

During the interview, Nic talked to the band about their process recording the new album. It’s amazing that recording one song in one day is now an incredible achievement with all the technical resources at hand. No matter how they did it, they did a fine job on the new CD “Narrow Stairs” – especially with “I Will Possess Your Heart,” the set closer.

Check it out here!

RR

Upcoming Performances on Morning Becomes Eclectic

Fri, June 20, Martha Wainwright brings her band to perform a batch of new songs on Morning Becomes Eclectic at 11:15am.

Mon, June 23, Death Cab for Cutie return with songs from their latest recording, Narrow Stairs, on Morning Becomes Eclectic at 11:15am.

KCRW.COM PRESENTS

Wed, July 9th, LAMC Music & Film Night (featuring Bragging Rights: Stickball Stories, a film by Sonia N. Gonzalez, with musical
performance by CuCu Diamantes (of Yerba Buena) and prelude by Andres Levin) at CENTRAL PARK SUMMERSTAGE in New York.
Wed, July 9th, LAMC Indie Showcase (featuring Zigmat (New York), Che Sudaka (Barcelona), Allá (Chicago), Forro in the Dark (New York), Guajiro (Puerto Rico/Miami) plus special guests at MERCURY LOUNGE in New York.
Thurs, July 10, LAMC Acoustic Showcase (featuring Che Sudaka, Udi E Geral, Chana, Emmanuel  Horvilleur, Zigmat, Very Be Careful, plus special guests) at SOB's in New York.
Thurs, July 10, LAMC Bowery Ballroom Showcase (featuring Pacha Massive, Emmanuel Horvilleur, Sussie 4, Mexican Institute of Sound, Ximena Sariñana, plus special  guests) at BOWERY BALLROOM in New York.
Fri, July 11, LAMC/Celebrate Brooklyn Show (featuring Brazilian Girls, Ticklah and Miranda) at PROSPECT PARK BANDSHELL in Brooklyn.
Sat, July 12, LAMC/Central Park Summerstage Show (featuring Julieta Venegas, Plastilina Mosh and DJ Bitman) at RUMSEY PLAYFIELD in New York.
Sun, July 27, !!! (Chk Chk Chk) at Music Hall of Williamsburg in NY.

KCRW PRESENTS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Fri, June 13, THE SUBMARINES at THE ECHO.
Sun, June 15, MORGAN PAGE at GIANT AT ELEVATE LOUNGE.
Thurs, June 19, Nights at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art: Explore the "I" word by coming face to face with twenty-five contemporary works from Asia, Europe and the Americas featured in Identities.
Sat, June 21, SEUN KUTI at THE EL REY THEATRE.
Sat, June 21, LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES and WEST INDIAN GIRL at SOHO in SANTA BARBARA.
Sat, June 21, MAKE MUSIC PASADENA feat. The Raveonettes, Kinky, Dengue Fever, Nortec Collective presents Bostich + Fussible, Jesca Hoop, and many more in downtown Pasadena.
Sun, June 22 - KCRW's World Festival series celebrates its 10th season with: Thievery Corporation (full live show featuring special guest Seu Jorge), Bebel Gilberto, Los Amigos Invisibles, Federico Aubele the evening is hosted by Jason Bentley at the Hollywood Bowl.
Mon, June 23, ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS at THE GREEK  THEATRE.
Tues, June 24, ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS at THE GREEK THEATRE.
Thurs, June 26, MEIKO at HOTEL CAFÉ.
Sun, June 29, KCRW's World Festival series with: Gilberto Gil, Devendra Banhart, The Album Leaf (featuring Mike Heron from The Incredible String Band)-- the evening is hosted by Anne Litt at the Hollywood Bowl.
Thurs, July 3, PECKER at TEMPLE BAR.
Tues, July 8, CHICAGO AFROBEAT PROJECT at TEMPLE BAR.
Thurs, July 10, TILLY AND THE WALL at ECHOPLEX.
Fri, July 11, THE CHAPIN SISTERS at MCCABE'S GUITAR SHOP.
|Wed, July 16, CHRIS PIERCE at TEMPLE BAR.
Thurs, July 17, Nights at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art: Transcend illusion & desire by traveling though the exhibition A Tibet Expedition 1938: Selected Gifts from Two Explorers.
Fri, July 18, BITTER:SWEET at THE EL REY THEATRE.
Sun, July 20, KCRW's World Festival with: Feist, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Pacifika—the evening is hosted by Nic Harcourt at the Hollywood Bowl.
Sun, July 27, SECRET MACHINES at THE VIPER ROOM.
Sun, July 27, KCRW's World Festival with: Gnarls Barkley, Youssou N'Dour, Deerhoof. – the evening is hosted by Garth Trinidad at the Hollywood Bowl.
Sun, August 3, KCRW's World Festival series with: Reggae Night: UB40, Beres Hammond, Barrington Levy-- the evening is hosted by Tom Schnabel at the Hollywood Bowl.
Thurs, August 21, Nights at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art: Surrender to a world of glamour, magic and perfection inspired by Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation.
Mon, August 25, STARS at JOHN ANSON FORD THEATRE.
Sat, September 6, AMOS LEE at HOUSE OF BLUES ANAHEIM.|
Mon, September 8,  AMOS LEE at MUSIC BOX AT THE HENRY FONDA THEATER.
Tues, September 9, BALKAN BEAT BOX at THE EL REY THEATRE.
Wed, September 17, KCRW is Media Sponsor for NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS WITH SPIRITUALIZED at THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL.
Thurs, September 18, Nights at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art: Celebrate the international avant-garde inspired by the Museum's collection of art of the 30's - 60's. Special guest deejay, Jason Bentley.
Sun, September 21, MY MORNING JACKET at THE GREEK THEATRE.
Sun, September 21, KCRW's World Festival series with: Ozomatli, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Lila Downs, Nortec Collective-- the evening is hosted by Raul Campos at the Hollywood Bowl.
Mon, September 22, HOT CHIP at THE WILTERN.
Tues, September 23, CSS at the MAYAN THEATRE.
Fri, September 26, PACHA MASSIVE at FORD AMPHITHEATER.
Sat, October 4, SWELL SEASON at THE GREEK THEATRE.