so, i know i am a bit new to twitter and all (having resisted joining for a long while only to do so, like a sheep or lemming), but i was taken aback a little recently when some dude had the audacity to tell ben gibbard of death cab for cutie that he was a sell-out and that he [the tweeter] was totally disinterested in the band nowadays.

twitter is a strange creature, peeps.

today’s technology brings artists and their fans closer than ever before, and while this is often a great thing, i think it sometimes allows some people to act like rude fools who know no sense of social etiquette. to some, it can feel safe to say thing behind a computer screen, where no one has to look you in the face – but my belief when it comes to social media is if i’m not willing to say it straight up to you in person, i’m not going to say it over the computer, either.

(and then there’s the whole “i’m going to follow you, but if you don’t follow me, i’m going to unfollow you, because i’m only here to collect followers rather than actually follow peeps i’m interested in reading tweets from,” but that’s probably neither here nor there. just a peeve of mine.)

anyways, back to ben gibbard. he was pretty classy about the way he finished the tweet-convo, saying, “i’m sorry u don’t like us anymore. thankfully for us, others do. our old lps are always there for you if you prefer them.”

and it got me thinking of the reams of music snobs out there who get bored with bands only ever sounding the same and yet hypocritical enough to torch them when they do have the audacity to grow and stretch their musical muscles. “sell-out” is a common enough term amongst the music-obsessed – i’m sure we’ve all used it at least once in conjunction with a band/singer we know (i’m guilty of this even just last night when i read bono & the edge are going to be on american idol). but is it really fair to turn our noses up at a band simply because they’re moving in the direction THEY want to move?

i think not. because, despite the ownership fans may feel with music, in the end, it really isn’t OURS. it’s the BAND’S, and they get to choose the course of creativity, not us.

and if we don’t like it, we can, as gibbard pointed out, stick with the older stuff or move on. we don’t need to bash the band for daring to move outside of our own musical comfort zones. because, for every band that changes and moves on with or without us as fans, there are a dozen new bands cropping up that can fill their place.

life is short, peeps, to be so negative, and music is meant to instill enjoyment, not annoyance. am i right or what?

i’ve had a chance to listen to death cab for cutie’s latest album, codes and keys, and while it’s not my favorite of theirs, it is certainly a great album i know i’m going to vastly enjoy listening to over and over again. it’s the sort of album that’s going to translate into a pretty kickass live show (hooray for getting tickets to see them at the greek this summer!). much more upbeat than many of their previous offerings (is this due to personal contentment?), codes and keys is, at heart, the representation of a band who has grown up.

i think my favorite off the album has to be unobstructed views, which, in many ways, reminds me of a much more positive (and less stalker-y) version of i will possess your heart, thanks to a lengthy instrumental opening. gibbs sings, “there’s no eye in the sky/just our love/the one unobstructed view/no perfect truth/just our love/just our love/and there’s no verse/no monument of words/for my love/for they can’t hold/all i know/about my love.“

SA-WOON!

monday morning is a peppy ode to love and acceptance, underneath the sycamore a complete throwback to old-style death cab, some boys a delightful slice of lo-fi vocals.

for a more complete album review, head over to the husband’s blog, where he beat me to the punch and did a track by track listing of each song.

here are two of the tracks, under the sycamores and some boys, to whet your appetite in advance for next tuesday’s release:

Death Cab for Cutie – Underneath The Sycamore by ATL REC

Death Cab for Cutie – Some Boys by ATL REC

and two official videos for you to watch, home is a fire and you are a tourist (which was filmed in one take and streamed live while being done so):

codes and keys, death cab for cutie’s latest album, will be available to buy on tuesday, may 31. until then, you can stream it in entirety over on NPR. go HERE to do so.