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Aug 16, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie are releasing a new EP, The Blue EP, on September 6 via Atlantic. Previously they shared its first single, “Kids in ‘99.” Now they have shared another track from it, EP opener “To the Ground,” which is a bit more propulsive than recent Death Cab for Cutie material. Listen below.

Yesterday Frightened Rabbit shared Tiny Changes, a new 24-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of their recent tribute album Tiny Changes - A Celebration of ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’, where different artists covered each song on the band’s 2008 album The Midnight Organ Fight. Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard was prominently featured in the documentary (watch it here).

In 1999 in Death Cab for Cutie’s hometown of Bellingham, Washington, three people (two 10 year olds and one 18-year-old) were killed in the Bellingham Olympic Pipeline explosion, when a gasoline pipeline ruptured. “Kids in ‘99” was written in tribute to those who lost their lives that day just over 20 years ago.

Gibbard had this to say about the song in a previous press release: “The Olympic Pipeline explosion in 1999 was a tragedy that really affected me while we were living in Bellingham. After all these years I felt it was worthy of its own folk song.”

Death Cab for Cutie’s last album, Thank You For Today, came out last year via Atlantic. Two of the EP’s songs, “To the Ground” and “Before the Bombs,” were recorded during the sessions for that album and were produced by Rich Costey. Peter Katis produced the EP’s “Kids in ‘99” and “Blue Bloods,” and the band produced the remaining track, “Man in Blue.”

Chance The Rapper finally released his debut album, The Big Day, last month. The album’s “Do You Remember” features guest vocals from Ben Gibbard and was co-written by Gibbard and a bunch of other people, including Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon. The song is a wistful look back at the freedom of childhood and the joy of summer and was one of our Songs of the Week.

Read our 2018 interview with Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard on Thank You For Today.

Also read our 2018 The End interview with Gibbard about endings and death.

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