Yesterday, for the first time since 2009, Death Cab for Cutie released new material.  A few things immediately struck me about “You Are A Tourist”. The first was that, despite the band’s declaration that this record to be less guitar-driven, Chris Walla seems to be taking the lead for most of the song. This certainly isn’t a complaint, though. I like the riff that runs throughout the track, bouncy as it may be for a Death Cab For Cutie song.

The next thing that stood out were the effected vocals. Having become accustomed to the raw, emotive sound of Ben Gibbard’s voice, I have to say, I’m not an enormous fan of this more polished echo. Again though, the deeper cuts on Death Cab albums are generally those that strike at the core, so I definitely won’t pre-judge what Codes and Keys has to offer based on their first “single”.

To increase the buzz on their new track, the band plans to film the accompanying video live on Tuesday, April 5th at 7pm EST. While we don’t know any specific details as to what they’ll be filming, we do know that the resulting footage will be immediately available for streaming and re-posting. For those of you that can’t tune in for the actual event, we’ll keep you updated!