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EXCLUSIVE: Death Cab Unveil Tour Dates

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Seattle indie vets Death Cab for Cutie are dropping their seventh studio album, Codes and Keys, on May 31, so fans will have tons of opportunities to catch ’em live, right? Wrong. And that’s what makes their limited 13-date tour, unveiled exclusively on SPIN.com, that much more special.

“I would love to find myself making a record a year from now rather than moving into our seventh straight month of touring,” explains singer-guitarist Ben Gibbard. “I’d like to capitalize on feeling inspired to write rather than hobbling up onstage and jumping around for two hours…”

The short outing, dubbed the Underplay Tour, kicks off May 18 in Toronto and hits Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles before closing in San Francisco on June 9. Washington State indie rockers the Lonely Forest will open the bulk of the tour, and Bright Eyes will join on three dates. Ticket pre-sale for fan club members begins on March 24, with general sales on March 26.

Codes and Keys is a departure from DCFC’s chart-topping 2008 release, Narrow Stairs, and is “a testament to where we are as a band,” Gibbard said of the quartet, also featuring guitarist-keyboardist Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer, and drummer Jason McGerr.

“It’s not a guitar-based record. We’ve been into vintage keyboards and playing with that palette,” he said, citing Brian Eno’s Another Green World as a reference point. “We’re not adding guitars because people will be expecting them… I’m so proud of this album that at this point I don’t care if people don’t like it.”

Gibbard’s lyrics are indicative of his new life in Los Angeles with his wife, actress and She & Him songstress Zooey Deschanel. “Everything I write is reflective of my own life and the lives of those people around me,” he said. “They reflect the conversations you have and the rumblings of life around you.”

Death Cab For Cutie Tour Dates:
5/18, Toronto, ON (Phoenix Concert Theatre)#
5/20, Chicago IL (Metro)#
5/21, Minneapolis MN (First Avenue)#
5/24, Edmonton, AB (Shaw Conference Center)*
5/25, Calgary, AB (Stampede Corral)*
5/27, Bend, OR (Les Schwab Amphitheatre)*
5/28, George, WA (Sasquatch!)
6/1, New York, NY (Bowery)#
6/3, Washington, DC (9:30 Club)#
6/4, Philadelphia (Trocadero)#
6/5, Boston (The Paradise)#
6/7, Los Angeles (El Rey Theatre)#
6/9, San Francisco (Fillmore)#

* w/ Bright Eyes
# w/ the Lonely Forest