(Indie Rock/Pop/Acoustic) Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) - Former Lives - 2012, MP3, 320 kbps

Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard has finished work on his first solo album, Former Lives, slated for release in mid-October of 2012. Though Gibbard had a short-lived solo project in the form of All-Time Quarterback and has collaborated frequently, most popularly with the Postal Service, Former Lives represents Gibbard’s first work under his own name. The album is comprised of 12 songs written over an eight-year period, and includes songs with topics ranging from baseball players and skyscrapers to his recently ended relationship with actress/singer Zooey Deschanel. Gibbard has said in interviews that this album does not indicate the end of Death Cab for Cutie, and in fact the band is so healthy he doesn’t see himself doing another solo album anytime in the foreseeable future. Ben Gibbard is a singer/songwriter best known as frontman for Pacific Northwestern indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie. Gibbard was raised in Washington and got interested in music due in part to the explosion of grunge and its roots in his region during his formative high-school years. Gibbard’s first band was the fledgling Pinwheel, who released one self-titled album in 1996. Pinwheel’s Justin Kennedy would go on to front Army Navy. Gibbard began Death Cab for Cutie as a solo project in 1997, taking the name from a song by cheeky classic rockers the Bonzo Dog Band. He released a cassette of his sentimental acoustic-leaning songs called You Can Play These Songs with Chords under the new moniker later that year, and the reception was warm enough to merit expanding the project into a full band.