I was glad to find out that Death Cab For Cutie isn’t a stu­dio band, after watch­ing their video for The New Year. They’re well timed, well rehearsed, and most impor­tant­ly, the vocals were spot on. However, I was sore­ly dis­ap­point­ed to find out that Ben Gibbard’s voice and lyrics don’t match the way he presents him­self. Why does this mat­ter? I have no fuck­ing clue. I guess I always pic­tured Ben as some skin­ny, young, emo god, so sud­den­ly see­ing him as an old­er man of mod­est looks was quite a sur­prise. He does­n’t even come close to match­ing the sex appeal of Tom Yorke, whom I imag­ined him to rival.