CULTURE

Death Cab For Cutie Releases "The Georgia EP" to Raise Money for Fair Fight

The EP will be available to purchase for a 24-hour period on Friday, December 4th.

Death Cab For Cutie - Georgia EP

Zack Bolotin

Beloved and iconic alt-emo outlet Death Cab For Cutie is releasing an EP of covers, called "The Georgia EP," which will be exclusively available for a 24-hour period on Friday, December 4th.

The release, available only on Bandcamp, features covers of artists from the great state of Georgia. Here's the full tracklist:

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Music Features

Half Waif, Ben Gibbard, and 5 Other Live Streams to Tune Into Now

Get your best headphones, crack open a cold one, and enjoy these livestream shows, straight from one artist's living room to yours.

Half Waif: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Now that we're all stuck at home, musicians are turning to livestreams in order to share their art with the world. Here are some incredible livestreams to check out this week and next:

Friday, 3/27: Half Waif, the dreamy electro-pop outlet of Pinegrove's Nandi Rose Plunkett, is performing her ethereal new album "The Caretaker" this Friday at 7:30 PM. Tune in here. Plunkett also recently wrote a column for NPR about how she's staying sane during quarantine—which involves spending a lot of time on her couch.

Half Waif: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concertwww.youtube.com


4PM Daily:Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie has been doing daily livestreams, and he just released a song called "Life in Quarantine."

Benjamin Gibbard - Life in Quarantine (Official Audio)www.youtube.com


Saturday, 3/28: Bands including indie outlet WD-HAN will be gathering for a festival called Doomed Fest on Saturday, March 28th and Sunday, March 29th, starting at noon EST daily. Tickets are $10 and all proceeds go towards supporting performers.

Sunday 3/29: Elton John is bringing Billie Eilish, Mariah Carey, and Alicia Keys (all in the safety of their own homes) together for the iHeart Living Room Concert for America, airing 9PM Sunday.

Sunday 3/29: Jay-Z's streaming platform Tidal will be bringing a coterie of illustrious artists together this weekend for free livestreams, including Beyonce and Rihanna for their Sunday R&B sessions.

Rihanna - Diamonds (Acoustic Live)www.youtube.com


Wednesday 4/1 (and every Wednesday and Friday): Indie band San Fermin is doing IGTV livestreams every Wednesday and Friday at 3PM EST. They also just released the second installment of their dual album, The Cormorant, along with a new video for "Freedom (Yeah Yeah Yeah)." Tune in to the livestreams here.

Thursday, 4/2: The musician Mike Broussard is doing livestreams every Thursday at 1PM EST. Experience his rollicking, expansive ballads by tuning in here.

Marc Broussard-Solo Acoustic (Round 2)www.youtube.com


April 4th: Actor and musician Michelle Creber will be performing a livestream concert on April 4th. She also just released a new music video for "Storm" and dropped a moving, cinematic new single called "False Empire."

STORM (music video) - Michelle Creberwww.youtube.com


Have a livestream you want featured? Email eden@popdust.com.

New Releases

Ben Gibbard Shares New Quarantine-Themed Song from His Home

"Life in Quarantine" marks just one of the Death Cab For Cutie frontman's many home videos to come.

A Message to the City from Ben Gibbard

Ben Gibbard's hometown of Seattle has been hit especially hard during the coronavirus outbreak.

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MUSIC

Chance the Rapper Cancels Tour–And That's Beautiful

Chance the Rapper's dad rap album will not fill stadiums because, well, Chance the Rapper is a dad.

Chance The Rapper performing. Chance The Rapper (stage name for Chancellor Johnathan Bennett)Chance the Rapper in concert at the O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK - 20 Nov 2016

Photo by Richard Isaac/Shutterstock

Chance the Rapper is officially canceling the so-called Big Tour to spend more time with his family.

This may come as no surprise to anyone who heard his latest album, The Big Day, which was called an "exhausting, but necessary" celebration of fatherhood and happiness. It seems that Chance is sacrificing his musical caliber, concert profits, and fan satisfaction in exchange for doing what's right for his family and himself, and that is absolutely beautiful.

Touring is exhausting, expensive, and bad for the environment, but spending time with your family is fun, pure, good, and a great investment in the future. While most musicians sadly have to tour all year round in order to make a living (a lifestyle that can have incredibly damaging effects on mental health and relationships), if you're Chance the Rapper, you can suddenly realize that all of this music stuff means nothing compared to your daughter's smile when she sees you walk in the door, and maybe you also realize that you released a subpar but still very pure and necessary album, and you can act on that revelation.

This isn't the first time Chance has chosen to devote time to doing what's right. After the birth of his nephew, he chose to take a sabbatical to dive into the Bible.

Of course, he's well-known for his philanthropic work, and just recently he started an initiative designed to teach Chicago public school students to code—a project that culminated in a video for "I Love You So Much."

Introducing SuperMe - an official video game from students in Chicagowww.youtube.com

So ultimately, we can and should forgive Chance for giving us a subpar album and canceling his tour. There will always be new angst, pain, and loss to give us truly great art and showmanship. Tickets can be refunded, and other nightly entertainment can be found. But another baby without daddy issues? That's irreplaceable.

TV

"Looking for Alaska's" Best Musical Moments

This article contains spoilers for Hulu's "Looking for Alaska."

After more than a decade in developmental hell, John Green's 2005 novel Looking for Alaska has finally been adapted for television, having premiered on Hulu Oct. 18.

Set in 2005, Looking for Alaska tells the story of Miles "Pudge" Halter (Charlie Plummer), a high school junior obsessed with famous last words, who transfers to Culver Creek Academy from Orlando, Florida. At his new school, Miles begins to come out of his shell thanks to his roommate, Chip "The Colonel" Martin (Denny Love), and friend Takumi Hikohito (Jay Lee). However, it's the mysterious and passionate Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth) who captures Miles' affection.

The eight-episode Hulu series is quite good. It's a sincere, heartfelt, and tragic adaptation of the award-winning novel, and it's a quality throwback to the successful teen dramas of the mid-2000s. A lot of the show's success can be credited to the creator, Josh Schwartz, and his creative and producing partner, Stephanie Savage. Schwartz and Savage are the team behind iconic teen shows like The O.C. and Gossip Girl.

But just like with the The O.C., the music featured on Looking for Alaska is arguably better than the show itself. While working on The O.C., Schwartz and music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas perfectly crafted an indie pop/rock soundtrack that featured up-and-coming bands like Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, and The Killers. Schwartz and Patsavas reunited on Looking for Alaska to curate a nostalgic and eclectic playlist featuring throwbacks from The Strokes, Bloc Party, 50 Cent, and Gorillaz.

1. The Killers, "All These Things I've Done"

1/5

The song is used in the first episode as Miles leaves Florida for an unknown future at Culver Creek Academy. More importantly, it's the song playing when Miles gets his first glimpse of his eventual crush, Alaska.

Listen to the entire Looking for Alaska soundtrack on Spotify.

Looking for Alaska (Music from the Original Series)