Death Cab For Cutie cover R.E.M. and debut new song ‘Pepper’ during livestream

nme.com:

Death Cab For Cutie returned to their Live From Home streams this week – watch them cover R.E.M. and debut new song ‘Pepper’ below.During the first COVID lockdown in 2020, Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard launched the Live From Home series, which saw him stream to fans at 4pm every single day, sharing covers and raising over £200,000 for local charities in the Seattle area.Ahead of the release of their 10th studio album, ‘Asphalt Meadows’, this Friday (September 16), the band returned for a special edition of Live From Home on Monday night, which carried on Gibbard’s trend of mixing originals with cover versions.During the set, the band covered R.E.M.’s ‘Near Wild Heaven’ and shared a version of unreleased ‘Asphalt Meadows’ track ‘Pepper’.Check the full performance out below.Speaking to NME this month, Gibbard discussed how his Live From Home performances gave him structure and belief during the pandemic.“I was just feeling so anxious and watching too much news,” Gibbard told NME of his headspace in the early pandemic before ‘Live From Home’ began. “I started doing these shows for altruistic reasons and because I thought people might enjoy them, but I had a selfish reason to doing them, too.“It gave me a sense of schedule and a sense of normalcy.

During a time where nobody had to be anywhere, the fact that I had to be somewhere at 4pm every day – and that I gave myself the task of playing very different sets every day and making sure that I was touching a lot of material – gave me a real sense of purpose in that time when I felt like I was floating.”Reviewing ‘Asphalt Meadows’, which is out in just two days, NME wrote: “‘Asphalt Meadows’ is as assured and stately as you’d expect and hope for from indie veterans now 10.