There are a few highlights in what is otherwise a fairly sparse Tuesday for new releases this week, the biggest of which is perhaps the second major-label release from Death Cab for Cutie. Narrow Stairs is the band's follow-up to their 2005 Atlantic debut Plans, and it's by all accounts darker and rawer than its predecessor. To their credit, after a decade on an indie label Death Cab isn't exactly playing it safe now that they're established on a major, a trap into which so many before them have fallen. Instead, we get the eight-minute-with-extended-intro lead single "I Will Possess Your Heart," the creepiest stalker song since Costello's "I Want You," (although it sounds so nice and reasonable set to music). The band is gearing up for a summer of festivals and extended touring, more or less beginning on Memorial Day weekend with performances scheduled for both the Sasquatch Festival at The Gorge in George, WA, and the aptly-named Memorial Weekend Music Festival at the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend.

Video: Death Cab for Cutie, from Narrow Stairs- "I Will Possess Your Heart"

Another long-established band with new music out this week is the Old 97's. Blame It On Gravity is their first effort since 2004's fairly mundane Drag It Up, and early reviews are calling it a return of sorts to the sound of their hey-day, established on albums like Too Far to Care and Fight Songs. Not bad for a band who could have ridden off into the alt-country sunset and called it good. But they're not dead, they're in Dallas, and the locale switch to the town where they got their start appears to have served them well.

On the live front this week, an interesting bill at the Doug Fir Lounge on Friday night features a trio of Swedish females. One woman band El Perro del Mar (Sarah Assbring), Lykke Li, and Anna Ternheim are all touring with new releases to their credit, each exhibiting a slightly different angle on pop music. From the Valley to the Stars is the second full-length from El Perro del Mar, and it continues the retro, occasionally girl-group-inspired sound found on her debut, albeit in slightly more subdued ways. Li, meanwhile, has been touted by Bjork and does not fall far from the dance-floor inspired vibe of much of that artist's early solo work. Her new EP out in the U.S. is called Little Bit. Ternheim, meanwhile is perhaps the most introspective and singer-songwriter oriented of the three, but it's her golden voice that makes the music. Her recent release is entitled Halfway to Fivepoints.

MP3: El Perro del Mar, from From the Valley to the Stars- "Glory to the World"

MP3: Anna Ternheim, from Halfway to Fivepoints- "To Be Gone"

MP3: Lykke Li, from the Little Bit EP- "Dance Dance Dance"

Also this week, Tapes n' Tapes play Eugene's WOW Hall Monday night (snubbing Portland entirely in the process), and Erin McKeown plays at Mississippi Studios on Wednesday with opener Justin Jude, while The French Kicks are at the Doug Fir Lounge with openers Pseudosix. On Friday, it's the British duo The Kills along with The Child Ballads at Berbati's Pan, while Mason Jennings, Brett Dennen, and Missy Higgins are at the Roseland Theater, and The Posies, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, and The Nice Boys are at Dante's.

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Posted by jpetersen on Sunday, May 11 at 9:06pm