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Ben Gibbard and his Death Cab For Cutie bandmates have been seemingly everywhere promoting their excellent new album I Built You A Tower, including here at Stereogum. The latest stop on the promo tour is Vulture, where Gibbard sat down with Jesse David Fox for the new episode of the Good One podcast. The interview runs nearly 90 minutes, and it covers all kinds of subjects, including the new album, Gibbard's work with Dua Lipa, the history of indie music, the New York Times list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, and more.
At one point in the chat, Gibbard explains his stance that the Velvet Underground, cherished pioneers of avant-garde rock 'n' roll (and accomplished tunesmiths when they wanted to be), are better than the Beatles, the most popular and acclaimed rock band of all time (and daring experimentalists in their own right). I'm somewhat surprised to hear this take coming from Gibbard, whose music strikes me as overall more Beatles-y than Velvets-y, but considering VU's brilliant catalog and vast influence over the world of indie, alternative, and experimental music, there's definitely a case to be made. Here's how Gibbard makes it:
Their music is more interesting than the Beatles. But the Beatles are the bigger band. I love the Beatles, and I love the Velvet Underground. But the Velvet Underground are a better band than the Beatles in my view. They're more important to me. Their music's more impactful. It's richer. The lyrics are more poignant and more poetic. The creative decisions are more avant-garde. The pop songs are poppier.
This is my view. People are going to rage on me about it, and that's fine. I don't check social media ever. But, you know, the biggest thing has never been the best thing. What is it, 50 Million Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong? Well, they actually can. They can't be wrong that Elvis is great. Elvis is great. But there were other people making music, you know, specifically a lot of the Black people that he took the music from, that were making arguably much better music.
Watch Gibbard deliver this monologue below.
Honestly, this take is not as radical or ironclad as my long-professed belief that Stone Temple Pilots were better than Pearl Jam. Here is the full Good One episode in case you want to settle in with it:
English (US) · 