There's exciting news for Death Cab for Cutie fans. This morning, I called up bassist Nick Harmer just before he headed to sound check in Baton Rouge, La. And Harmer, who hails from Puyallup, gave me the skinny on a forthcoming E.P. of “Narrow Stairs” session outtakes that he said will likely be released in Spring 2009.

The just finished and as yet unnamed EP consists of songs that just didn’t quite fit the musical arc the band wanted to create on its last full-length album, Harmer said. “We still wanted them to have a home, and we still wanted them to come out during this album cycle because they are part of this batch of songs,” he said.

Harmer said the EP will feature five to six new cuts, including two called “Diamond in a Tether” and “Loyal Lover” that he named off the top of his head, and a demo of "Narrow Stairs" cut “Talking Bird,” featuring front man Ben Gibbard playing ukulele.

Sadly, none of those songs will be on the set list next Tuesday when Death Cab plays The End’s Deck the Hall Ball at WaMu Theatre. But fans should expect a couple of old school cuts from the band’s Bellingham days to celebrate Barsuk Records’ 10th anniversary reissue of debut album “Something About Airplanes.”

Check back in the next couple of days, and I’ll have some more audio and details posted.

Meant to post this announcement the other day. Jeez! Bet you never started thinking about Bumbershoot this early before. This is from the e-press release:

Seattle, WA - The 39th annual Bumbershoot: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival announces the special holiday (and economically advantageous!) “Insider Deal”: a limited edition 3-day pass to the 2009 Festival for only $60. This specially priced ticket is available in time for holiday shopping, while supplies last, exclusively to BumberFan club members; membership is free and available online at bumbershoot.org/bumberfan.

Sigh! I miss the days when you could just show up and pay something like $15 a day anyway. Then you could drive up to Canada the next day and a car for, like, $20 with the exchange rate. Life was good then.