Death Cab for Cutie played four songs acoustic at the Tiny Desk

Death Cab for Cutie played their second Tiny Desk on 11 August 2026, eleven years after the first, and did it almost entirely on acoustic instruments. One of those instruments was a zither close to a century old, played by Zac Rae.

The set opened with Pep Talk and Stone Over Water, both from the band's latest album I Built You a Tower, two songs about ageing and getting past regret. It then turned to older material: Title and Registration from 2003's Transatlanticism and Soul Meets Body from 2005's Plans.

That gap is what Ben Gibbard got stuck on. A lot of the band's songs are becoming oldies now, he told the crowd, before working out that some of their early records now sit about as far back as the Beatles records did when he was a child. Guitarist Dave Depper told him to stop it. "That's how time works, Dave," Gibbard replied.

The band's first visit in 2015 was a much smaller affair by necessity. Gibbard was recovering from a broken wrist and could not play guitar, so he sang at the microphone with only Rae's piano and Nick Harmer's bass behind him.

This time the full band turned up: Gibbard on vocals and guitar, Depper on guitar and backing vocals, Rae on piano and zither, Harmer on bass and Jason McGerr on drums. Robin Hilton produced the session for NPR.

Exclaim! picked up the oldies line as the story of the session, which reads about right for a band whose gift has always been making ordinary feelings sound enormous. Other sets from the series in our coverage include Napalm Death opening a circle pit and Charlie Puth as a bandleader. More is on the indie hub.