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From Billboard.com:

 

Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, Jay Farrar Team Up For Kerouac Soundtrack

 

by Michael D. Ayers, N.Y. | August 13, 2009 2:46 EDT

 

In an ode to iconic author Jack Kerouac, alt-country veteran Jay Farrar has teamed up with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard for a collaborative album entitled "One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur," Billboard.com has learned. The twelve song set is due October 20 via F-Stop/Atlantic and will serve as the soundtrack to the Kerouac documentary of the same title. Farrar and Gibbard were approached by the filmmakers in 2007 about writing music for the film, which documents the events surrounding the author's time spent in the Big Sur region of California.

 

Both musicians are long time Kerouac fans and according to Farrar, about 90% of the album's lyrics draw directly from the Big Sur text, including the poem "Sea: Sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur." The recordings came to fruition over the course of three years, with the initial session taking place in San Francisco during summer 2007.

 

"I'd never met Jay before, and we found ourselves in a studio with a film crew, just blinking at each other, diving right into recording sessions," Gibbard tells Billboard.com. "In that first session, we did 3 or 4 songs together. We had the trepidation of not really knowing each other; getting to know each other in real time as we were recording made for a beautiful recording."

 

From there, Gibbard spent a week with Farrar in St. Louis during February 2008 and finalized the last track in Los Angeles in January 2009. Both Gibbard and Farrar share vocal duties, and are augmented by Brad Sarno on pedal steel, Aaron Espinoza on bass for the title track and Mark Spencer on multiple instruments. Farrar contributes various guitars, percussion and harmonica elements and Gibbard contributes guitars as well as drums on several tracks.

 

"One Fast Move or I'm Gone" comes on the heels of Farrar's latest Son Volt release "American Central Dust," which after release in July 2009 has sold 21,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan. Son Volt's best seller to date has been 1995's debut "Trace," which has sold 297,000. Death Cab for Cutie's last full length was 2008's "Narrow Stairs," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 540,000. (Gibbard stayed in the original cabin Kerouac wrote about while compose songs that album.)

 

"There was a familiarity to Kerouac's words," Farrar says of taking on this project. "There was an element of a kid being left in charge of the candy store, in a way. Jack's method of writing- the idea that you get raw ideas out there, the stream of consciousness method, I've always appreciated it."

 

Farrar also says that pre-production or any real plans were next to nothing for this recording, describing it as "essentially a deconstruction of the recording process."

 

"It wasn't so much an effortless recording session, but it felt like the songs were in the drivers seat," Gibbard adds. "We were very conscious not to over produce them and add layers of vocals or overdubs. In my own home demoing, I'm a flagrant overdubber. They [Farrar and Spencer] kept it really sparse, and I'm really drawn to that. How few things are happening; there's not a lot of adornment around [the songs] and I like that."

 

The album will be billed as "Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard" and will come four different physical options: CD, CD+DVD, a box set packaged with the CD+DVD, the novel, and a 40 page book on the film and finally a vinyl version. The film will be released on Oct. 20. Although nothing has been finalized, Farrar says he and Gibbard are currently plotting a two week tour, tentatively eyeing the end of October.

 

Here is the track list for "One Fast Move or I'm Gone":

 

"California Zephyr"

"Low Life Kingdom"

"Willamine"

"All In One"

"Breathe Our Iodine"

"These Roads Don't Move"

"Big Sur"

"One Fast Move or I'm Gone"

"Final Horrors"

"Sea Engines"

"The Void"

"San Francisco"

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via p4k:

Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar Team Up to Record Jack Kerouac Album

 

 

The last time Ben Gibbard split off from the rest of Death Cab for Cutie to record an album's worth of songs, that album was the Postal Service's Give Up, and half a million sensitive indie types swooned. (Of note: That Postal Service album still absolutely rules, eff a backlash.)

 

Now he's done it again, this time with Jay Farrar, Son Volt frontman, former Uncle Tupelo member, and all-around alt-country standard-bearer.

 

Farrar and Gibbard originally got together in 2007 to record music for the forthcoming Jack Kerouac documentary One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur. (Both Gibbard and Farrar appear in the film, as do Tom Waits, Patti Smith, and many of Kerouac's contemporaries.) That collaboration blossomed into an entire full-length album, which has the same title as the movie. Gibbard and Farrar wrote and performed all the songs together, with lyrics taken from Kerouac's 1962 novel Big Sur. You can watch the music video for the Farrar-sung track "San Francisco" here, and the tracklist is below. The trailer for the film can be seen here.

 

One Fast Move or I'm Gone is due October 20 on F-Stop/Atlantic, the day before the 40th anniversary of Kerouac's death. The documentary will also be out on October 20, and you can either buy the Gibbard/Farrar album by itself on CD or vinyl or packaged with the DVD. There will also be a deluxe CD/DVD package that includes a copy of Kerouac's novel and a 40-page book on the documentary.

Farrar and Gibbard are both big fans of Kerouac. When he was working on Death Cab's Narrow Stairs, Gibbard even stayed in the same Big Sur cabin that Kerouac used to write his book.

 

In to an interview Farrar did with the St. Louis Riverfront Times (via TwentyFourBit), he had to say about the project: "We both wound up in the studio together, just sort of decided to take a step further and record a whole batch of songs. It's kind of evolved into a real project... It was a great experience working with Ben. I guess because there wasn't a whole lot of planning that went into the process, I think we both really got a lot from the experience."

 

One Fast Move or I'm Gone:

 

01 California Zephyr

02 Low Life Kingdom

03 Willamine

04 All in One

05 Breathe Our Iodine

06 These Roads Don't Move

07 Big Sur

08 One Fast Move or I'm Gone

09 Final Horrors

10 Sea Engines

11 The Void

 

http://pitchfork.com/news/35960-ben-gibbard-and-jay-farrar-team-up-to-record-jack-kerouac-album/

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I found this at the Internet Movie Database:

 

"One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur" examines Jack Kerouac's escape from post "On The Road" fame to his dream of an isolated retreat in a cabin at Big Sur where he searches for inner peace. His road comes full circle with this self-exploration, resulting in an alcohol-fueled paranoia and a plunge into madness. Written by Curt Worden.

 

He was called the vibrant new voice of his generation -- the avatar of the Beat movement. In 1957, on the heels of the triumphant debut of his groundbreaking novel, On The Road, Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans and devotees. But along with sudden fame and media hype came his unraveling, and, by 1960, Kerouac was a jaded cynic, disaffected from the Beat culture he helped create and tortured by self-doubt, addiction and depression. Desperate for spiritual salvation and solitude, as well as a place to dry out, he secretly retreats to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's rustic cabin in the Big Sur woods. But his plan is foiled by his own inner demons, and what ensues that summer becomes the basis for Kerouac's gritty, yet lyrically told, semi-autobiographical novel, Big Sur.

 

One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur, takes the viewer back to Ferlinghetti's cabin and to the Beat haunts of San Francisco and New York City for an unflinching, cinematic look at the compelling events the book is based on. The story unfolds in several synchronous ways: through the narrative arc of Kerouac's prose, told in voice-over by actor and Kerouac interpreter, John Ventimiglia (of HBO's The Sopranos); through first-hand accounts and recollections of Kerouac's contemporaries, whom many of the characters in the book are based on such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure; by the interpretations and reflections of writers, poets, actors and musicians who have been deeply influenced by Kerouac's unique gifts like Tom Waits, Sam Shepard, Robert Hunter, Patti Smith, Aram Saroyan, Donal Logue and S.E. Hinton; and by stunning, High Definition visual imagery set to original music composed and performed by recording artist, Jay Farrar of Son Volt, with additional performance by Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

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I still can't tell...is this a documentary or a re-enactment or a "I'm Not There" reimagining? (See thread on don't like music...) I can't tell if I am supposed to be excited, sceptical, or appalled. I feel a bit of all three. actually.

 

For those who have not read them, the Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac edited by Ann Charters are well worth reading and maybe worth more than seeing this movie. Volume 1 is before he is famous and Volume 2 after On the Road is published. Great stuff. The actual novel Big Sur is not among Kerouac's best by a long shot.

 

Meanwhile good luck to Jay Farrar. This album could be very good. Using someone elses words might help the guy out.

 

LouieB

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agreed. that was the first thing I thought when reading this thread.

Someone with some cojones should make a movie of Visions of Gerard instead....!!

 

Offcial Site (with a trailer).

 

Now I am thinking of Heart Beat (1980).

 

I guess Francis Ford Coppola is never going to make his film version of On The Road.

Will watch the trailer sometime when I feel less scared. Heartbeat was crap. And, yea I think Coppola ain't gonna make it. Frankly it would be better unmade anyway.

 

LouieB

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  • 5 weeks later...

From Jambands.com

 

Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard Announce Dates To Support Keroauc Project

 

As we’ve reported, Son Volt’s Jay Farrar and Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard have recorded an album that pays tribute to Jack Keroauc and his book Big Sur. That disc, One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur, is set for an October 20 release and will come packaged with a documentary film that will include appearances by such artists as: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sam Shepard, Patti Smith and Tom Waits. In addition, Farrar and Gibbard have announced that they will perform four shows to celebrate the release of One Fast Move Or I'm Gone (the shows also will mark 40 years since Kerouac passed away on October 21, 1969). The two will be joined on these dates by Nick Harmer (Death Cab for Cutie), Mark Spencer (Son Volt) and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Bob Mould, The Mountain Goats).

 

Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard Dates

 

October 23 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre

October 24 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club

October 26 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall

October 28 New York, NY- Webster Hall

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  • 4 weeks later...

I pre-ordered the vinyl last week and received an MP3 version of the album. Very good stuff. Gibbard's voice grated on me at first, but I'm enjoying him now too.

 

Same here, except I ordered the CD/DVD combo. The packaging of the CD is very cool.

 

I've only used the album as background music thus far, but I like the sound.

 

I'm not much of a Kerouac fan (have read Big Sur and On the Road once a piece, hardly remember anything about the latter), so I can't comment on whether the guys did him justice. I do however like the concept of album. I'm thinking the album and documentary may inspire me to give him another try.

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