Death Cab for Cutie Working in 'Fits and Starts' on New Album

Don't expect Death Cab for Cutie's next album any time soon. According to guitarist/producer Chris Walla, the group still has a lot of work ahead before its follow-up to 2008's 'Narrow Stairs' is done.

"We're working in fits and starts," Walla told Spin of Death Cab's new efforts, which got underway in June. "It's hard to say -- we might be half done, we may not have started."

The group is raising the bar this time out, as Walla -- who has also kept busy this year producing acts like Telekinesis and Lonely Forest -- says the band is exploring an array of approaches to the new songs. "We're in the phase where songs could be so cool with just two acoustic guitars or they could be really good with sequencers," Walla says.

Although frontman Ben Gibbard had predicted an early 2011 release for the new record, it appears that may not be doable. In the meantime, Gibbard is keeping active, as evidenced by his newly announced plans to join former Velvet Underground member John Cale for a performance of his 1973 album, 'Paris 1919,' at UCLA's Royce Hall.

According to the L.A. Times, former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan will also lend his voice to the concert, which is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 30. Cale's concept album about the signing of the Treaty of Versailles is regarded as a criminally underrated orchestral pop album.