"Title and Registration" is a song by

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Death Cab for Cutie Death Cab for Cutie (commonly abbreviated to DCFC or Death Cab) is an American rock music, rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. Death Cab for Cutie's music has been classified as indie rock, indie pop, and alternative rock. The ...

, the third single from their fourth studio album, ''

Transatlanticism ''Transatlanticism'' is the fourth studio album by Rock music, rock band Death Cab for Cutie, released on October 7, 2003, by Barsuk Records. At this point in their career, the group had toured and recorded for nearly a half-decade. With tensions ...

''. It was officially released in 2005, as an internet-only single that could be streamed through the band's website, while promotional copies of the single were released on CD. The single also included a cover of the

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

song " World Shut Your Mouth", which was also later released on the " Crooked Teeth" single on Death Cab for Cutie's follow-up album, ''Plans''.

Background

The original version of "Title and Registration", available on its original CD single, is a markedly different iteration of the song. When mixing the album, Chris Walla felt dissatisfied with the song's upbeat tempo and tone in contrast with its suspenseful lyrics. He utilized a Lexicon Varispeech, a piece of hardware normally used in

speech therapy Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

, to crush the drum sounds into something more minimal, and he also slowed its tempo and altered its guitar and bass lines.

Live performance

Due to the song's layered instrumentation, "Title and Registration" has been difficult to play during live performances in the past, and thus has been performed a variety of ways. All of these involved guitarist

Chris Walla Christopher Ryan Walla (born November 2, 1975) is an American musician, record producer, and film music composer, best known for being a former guitarist and songwriter for the band Death Cab for Cutie. Musical career Early bands While at B ...

switching halfway through the song from

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

to keyboards, whilst singer/guitarist

Ben Gibbard Benjamin Gibbard (born August 11, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums, and as a membe ...

took over the guitar part. For the first half of the song, initially, both Gibbard and drummer

Jason McGerr Jason McGerr (born July 19, 1974) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie. Musical career Early years McGerr was born and raised in Bellingham, Washington. At age ten, he began learning t ...

used

electronic drums Electronic drums are a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

in order to replicate the distinctive

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

sound used at the beginning of the song. In the band's 2008 tour, Gibbard performed the entire first two verses as lead vocalist, without a guitar or drums, before picking up his guitar as Walla switched to the keyboard. In later tours, Gibbard kept his

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

strapped on for the entirety of the song, but used a shaker as

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

during the song's first two verses. Since the band has expanded to a five-piece, without Walla, the song has been able to be performed live without any instrument swapping.

Music video

The music video was filmed in early December 2004 and released in February 2005. It was directed by

Patrick Daughters Patrick Daughters (born 1976 in Berkeley, California) is an American music videomaker and commercial director currently signed to Anonymous Content. Daughters is a graduate of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. While still in colle ...

and consists of frontman

lying on an operating table while undergoing a "

surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

" (as done by the other band members) to receive a new heart. Although Ben seems to act calm and has the ability to sing throughout the procedure, he was not given

anesthetics An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into tw ...

nor was he on any form of life support. During the surgery, it is revealed that Gibbard's chest is simply paper, model organs, and a model

rib cage The rib cage or thoracic cage is an endoskeletal enclosure in the thorax of most vertebrates that comprises the ribs, vertebral column and sternum, which protect the vital organs of the thoracic cavity, such as the heart, lungs and great ve ...

Track listing

#"Title and Registration" (Album version) #"Title and Registration" (Original version) #"World Shut Your Mouth" (

cover) ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ was later rereleased as a B-Side to “ Crooked Teeth” off of their 2005 album, “ Plans”.

References

Death Cab for Cutie songs 2003 songs Fierce Panda Records singles 2004 singles Songs written by Ben Gibbard Songs written by Chris Walla {{2000s-indie-rock-song-stub