Benjamin Gibbard

A mutual admiration for Jack Kerouac's work bonded alt-country vet Jay Farrar and indie-rock dignitary Ben Gibbard, who had never met before collaborating on this soundtrack for the documentary on the famous beatnik. The words are Kerouac's, from his days in Big Sur battling addiction and depression. The music is a mix of light acoustic guitars, pedal steel, harmonica and drums. Fairly split between Gibbard's fey tenor and Farrar's forlorn baritone, the stream-of-consciousness prose already contains a sort of intrinsic rhythm, which lends itself perfectly to the sparse instrumentation within.

"An ugly book of ugly places in the mind" is how one observer admiringly describes Big Sur
in a new documentary on Jack Kerouac's death-haunted novel. For this soundtrack, Ben
Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) and Jay Farrar (Son Volt) spin songs with guitars and pedal
steel, trying to capture the book's vibe. The lyrics, built from Kerouac's prose, often feel
wordy. But the singers channel Kerouac's angst, and when they combine their... More >