Weekend reading: The Beatles, Death Cab, Randy Newman

Bumbershoot fast approaches, and so we get an interview with Ben Gibbard in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The singer says his band may never have as big a hit as “Plans,” the group’s major label debut, and also extols the virtue of Australia, where the group recently toured.

It’s a solid Q&A, as are all these other articles. Dig in:

Death Cab for Cutie are “certainly not Aerosmith,” Ben Gibbard tells the PI, also mentioning he likes Obama because he’s “electric,” but “not a diety.”

We find out in this Rolling Stone excerpt that Randy Newman isn’t crazy about Disney animators re-writing history, while the New York Times also profiles the songwriter. (You may need to register with the NYT to access that article.)

We are reminded by the New Yorker that rapper David Banner was born with the much more awesome name of Lavell Crump.

While talking with an LA Times blogger, Zach de la Rocha deftly sidesteps a question about how Rage’s meathead fans grew violent at Lollapalooza. He’s a regular politician, that Zach!

God took away George Martin’s hearing to knock the Beatles’ producer down a peg or two, we find out in the Washington Post.