All-Time Quarterback

All Time Quarterback is a 1999 Lo-Fi/Indie solo project by musician Ben Gibbard, front man for the bands Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service.

In between tours for the band Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Gibbard had a few songs that he wanted to get out of his mind, but they didn’t fit with D.F.C’s sound. So he started a solo project named All Time Quarterback in the spring of 1999.

All Time Quarterback would have a total of three releases consisting of two Lo-Fi EPs that were released in 1999, and an album released in 2002 that served as a mix of the previous EPs best songs. The first of these three releases would be the EP “The Envelope Sessions”. This Ep consisted of nine tracks, those being:

Don’t Touch The Tape
Underwater!
Sockhop
Lullaby, Lullaby
Dig it!
Cleaveland
Stark Mobile
Factory Direct
Empire State

The entire EP had a runtime of about thirteen minutes and is just Ben singing as he plays a toy guitar. He recorded this EP over the span of four days, (June 3rd-5th, and June 7th) and it was recorded straight to his Sony Walkman, which is why it has such a low quality sound to it. This was also the only release of the three that was on Cassette, while the rest of them were on CD. “The Envelope Sessions” second track, titled Underwater!, would be later recorded by Death Cab For Cutie as a single for Sub Pop Singles Club Vol.2.

Their second release would be the EP “¡All-Time Quarterback!” and it would have a total of five tracks, including a cover of The Magnetic Field’s song “Why I Cry”. They are titled:

Plans Get Complex
Untitled
Why I Cry
Rules Broken
Send Packaging

This EP was recorded in the Winter of 1999 and based on the improvement of sound quality I assume that he had some help recording this one by the label he worked with Elsinor Records. Elsinor Records was the label that helped Ben Gibbard not only get the two All-Time Quarterback EPs released, but also helped Death Cab For Cutie form into a band in 1997. (Ben originally started Death Cab For Cutie as a side project and released “You Can Play These Songs with Chords” with Elsinor Records. With the success of the release he then formed the project into a full band.) After they came out Ben would have a mini tour to support their release, and then he went back to his band D.F.C to record their second album, “We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes”.

The side project would then go quiet, not working on or releasing anything until 2002. As the original releases of the two EPs went out of print the label Barsuk Records picked All-Time Quarterback up and released an album onto CD with the same name as their second EP, “¡All-Time Quarterback!”. This album would contain a mix of the best songs from the previous two releases, but also a previously unreleased song titled “Dinner At Eight In The Suburbs” for a total of eleven songs. Those songs were titled:

Plans Get Complex
Dinner At Eight In The Suburbs
Cleaveland
Empire State
Rules Broken
Untitled
Factory Direct
Why I Cry
Underwater
Sock Hop
Send Packaging

In this CD they also included a music video for the first track “Plans Get Complex”. This music video took place around London and had a budget of only six dollars, it was also shot and edited in only one day. I’ll link it right here. And this would be officially the last thing from All-Time Quarterback, other than during March of 2020 Ben played three of his old songs from the side project.