I saw those two guys on tape all week, and they scared me to death. It's unfortunate for them. They are two-way stars and the game could have been different with them in there.

[The book also includes a segment on] How to be the first death of the millennium. ... quite a legal warning.

'Plans' sounds like a Death Cab record. Atlantic wasn't sending it to marketing groups to test for hits or have reps crawling all over the studio. They still call us pretty regularly to get our opinion on things and seem to be concerned that the transition doesn't involve some tectonic shift in what has brought the band success so far.

I was scared to death. It's a great responsibility. This is good for the entire Pittsburgh area because we're losing population and need to start getting more people to come to the area.

It was like night and day the way we played. I think we were scared to death of them Tuesday. This time, we went right at them.

We're actually doing something scripted that's totally, you know, we kind of know what's going on, however, we're having to live life and death as the art.