Not wanting to spare us any of the "Narrow Stairs experience" [!!!], our favorite local Grammy-nominees-done-good plan on dropping a sweet little EP on us in 2009. Here's the deets, via Pitchfork:

With last year's Narrow Stairs, Death Cab for Cutie scored their first-ever Billboard #1. […] So it makes sense that Death Cab would want to get any and all tracks from the Narrow Stairs sessions out into the world.

[…] Death Cab bassist Nick Harmer announces plans to do just that. According to Harmer, sometime this year the band will release a new EP called The Open Door, which will include four tracks that didn't make it onto the album, as well as one alternate version of Narrow Stairs track "Talking Bird", which will feature Ben Gibbard's ukulele skills.

Here's what Harmer has to say about it:

"When we finished Narrow Stairs, there were four extra songs that, because we were trying to put together an album, we ended up not including them. It's not like they're castoffs or anything; they're part of the Narrow Stairs experience. They needed to have a proper home, and the EP is it … It'll be out this year, I think."

Reps at Atlantic, Death Cab's label, confirm the EP's existence, but they aren't offering any further info just yet.

Pitchfork's whole writeup (con gratuitous linkage) can be found here. Hat tip to Ear Candy for staying on top of those tweets!