Death Cab for Cutie is an American band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band takes its name from a satirical song performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on their 1967 album Gorilla. The song was also performed in a striptease act in The Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour.

Overview

Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitar player for the band Pinwheel (he has also recorded solo as All-Time Quarterback). As Death Cab for Cutie, Gibbard released a cassette, titled You Can Play These Songs with Chords; the release was surprisingly successful, and Gibbard decided to expand the band into a complete project. He recruited Christopher Walla, who also recorded "Songs with Chords", as an electric guitarist, Nicholas Harmer on bass, and Nathan Good to play drums; this configuration released the LP Something About Airplanes in the summer of 1998. The album got favorable reviews from the independent music scene, and in 2000, the follow-up was released: We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. Nathan Good left the band at some point during the recording of We Have the Facts. His playing on "The Employment Pages" and "Company Calls Epilogue" were kept, but Gibbard played drums on all other songs. New drummer Michael Schorr would first appear on The Forbidden Love E.P., released in fall of 2000. The following year, another LP was released, entitled The Photo Album. Limited editions of this album contained three bonus tracks, which were later released separately as The Stability E.P.

In 2003, there was another change of drummer, with Jason McGerr of Eureka Farm replacing Schorr. McGerr would play drums on the next release, Transatlanticism, which came out in October of 2003.

Transatlanticism received critical praise and also became the band's top-selling album, with 225,000 copies sold during its first year out. In addition, tracks from the album appeared in the soundtrack of television shows The O.C. and Six Feet Under, the 2005 movies The Wedding Crashers and Mean Creek, and on the television show CSI: Miami.

In spring of 2004, the band recorded a live album titled The John Byrd E.P., named for their sound engineer. The E.P. was released on Barsuk Records in March of 2005, fulfilling the band's contract with Barsuk.

In November, 2004 Death Cab for Cutie signed a "long-term worldwide deal" with Atlantic Records, leaving their long-time label Barsuk Records and the rank of indie record labels. Gibbard stated on the official website that nothing would change except that "Next to the picture of Barsuk holding a 7", there will be the letter "A" on both the spine and back of our upcoming albums."

The first and second singles off the band's Atlantic Record release Plans were "Soul Meets Body" and "Crooked Teeth", respectively. The full album was released in August of 2005. Plans was well-acclaimed by critics and fans, and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album of 2005.

The band released a touring DVD called Drive Well, Sleep Carefully in 2005.

A live version of the band's song "Photobooth," is featured in the soundtrack of the Xbox 360 racing game Project Gotham Racing 3.

In early 2006, the band announced the upcoming release of Directions, eleven short films inspired by songs from the Plans album, each directed by a different person. The videos were posted one at a time at the band's website and the DVD went on sale April 11, 2006. The iTunes Store began selling the videos (formatted for the iPod) early on March 28, 2006. Lance Bangs, P.R. Brown, Ace Norton, Jeffrey Brown, Lightborne, Autumn de Wilde, Rob Schrab, Laurent Briet and Monkmus, as well as Aaron Stewart-Ahn are among directors that have contributed to the project. An episode of MTV2's Subterranean played these videos for the whole hour plus discussion with members of the band.[1]

Ben Gibbard formed the side project The Postal Service, with Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello. They released the album Give Up in 2003, with the help of Chris Walla and guest vocals from Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and Jen Wood. The Postal Service enjoyed immense "underground" popularity and Death Cab for Cutie's mainstream rise is often credited, to some extent, to Ben's involvement with Tamborello. Gibbard and Tamborello have confirmed that they are working on a new Postal Service album, albeit slowly, having recorded two songs as of June 2006. They have said they will begin more serious work once Death Cab returns from their summer 2006 tour.[2]

Discography

Studio albums

• 1997 You Can Play These Songs with Chords
• 1998 Something About Airplanes
• 2000 We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
• 2001 The Photo Album
• 2002 You Can Play These Songs with Chords [expanded]
• 2003 Transatlanticism
• 2005 Plans

EPs

• 2000 The Forbidden Love E.P.
• 2002 The Stability E.P.
• 2004 Studio X Sessions E.P.
• 2005 The John Byrd E.P.

Virtual Albums

• 2005 iTunes Originals - Death Cab for Cutie

Singles

• "Stability" was released only with the The Stability E.P., which is considered both an EP and single.

Compilation albums featuring Death Cab for Cutie tracks

• 1999 The Four Dots Compilation
• 2001 Barsuk Treats Vol. 1
• 2002 Live The Dream: A Fierce Panda Sampler
• 2004 Future Soundtrack for America
• 2004 Wicker Park (Soundtrack)
• 2004 The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered
• 2004 Music from the OC: Mix 2
• 2004 Maybe This Christmas Tree
• 2005 Atticus: Dragging the Lake, Vol. 3
• 2005 Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends
• 2005 Wedding Crashers (Soundtrack)
• 2005 iTunes Originals - Death Cab for Cutie
• 2005 Stubbs the Zombie (The Soundtrack)

Filmography

DVDs

• Drive Well, Sleep Carefully - On the Road with Death Cab for Cutie (2005 · Plexifilm)
• Directions: The Plans Video Album (2006 · Atlantic Records)

Music videos

• A Movie Script Ending (2001) (UK Video)
• The New Year (2003) (UK Video)
• The Sound of Settling (2004)
• Title and Registration (2005) (UK Video)
• Soul Meets Body (2005) (video high res online from Bedlam Society)
• Crooked Teeth (2005)
• I Will Follow You Into The Dark (2006)

Trivia

• Death Cab for Cutie was officially formed in Bellingham, Washington, and lyrics from many of the early songs include local references that were important to the band's development. Many of the early songs were recorded in the basement of an Ellis Street home Ben lived in with several roommates in Bellingham.
• The band originally released the twelve-minute song "Stability" in 2002 with the Stability E.P. Three years later, a new, four-minute version of "Stability" entitled "Stable Song" was released on the full-length album Plans.
• Legendary drummer Neil Peart of Rush has called Death Cab for Cutie one of his favourite new bands on his official website.
• The indie film "The Puffy Chair" pays homage to a classic movie moment from "Say Anything" using a Death Cab for Cutie song: its lead character holds up a boombox outside his girlfriend's window blaring Death Cab for Cutie's "Transatlaticism" instead of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."
• Death Cab for Cutie performed the title song "Little Boxes" for the Showtime series Weeds in episode 202.
• Death Cab for Cutie's song "Transatlanticism" was played at the ending of CSI:Miami's 100th episode

External links

• Death Cab for Cutie · Official site
• Barsuk Records · Former Record Label
• Death Cab For Cutie Tour History
• Death Cab for Cutie Lyrics
• Death Cab for Cutie 2006 Tour Mapped on Platial.
• Collection of Tabs and Chords
• A collection of Death Cab album reviews
• Death Cab For Cutie articles at This Is Fake DIY
• Interview at Brian M. Palmer
• Live Photos 1 and 2
• Death Cab for Cutie at Last.fm

Audio/video

• DCFC Videos at MTV
• Live concert from NPR website
• Videos and Live Mp3s
• Videoville's DCFC videography