Death Cab for Cutie

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For the 1967 song of the same name, see Death Cab for Cutie (song)
Death Cab for Cutie

Background information
Origin Bellingham, Washington, USA
Genre(s) Indie Rock
Years active 1997–present
Label(s) Atlantic Records
Barsuk Records
Website Official website
Members
Ben Gibbard
Chris Walla
Nicholas Harmer
Jason McGerr
Former members
Nathan Good
Michael Schorr

Death Cab for Cutie is an American band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band takes its name from a satirical song, of the same name, performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on their 1967 album Gorilla and in the Beatles experimental movie, Magical Mystery Tour.

Contents

Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitar player for the band Pinwheel. 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, a configuration that released the LP Something About Airplanes in the summer of 1999. 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. It later achieved Gold Status in 2006 (not verified by RIAA). In addition, tracks from the album appeared in the soundtrack of television shows The O.C., Six Feet Under, and CSI: Miami, and the 2005 movies Wedding Crashers and Mean Creek.

In spring of 2004, the band recorded a live E.P. 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. The album includes tracks from The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Fillmore in San Francisco, as well as other venues.

In November, 2004 Death Cab for Cutie signed a "long-term worldwide deal" with Atlantic Records, leaving their long-time label Barsuk Records. 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." This was a marked change from Gibbard's earlier views on major-label relations, which he said "are set up to fuck you and take all your money."[1]. After signing to Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet."[2].

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 somewhat well-acclaimed by critics and fans, and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album of 2005. It achieved Gold Status in 2006 after charting on Billboard for 47 consecutive weeks.

The band released a touring DVD called Drive Well, Sleep Carefully in 2005. Known for their contributions to animal rights, the band is supporting the activist group PETA in giving away copies of the DVD to promote animal rights. [3]

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 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[4]. In 2006, the band made their first appearance at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit. The band completed their lengthy 2006 tour of the USA on December 9, 2006, finishing with a show at the Key Arena in their home city of Seattle, Washington.

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 Gibbard's involvement with Tamborello[citation needed]. 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. Recently, the band has also announced that Gibbard will go on a short solo tour starting in May of 2007. [5] [6]. Before Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Gibbard also released solo work under the name All-Time Quarterback. Ben Gibbard has also been involved in Ben Barnett's musical endeavor, "Kind of Like Spitting." Gibbard plays drums and sings harmonies on KOLS's album, "Bridges Worth Burning." In 2005 Gibbard also released an EP for the "Home EP" series, alongside Andrew Kenny of the American Analog Set.

Chris Walla has released solo work under the moniker Martin Youth Auxiliary. He released a self-titled cassette on the Bellingham, Washington-based Elsinor Records in 1999; fewer than 100 copies were pressed, and as a result it is extremely rare. Following this release, he also played a number of live shows as a solo act[citation needed]. Chris also founded his own studio in Seattle, named the Hall of Justice. In 2005 Walla launched his own website, the Hall of Justice Recording, on which he has since made a number of blog posts; however, the main draw of the site is in a few dozen mp3 files of Walla's solo songs; the songs were recorded at various times and in various studios but have a distinctively finished sound, likely due to Walla's production skill. Walla announced on his site that he will be releasing a new solo album in 2007. Barsuk Records has agreed to release the album, which was initially set for March 2007 but since has been delayed until September 2007[7]. It is not yet known whether or not the album will be released under the Martin Youth Auxiliary moniker.

You Can Play These Songs with Chords

(cassette)

(November 1997)
Something About Airplanes
(August 18, 1998)
You Can Play These Songs with Chords

(expanded re-release)

(1999 / 2002)
We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
(March 21, 2000)
The Photo Album
(October 9, 2001)
Transatlanticism

(October 7, 2003)

#97 (US)
Plans

(August 30, 2005)
#4 (US)

RIAA Certification: Gold

Year Song Title Chart Positions Single Release Album Release
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock UK Singles Chart
2002 "Stability" Stability EP * Stability EP *
2002 "A Movie Script Ending" A Movie Script Ending The Photo Album
2002 "I Was a Kaleidoscope" I Was a Kaleidoscope The Photo Album
2002 "We Laugh Indoors" We Laugh Indoors The Photo Album
2003 "The New Year" The New Year Transatlanticism
2004 "The Sound of Settling" #37 The Sound of Settling Transatlanticism
2004 "Title and Registration" Title And Registration Transatlanticism
2005 "Soul Meets Body" #60 #5 Soul Meets Body Plans
2006 "Crooked Teeth" #10 #69 Crooked Teeth Plans
2006 "I Will Follow You into the Dark" #28 #66 I Will Follow You into the Dark Plans
  • "Stability" was released only with the The Stability E.P., which is considered both an EP and single.

  • Death Cab for Cutie was officially formed at Western Washington University 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.
  • 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 "Transatlanticism" 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.
  • Death Cab for Cutie's song "Your Heart Is an Empty Room" was featured in the theatrical trailer for the film The Science of Sleep, but is not actually in the film's soundtrack.
  • Death Cab for Cutie dressed up as the band DEVO for their encore songs on October 31st 2006, at Massey Hall in Toronto, Ontario[1].
  • Death Cab for Cutie was the favorite band of the character Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) on the television program, The O.C. A poster of the Transatlanticism cover art was featured prominently on the wall of Seth's bedroom in many episodes, and he gave the album as a gift to several characters during Season One. The band appeared live on an episode of the show during Season Two. Also, the songs "A Movie Script Ending", "A Lack of Color", and "Soul Meets Body" have been used during other episodes.
  • Death Cab For Cutie were namechecked in the episode of Ugly Betty entitled Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral.
  • Performed at Neil Young's Bridge School Concerts in the fall of 2006
  • Pop-indie duo Smoosh are connected to Death Cab For Cutie through Jason, who is Chloe's (Smoosh's drummer) drum teacher and general benefactor.[8]

  1. ^ Aversion.com: Get the Facts, by Matt Schild, accessed 14 October 2006
  2. ^ PopMatters.com: Movin' On Up (Without Selling Out), by Jennifer Benderty, accessed 14 October 2006
  3. ^ Death Cab Brakes for Animals.
  4. ^ http://www.altmusictv.com/sub/previous.html#041606
  5. ^ http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/
  6. ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/37130/Postal_Service_Begin_Work_on_New_Album
  7. ^ http://www.hallofjusticerecording.com/words.html
  8. ^ Almond, Steve: "Smoosh" (interview), The Believer June 2005. Accessed online 13 November 2006.

Death Cab for Cutie
Ben Gibbard | Chris Walla | Nick Harmer | Jason McGerr
Nathan Good | Michael Schorr
Discography
Albums: You Can Play These Songs with Chords (cassette, 1997) | Something About Airplanes (1998) | We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (2000) | The Photo Album (2001) | You Can Play These Songs with Chords (re-release, 2002) | Transatlanticism (2003) | Plans (2005) 
EPs: The Forbidden Love E.P. (2000) | The Stability E.P. (2002) | Studio X Sessions E.P. (2004) | The John Byrd E.P. (2005) 
Singles: "A Movie Script Ending" (2002) | "Stability" (2002) | "I Was a Kaleidoscope" (2002) | "We Laugh Indoors" (2002) | "The New Year" (2003) | "The Sound of Settling" (2004) | "Title and Registration" (2004) | "Soul Meets Body" (2005) | "Crooked Teeth" (2006) | "I Will Follow You into the Dark" (2006) 
Other releases: iTunes Originals - Death Cab for Cutie (2005) 
Filmography
Drive Well, Sleep Carefully (2005) | Directions (2006)
Related articles
All-Time Quarterback | The Postal Service | Elsinor Records | Barsuk Records | Atlantic Records | Fierce Panda Records
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