Genres: Seasonal,Alternative/Indie,Soundtracks,Rock

Since the late 1990's, Death Cab for Cutie has been making a name for themselves with their unique sound and determination. Once described as 'emotion through its lack of emotion' by Rolling Stone magazine. Death Cab for Cutie has been around a lot longer than most people realize, and they have no intentions of leaving any time soon.

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Death Cab For Cutie

"For us, it comes down to word of mouth and slogging it out, and being a good live band."

Since the late 1990's, Death Cab for Cutie has been making a name for themselves with their unique sound and determination. Once described as 'emotion through its lack of emotion' by Rolling Stone magazine. Death Cab for Cutie has been around a lot longer than most people realize, and they have no intentions of leaving any time soon.

Small Beginnings

In the beginning it was only Ben Gibbard who was the lead guitarist for a band called Pinwheel, and was recording under the name All-Time Quarterback. He released his first album as a demo You Can Play These Songs with Chords as Death Cab for Cutie in 1997. Before long, it got picked up by Barsuk Records and he was quickly signed. Once this happened, Ben decided that he wanted to turn this project into an entire band.

The name of the band is one that is not easily forgotten. It came from a song by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, made popular by The Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour. The new band consisted of Chris Walla on guitar, who had contributed to You Can Play These Songs with Chords, as well as Nick Harmer on bass, and Nathan Good on drums. Death Cab for Cutie became an official band in Western Washington University in Bellingham Washington.

Early Work

The early work of the band contains lyrics that make reference to all of the local places and things that were important to the band as they developed. In August of 1998 they released their first LP Something About Airplanes. In the independent music scene they were beginning to make a name for themselves. In 2000 they released their second LP with We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. It was in the middle of this album that the drummer Nathan Good left the band. Nathan Good can be heard drumming for the songs Company Calls Epilogue and The Employment Pages. For all of the rest of the songs, Ben Gibbard took over the drums.

Nathan Good was replaced by Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson. Larson did not stay for long, he went along for two tours, one of them being the very first U.S. tour that Death Cab for Cutie had. He was then replaced by Michael Schorr, who appeared on their very first EP The Forbidden Love EP, released in October of 2000. The following year they released their fourth album: The Photo Album. Even after two replacement drummers they still had more to go through. Jason McGerr came along to play drums on the next album Transatlanticism released in October of 2003.

Hitting the Big Time

Transatlanticism was the album that began to get them out there in the mainstream. Hits from this album were included on several television shows as well as movies. The spring following their success with Transatlanticism they released an EP entitled The John Byrd EP.

A change came in November of 2004, a big change. After being with Barsuk Records for seven years they signed a worldwide and long term deal with Atlantic Records. Although they were becoming more mainstream with each move they made they still encouraged their fans to free mp3 downloads. Their first album with Atlantic was called Plans, released in 2005, they had two singles released, Soul Meets Body and Crooked Teeth. The album was released in August of 2005 and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album of 2005.

Narrow Stairs

The most recent album, Narrow Stairs, was released in May of 2008. The first single from this album entitled I Will Possess Your Heart was released in March of 2008. Not only was Narrow Stairs nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album but I Will Possess Your Heart was also nominated for Best Rock Song. Neither won but they had definitely proven that they had come a long way. This was their first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart.

In May of 2009 they released an EP called The Open Door EP, containing tracks that were left off of the Narrow Stairs album. In September of 2009 they released a single entitled Meet Me on the Equinox that was put on the soundtrack of the New Moon movie. While the song was written specifically for the film Ben Gibbard admits that he wrote it more from his own personal experience than for the movie. Death Cab for Cutie plans on beginning their seventh album in 2010.

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