Death Cab for Cutie is an indie rock 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 album Gorilla. The song was also performed in a striptease act in the Beatles' movie Magical Mystery Tour.
Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitarist for the band Pinwheel (he has also recorded solo as All-Time Quarterback). As Death Cab for Cutie, Gibbard released a cassette, entitled 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 and the 2005 movie The Wedding Crashers.
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.
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 single off the band's Atlantic record release Plans is titled "Soul Meets Body". The full album was released in August of 2005.
Gibbard is also a member of The Postal Service, a side project he formed with Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis in 2003.
Full albums
* You Can Play These Songs with Chords (1997 · Barsuk Records)
* Something About Airplanes (1998 · Barsuk Records)
* We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (2000 · Barsuk Records)
* The Photo Album (2001 · Barsuk Records)
* Transatlanticism (2003 · Barsuk Records)
* Plans (August 30, 2005 · Atlantic Records)[1]
Compilations
* You Can Play These Songs with Chords + 10 (2002 · Barsuk Records)
* Future Soundtrack for America (2004 · Barsuk Records)
* The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (2004 · Gammon Records)
* Stubbs the Zombie (2005 · Shout! Factory)
EPs
* The Forbidden Love E.P. (2000 · Barsuk Records)
* The Stability E.P. (2002 · Barsuk Records)
* Studio X Sessions E.P. (2004 · Digital Only iTunes Release)
* The John Byrd E.P. (2005 · Barsuk Records)
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