American rock band
Death Cab for Cutie (commonly abbreviated to DCFC or Death Cab) is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. Death Cab for Cutie's music has been classified as indie rock, indie pop, and alternative rock. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyboards, guitar), and Jason McGerr (drums).
The band was originally a solo project by Gibbard, who expanded the project into a complete group upon getting a record deal. They released their debut album, "Something About Airplanes", in 1998. The band's fourth album, 2003's "Transatlanticism", broke into the mainstream both critically and commercially; its songs were featured in various TV series and films. The band's major label debut for Atlantic Records, 2005's "Plans", went platinum. Founding guitarist Chris Walla left the band in 2014 after 17 years. The band's tenth and latest studio album, "Asphalt Meadows", was released on September 16, 2022. Alongside their ten full-length studio albums, the band has released four EPs, two live EPs, one live album, and one demo album.
History.
Early years (1997–2002).
Death Cab for Cutie, the name deriving from the Vivian Stanshall/Neil Innes song "Death Cab For Cutie", began in 1997 as a solo project by Ben Gibbard when he was a guitarist for the band Pinwheel. He recorded under the name All-Time Quarterback. As Death Cab for Cutie, he released a cassette, "You Can Play These Songs with Chords", during the same year. The release was surprisingly successful, and he decided to expand the project into a band, hiring Chris Walla (who worked on the cassette) on guitar, Nick Harmer on bass guitar, and Nathan Good on drums. Death Cab for Cutie was formed at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Lyrics from early songs include local references that were important to the band's development. Many of the early songs were recorded in the basement of a house on Ellis Street in which Gibbard lived with several roommates.
The four released their debut album, "Something About Airplanes", on August 18, 1998. In 1998, the band met their manager, Jordan Kurland. Kurland had heard the band praised, and after a failed attempt to see them perform at South by Southwest he met them while touring with a client.
The band released "We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes" in March 2000. Nathan Good left the band during the making of the album and was replaced briefly by Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson. Gibbard played drums on the majority of the album, with Good's playing on "The Employment Pages" and "Company Calls Epilogue" kept on the final release. Although Tolzdorf-Larson did not contribute to the album, he did appear on the song "Spring Break Broke" from the "Death Cab for Fiver" 7-inch record. He also joined the band on two tours, including their first full tour of the United States. Tolzdorf-Larson was later replaced by Michael Schorr, who would first appear on "The Forbidden Love EP", released on October 24, 2000.
In 2001, Death Cab for Cutie released their third album, "The Photo Album". Limited editions of this album contained three bonus tracks, which were later released separately as "The Stability EP". The album produced the band's first charting single, "A Movie Script Ending", which reached number 123 on the UK Singles Chart, and was the first of three songs by the band to be used on the television show "The O.C." "I Was a Kaleidoscope" and "We Laugh Indoors" reached numbers 115 and 122 on the UK Singles Chart, respectively.
Transatlanticism (2003).
In 2003 there was another change of drummer with Jason McGerr, who had previously played in the band Eureka Farm with Gibbard and Harmer, joining the band. McGerr's debut came with the band's next release, their fourth album "Transatlanticism", which was released in October 2003. The album received critical acclaim and launched the band into mainstream commercial success, with the two singles "The Sound of Settling" and "Title and Registration", appearing in the soundtracks of the television shows "The O.C.", "Six Feet Under", "" and "Californication", and the films "Wedding Crashers", "Easy A", and "Mean Creek". A tenth-anniversary version containing demos and outtakes was released in 2013.
Signing to Atlantic and "Plans" (2004–2006).
In early 2004, the band recorded a live EP, entitled "The John Byrd EP", named for their sound engineer. It was released on Barsuk Records in March.
Death Cab for Cutie had been contacted by major labels on-and-off for several years, but it was only after the proven success of "Transatlanticism" that they decided to start talking to labels about a potential deal. The fact that they had already achieved considerable success allowed the band to negotiate with a lot of creative freedom. According to their manager Jordan Kurland, the band had spoken to "pretty much all of them", and then decided they were most satisfied with their offer from Atlantic Records. In November 2004, the band signed a "long-term worldwide deal" with Atlantic, leaving their long-time label Barsuk Records. Gibbard stated on the band's 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." After signing to Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet.
The band released their fifth studio album and debut major-label release, "Plans", on August 30, 2005, to critical and commercial success. Two singles from the album, "Soul Meets Body" and "Crooked Teeth", reached the top ten of the US "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart, while the single "I Will Follow You into the Dark" became the band's best-selling single to date. Death Cab for Cutie performed "Crooked Teeth" live on "Saturday Night Live" on January 14, 2006. "Plans" received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album of 2005, as well as achieving gold certification in 2006 after being featured on the "Billboard" Album chart for 47 consecutive weeks, and later was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in early May 2008.
The band released a touring DVD, "Drive Well, Sleep Carefully", in 2005. Copies of the DVD were given away to promote animal rights, and the band are supporters of the activist group PETA. In early 2006, the band announced the upcoming release of "", which features eleven short films inspired by songs from the "Plans" album, each directed by a different person. The videos were posted one at a time on 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 full hour with additional discussion with members of the band. Death Cab for Cutie made their first appearance at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit, and completed their lengthy 2006 tour of the United States on December 10, 2006, finishing with a show at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington.
"Narrow Stairs" and "The Open Door EP" (2007–2009).
Walla claimed on October 18, 2007, that a new album was "in full swing" and that they had six songs completed. He went on to call the new music "weird," "spectacular," and "creepy," saying that it contained "lots of blood." He noted that the album had a "Can jam" that lasted 10 minutes, which Walla said that he would have never imagined doing in 1998. In a "Billboard" piece in January 2008, the band promised the album to be a "curve ball" and said that although it would have slower songs, there would be some surprises. Walla said, "I'm really excited about it. It's really got some teeth. The landscape of the thing is way, way more lunar than the urban meadow sort of thing that has been happening for the last couple of records." Walla added that the album was "louder and more dissonant and ... abrasive." They claimed that they were influenced by "synth-punk band Brainiac."
Their sixth full-length album, "Narrow Stairs", was released on May 12, 2008. The first single, "I Will Possess Your Heart", was released on March 18, 2008. The album version of the song is over eight minutes in length, leading radio and promotional edits to remove the extended intro to shorten the song to four minutes. The second single, "Cath...", was released on July 21, 2008, and the third single, "Grapevine Fires", was released on March 3, 2009. The two singles "I Will Possess Your Heart" and "Cath..." both reached the top ten of the Alternative Songs chart, while "Grapevine Fires" reached number 21. In an album review, MTV writer James Montgomery said "Narrow Stairs is a great album, one that could make them very famous, but could very well also kill their careers," and although "Death Cab for Cutie had gone insane," he believed the LP could be "an early contender for the best album of 2008." Indeed, "Narrow Stairs" was nominated for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "I Will Possess Your Heart" received a nomination for "Best Rock Song" at the 51st Grammy Awards. The band lost in both categories, but prompted debate after appearing at the ceremony sporting blue ribbons to protest against what they view as the excessive use of Auto-Tune in the music industry. "Narrow Stairs" was their first album to reach No.1 on the "Billboard" 200 chart on May 31, 2008. Though the album achieved strong success, Gibbard went on to call it the band's most "depressing record".
On March 31, 2009, the band released "The Open Door EP", containing tracks left off "Narrow Stairs" as well as a demo for "Talking Bird". "The Open Door EP" was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards. In 2009 the band wrote the song, "Meet Me on the Equinox" for . "Meet Me on the Equinox" was not the first song that Death Cab for Cutie contributed to a soundtrack, as they contributed "Soul Meets Body" to the soundtrack for Catch and Release in 2006.
"Codes and Keys" (2010–2012).
The band's seventh album, "Codes and Keys", was released on May 31, 2011. Ben Gibbard and Nick Harmer have both been quoted as saying that the album was "a much less guitar-centric album than we've ever made before". The 1983 album "Dazzle Ships", by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), was a major influence on the record.
In March 2011, Ben Gibbard performed a new Death Cab for Cutie song at a solo concert in San Francisco, which would later be revealed as the title track from "Codes and Keys". The track list for the album was released on Death Cab for Cutie's website on March 15, 2011.
The first single from the album, "You Are a Tourist", was released on March 29, 2011. The song's music video was their first ever live, scripted, one-take music video shoot: the group streamed a live performance of the music video as it was being recorded on April 5, 2011. The video was accomplished in a single take, using multiple cameras, and no edits or re-takes. The production employed dancers, actors, and projected images. "You Are a Tourist" was also Death Cab for Cutie's first (and to date, only) single to reach number one, topping the "Billboard" Alternative Songs, Adult Alternative Songs, and Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles charts, as well as reaching number three on the Rock Songs. The band released the video for the song "Home is a Fire" on May 9, 2011, featuring street artist Shepard Fairey plastering lyrics from the song around Los Angeles. "Stay Young, Go Dancing" was released as the second single on September 26, 2011, reaching number 31 on the Alternative Songs chart. "Underneath the Sycamore" was released as the third single on January 10, 2012, but did not chart. "Codes and Keys" was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012.
The band was due to play at the Ottawa Bluesfest on July 17, 2011, but the outdoor stage collapsed earlier in the evening after sudden severe weather hit the