Contact Death Cab for Cutie

Full Name:	Death Cab for Cutie
Date of Birth:	1997
Place of Birth:	Bellingham, Washington
Claim to Fame:	Album Transatlanticism (2003)

• Lyrics and Analysis to the Song "What Sarah Said" by Death Cab for ...

  Associated Content - Found 3 hours ago 'What Sarah Said' by Death Cab For Cutie is one of the most emotionally charged songs I have ever heard.

• New Bridge School Benefit Comp Opens with Ministry, Closes with Josh ...

  The Tripwire - Found 9 hours ago Get your holiday shopping done early, and listen to tunes by Trent Reznor , Death Cab for Cutie , My Morning Jacket , John Mayer , Ministry and ...

• Trent Reznor Unplugs on Neil Young's 'Bridge School' Compilation

  Spinner.com - Found Nov. 24, 2009 ... the compilation also counts live tracks by My Morning Jacket , Band of Horses , Death Cab For Cutie , Regina Spector , Norah Jones and...

• Recap: The Couch Sessions at the 2009 MTV Woodie Awards

  The Couch Sessions - Found Nov. 23, 2009 Indie (now major label) faves Death Cab for Cutie and Jack White?s new band Dead Weather held it down.

• Vampire Weekend! Twlight: New Moon Sucks Big Money from Wallets ...

  Gawker - Found Nov. 22, 2009 ... in early-adopters with crossover music that they're in the closet about enjoying (read: Death Cab for Cutie), and get them to "ironically...

• 'New Moon' Music Supervisor Reveals Soundtrack Process

  Spinner.com - Found Nov. 21, 2009 ... across the US now and its accompanying soundtrack, which also includes new music from Death Cab for Cutie , Grizzly Bear , the Killers...

• 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' with 'New Moon' stars is a Friday TV pick

  Seattle Times - Found Nov. 20, 2009 Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner) when they join Jimmy for some chat tonight. The musical group Death Cab for Cutie is also scheduled to... Rob & Kristen Keep Their Distance at New Moon Screening - People 'New Moon' breaks midnight screening record - Hollywood Reporter The big business of fauxmance - CNN 'New Moon' sets midnight record - CNN Explore All

  Salt Lake Tribune

• Kings of Leon, Green Day win big at Woodies

  Hollywood Reporter - Found Nov. 19, 2009 Additional performers included veteran alt-rockers Death Cab for Cutie, who rocked the audience with its 'New Moon' soundtrack single 'Meet Me... Matt And Kim Steal Woodies Spotlight With Some Nearly Nude Friends - MTV Lady Gaga Gets A Tribute From 3OH!3 At Woodie Awards - MTV Kings Of Leon Take Home Woodie Of The Year Trophy - Post Chronicle Explore All

  Hollywood Reporter

• How to Throw a New Moon Pre-Party!

  People - Found Nov. 18, 2009 Bella's heartbreaking torment by listening to the angsty New Moon soundtrack, with songs from Death Cab For Cutie, The Killers and Thom Yorke.

• Ben Gibbard Covering Neil Young for Seattle Benefit Compilation

  Spinner.com - Found Nov. 17, 2009 ... looks like the ' New Moon ' soundtrack isn't the only compilation getting a little help from Death Cab for Cutie 's Ben Gibbard this fall.

Death Cab for Cutie extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie performing "Summer Skin" on their "Long Division" European tour, at Carling Academy Sheffield on November 17, 2008. Left to right: Harmer, McGerr, Gibbard, Walla.
Background information
Origin	Bellingham, Washington, United States
Genres	Indie rock Indie pop
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Warner Music Atlantic Records Barsuk Records Fierce Panda Records Sub Pop Records
Associated acts	¡All-Time Quarterback! The Postal Service Martin Youth Auxiliary The Revolutionary Hydra The Long Winters Dntel
Website	Official website
Members
Ben Gibbard Chris Walla Nick Harmer Jason McGerr
Former members
Nathan Good Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson Michael Schorr

Death Cab for Cutie is a Grammy-nominated American indie rock band, formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Benjamin Gibbard (vocals, guitar), Chris Walla (guitar, production), Nick Harmer (bass) and Jason McGerr (drums). Gibbard took the band name from the title of the song written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and performed by their group, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, in The Beatles' 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour.

Gibbard's first album, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, was released as a demo, leading to a record deal with Barsuk Records.¹ It was at this time that Gibbard decided to expand the project into a complete band, and recruited band members to join. The band has released six studio albums, five EPs, and one demo to date. Their most recent album, Narrow Stairs, was released on May 12, 2008 in the United Kingdom and on May 13, 2008 in the United States.²

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early years (1997–2004) 1.2 Signing to Atlantic (2004–2006) 1.3 Narrow Stairs (2007–2008) 1.4 "Meet Me on the Equinox" (2009) 2 Musical style 3 Members 4 Discography 4.1 Studio albums 4.2 EPs 5 External links 6 References

History

Early years (1997–2004)

Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitar player for the band Pinwheel and was recording under the name 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 Chris Walla (who had also worked on the cassette) as a guitarist, Nick Harmer as bass guitarist, and Nathan Good to play drums.³ Death Cab for Cutie was officially formed at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, and lyrics from early songs include local references that were important to the band's development.⁴ Many of the early songs were recorded in the basement of an Ellis Street home Gibbard lived in with several roommates in Bellingham.⁵

The four released the LP Something About Airplanes on August 18, 1998. The album was favorably reviewed in the independent music scene and in 2000 the band released We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. Nathan Good left the band at some point during this album's production, replaced by Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson. Good's playing on “The Employment Pages” and “Company Calls Epilogue” was kept, but Gibbard played drums on all other songs.³ 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" record. He also joined the band on two tours, including their first full U.S. tour. He was later replaced by Michael Schorr who would first appear on The Forbidden Love EP, released on October 24, 2000. In 2001, 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 EP.⁶

In 2003, there was yet another change of drummer, with Jason McGerr of Eureka Farm replacing Schorr. McGerr would play drums on the next release, Transatlanticism,³ which was released in October 2003.³ Tracks from the album appeared in the soundtracks of the television shows The O.C.,⁴ Six Feet Under, CSI: Miami and Californication, and the films Wedding Crashers and Mean Creek. In spring of 2004, the band recorded a live EP titled The John Byrd EP, named for their sound engineer. The EP was released on Barsuk Records in March 2004.³

Signing to Atlantic (2004–2006)

In November 2004, Death Cab for Cutie signed a “long-term worldwide deal” with Atlantic Records,⁷ 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."⁸ After signing to Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet.⁹

The first and second singles from the band's Atlantic Record release Plans were “Soul Meets Body” and “Crooked Teeth” respectively (which they performed on Saturday Night Live on January 14, 2006).¹⁰ The full album was released in August 2005. Plans was well received by critics and fans,¹¹¹² 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 and was certified platinum by the RIAA at the beginning of May in 2008.¹³

The band released a touring DVD titled 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.¹⁴ 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.¹⁵ 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 10, 2006, finishing with a show at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington.¹⁶

Narrow Stairs (2007–2008)

Walla claimed on October 18, 2007 that the new album was "in full swing" and that they had six songs completed.¹⁷ He went on to call the new music "weird", "spectacular", and "creepy", saying that it contained "lots of blood".¹⁷ He noted that the album had a "Can jam" that lasted 10 minutes, which Walla said that he would have never imagined doing in 1998.¹⁷ In a Billboard piece in January '08, 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."¹⁸ Walla added that the album was "louder and more dissonant and... abrasive." They claimed that they were influenced by "synth-punk band Brainiac."¹⁸ The album, titled Narrow Stairs, was released on May 12, 2008.

The band released the first single,"I Will Possess Your Heart" from the album on March 18, 2008.¹⁹ The radio edit version does not include the extended introduction. 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."²⁰ Indeed, Narrow Stairs was nominated for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "I Will Possess Your Heart" received a nomination for "Best Rock Song". The band won in neither category, 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.²¹ Narrow Stairs was their first album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200 chart on May 31, 2008. "No Sunlight" is the third single from the album.²² On March 31, 2009, the band released The Open Door EP, containing tracks left off Narrow Stairs as well as the "Talking Bird" demo. When purchased on iTunes, the package also includes the music video for "Grapevine Fires".

"Meet Me on the Equinox" (2009)

Death Cab for Cutie will contribute the lead single on the soundtrack for the upcoming New Moon film, the second in the Twilight series. A song written specifically for the film called "Meet Me on the Equinox" debuted on September 13 during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.²³ Singer Ben Gibbard admitted that he hadn't read all of the books in the Twilight series, and said that the song is more about his personal life than Stephenie Meyer's fictional world.²⁴ Gibbard said of the song's meaning: "The song at its core is just about meeting another halfway, because life is very short, because there's only a brief period of time to really connect with people, and that it's important to recognize that."²⁴ Gibbard added, "I just wanted something that kind of tonally matched the story and the scenes within the film, so they could kind of be put alongside but not be telling a narrative you're watching on the screen."²⁴

The band plan to begin recording their seventh studio album during 2010.²⁵

Musical style

Death Cab for Cutie's early work on You Can Play These Songs with Chords was described by Rolling Stone as "emotion through its lack of emotion".²⁶ Pitchfork Media also remarked that the work on the cassette was "ultra-lo-fi".²⁷ On Something About Airplanes the band's style remained similar, with some new instrumental work introduced; "flute, synth, or cello" were noted by Allmusic's Nitsuh Abebe.²⁸ On We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes the band again expanded their use of unorthodox instruments, including organ and glockenspiel. Pitchfork Media called them a "gentle niche" in the current rock climate, compared with bands such as Modest Mouse and Built to Spill.²⁹

Rolling Stone reviewed Transatlanticism and commented that it contained "melodic, melancholy songs about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love."³⁰ Gibbard's voice was described as "plaintive boy-next-door"³⁰ Entertainment Weekly commented on the music on Plans, saying "The lush arrangements are long on hothouse organs and pianos, but short on the squirmy guitars and squirrelly beats that, on Gibbard's best work, offset his sweet voice and borderline-maudlin poetics with a sense of emotional danger."¹² The band's music on Plans was described by the Dallas Morning News as "a literate, whispery style, the kind of stuff that normally sounds better in headphones than in large venues".³¹

Members

• Benjamin Gibbard - vocals, guitar, piano (1997-present)
• Chris Walla - guitar, production, piano (1997-present)
• Nick Harmer - bass (1997-present)
• Jason McGerr - drums (2003-present)

Former

• Nathan Good - drums (1997-1999)
• Michael Schorr - drums (2000-2003)

Discography

Studio albums

• Something About Airplanes (1998)
• We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (2000)
• The Photo Album (2001)
• Transatlanticism (2003)
• Plans (2005)
• Narrow Stairs (2008)

EPs

• The Forbidden Love EP (2000)
• The Stability EP (2002)
• Studio X Sessions EP (2004)
• The John Byrd EP (2005)
• The Open Door EP (2009)

External links

• Official Website
• Death Cab for Cutie at Allmusic
• Death Cab for Cutie at MySpace
• Videos of Death Cab for Cutie on Babelsound
• Death Cab Interview Dave Owen AAA/I Cant Breathe Media

References

v • d • e Death Cab for Cutie Ben Gibbard · Nick Harmer · Jason McGerr · Chris Walla Nathan Good · Michael Schorr Albums Something About Airplanes · We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes · The Photo Album · Transatlanticism · Plans · Narrow Stairs Other You Can Play These Songs with Chords · iTunes Originals EPs The Forbidden Love EP · The Stability EP · Studio X Sessions EP · The John Byrd EP · The Open Door EP Singles "Your Bruise" · "Prove My Hypotheses" · "Stability" · "A Movie Script Ending" · "I Was a Kaleidoscope" · "We Laugh Indoors" · "The New Year" · "The Sound of Settling" · "Title and Registration" · "Soul Meets Body" · "Crooked Teeth" · "I Will Follow You into the Dark" · "I Will Possess Your Heart" · "Cath..." · "No Sunlight" · "Grapevine Fires" · "Little Bribes" · "Meet Me on the Equinox" Filmography Drive Well, Sleep Carefully (2005) · Directions: The Plans Video Album (2006) Related articles Discography · ¡All-Time Quarterback! · The Postal Service · Barsuk Records · Atlantic Records · Fierce Panda Records