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. 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.
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.
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.
Many of the early songs were recorded in the basement of an Ellis
Street home Gibbard lived in with several roommates in
Bellingham.
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. 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.
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,
which was released in October 2003. Tracks from the album appeared
in the soundtracks of the television shows
The O.C.,
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.
Signing to Atlantic (2004–2006)
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." After signing to
Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and
encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet.
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). The full album was released in August 2005.
Plans
was well received 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 and was certified platinum by the RIAA at the
beginning of May in 2008.
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. 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. 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
.
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. 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 '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."
Walla added that the album was "louder and more dissonant and...
abrasive." They claimed that they were influenced by "
synth-
punk band
Brainiac." 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. 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." 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.
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. 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 has contributed this lead single on the
soundtrack for the
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. 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.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."
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."
The band plans to begin recording their seventh studio album during
2010.
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".
Pitchfork Media
also remarked that the work on the cassette was "ultra-lo-fi". 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. 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.
Rolling Stone reviewed
Transatlanticism and commented that it
contained "melodic, melancholy songs about feeling both smart and
confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love." Gibbard's voice
was described as "plaintive boy-next-door"
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." 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".
Members
Former
Discography
Studio albums
EPs
External links
References
-
http://stereokill.net/2009/11/23/death-cab-talk-album-seven/
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